It’s called the City of Brotherly Love (and Sisterly Affection) but last weekend’s
Lady Hacks was for women only.
Philadelphia’s first women-only hackathon attracted 65 hackers. Tristen Hightower, an organizer of the event, said:
The point of this event is to try new things. You’re already successful. You’re here.
And while there, the ladies worked on a wide range of projects, including Hacking the Gender Gap, redesigning the website of Girls Rock Phillyto make it more teen-oriented, and developing a game to motivate girls to get interested in technology.

My team worked on a project that began at TechCamp Philadelphia, namely, how to motivate underrepresented minorities and girls to pursue STEM fields. STEM is short for science, technology, engineering and math.
My team members are Elise D, Jennifer Fazler, Jessica Hammond and Eleni Miltsakaki. Our mentor is Pamela Bey, a WordPress developer.
The problem we addressed was the lack of a central, user-friendly website for teachers, students and parents to find free resources and tools that would expand and enhance the learning process. Right now, STEM information is buried in silos. Our solution, STEMeverywhere, will fix that.
We will curate resources for students, parents, teachers, guidance counselors and community members. The one-stop shop will feature a Teachers’ Lounge where we will aggregate content-specific instructional materials that have been peer-reviewed. We will include a real-time, fully indexed library that will be searchable by keyword.
The Students’ Hangout will promote year-round learning and engagement for our target audience of 13-to-17-year-olds. With one click, students will have access to information about internships and mentorships, learning games, contests and challenges, and online learning opportunities.
STEMeverywhere will produce interactive videos to connect students with STEM professionals who can expose them to the possibilities. We will post engaging user-generated YouTube videos tagged “STEM Rocks” or “STEMRocks.”
We will also curate offline activities such as Web Slam!, Bootstrap, Operation Eve, Black Girls Code and Temple University’s Urban Apps and Maps.
Lady hackers’ work is never done. To join us, send an email. For updates, follow us on Twitter: @STEMeverywhere.