Professional isolation, sexual harassment, bullying, discrimination and difficulties balancing work and family life are experiences disproportionately affecting women, ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+ people and people with disabilities working in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

At this two-day hackathon event hosted virtually from Saturday 20/03 to Sunday 21/03, you should come together to develop practical, actionable and scalable solutions to tackle the enduring lack of diversity in STEM.

The solution must focus on one of the following:

• Education for people with disabilities: People with disabilities continue to face challenges in accessing equal quality education as others and Covid-19 has only exacerbated the challenge. This theme challenges participants to come up with innovation that can facilitate people with disabilities to realize this on an equal basis as others using technical solutions. You may develop for education at any level (primary, secondary, post-secondary, skill-based education etc.).

• Employment opportunities for women, LGBTQ+ and people with disabilities: Several corporates are now realizing the potential of women, LGBTQ+ and students with disabilities and actively coming forward to consider them for various positions. This track challenges participants to develop solutions that can facilitate in this connection and help these students become more employable. This also encourages participants to think about solutions that can empower employees to get sensitized about the potential and abilities of diverse people, thereby bridging the gap in the corporate world.

• Social skills for people with disabilities: Social connection is extremely important for everyone, including people with disabilities. Unfortunately, due to low expectations and biases around disabilities, and sometimes due to accessibility challenges, people with disabilities face hurdles and challenges in communicating effectively with others. This theme challenges participants to develop technology to simplify social communication and acceptance.

• Efficiency, Innovation, Originality and Scalability
  You will be judged based on how original, innovative, efficient and scalable is your idea at tackling the lack of diversity in STEM.