Our mission herHACK20.21 – the largest female-led hackathon

In terms of its level of knowledge, Switzerland dropped to seventh place in the IMD World Digital Competitiveness Ranking 2020, an analysis of the digital competitiveness of 64 global economies. One of the reasons? Too few female scientists. The need to promote women in the professional world is a pressing concern. Information and communication technology (ICT) is an industry dominated by men. Surveys show that only 15–18 percent of all working women are employed in ICT professions.

The first all-female hackathon was held as part of Swiss Digital Day 2021 to promote and encourage women in the industry. Riccarda Mecklenburg helped organize the event. She is one of the best-known promoters of women in Switzerland, as well as founder of CrowdConsul and president of the Verband Frauenunternehmen (VFU), the largest association of women entrepreneurs in Switzerland. Learn more about Riccarda, what motivated her to dedicate herself to this field, and what advice she gives to young women starting out in their career in “Women’s Wealth Talk: Episode 3" (in German).

At the start of November, around 200 women participated in “herHACK20.21 – a female-led hackathon,” working together during 36 hours to develop solutions to a set of predefined problems. Something distinctive about these challenges was that they were tied to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. The aim of the hackathon was to bring together tech-savvy women interested in taking a first or next step in the tech industry. The event gave participants a platform to build and strengthen their personal and professional networks. At the end of the two-day event, a jury selected its favorites from among the solutions and declared three winning teams.

As partners of Swiss Digital Day 2021, UBS and YES – Young Enterprise Switzerland jointly submitted a clearly defined problem and project idea. YES is an independent nonprofit organization and the leading provider of practice-oriented business and opinion education in Switzerland. Its “Personal Economics” program treats business topics that pupils in the seventh to tenth grades encounter in their daily lives. The organization focuses heavily on helping students choose a career and practice job interviews and relies on volunteers to help out.

Given the strong interest and limited number of volunteers, YES is unable to reach all the young people who could benefit. The hackathon challenge was borne of this necessity. Rather than not offering a school any support at all, UBS and YES want to find a digital solution: a sort of “robot,” i.e., a digital application that conducts job interviews with young people. During the interview, the robot needs to react to both content and tone, and to provide feedback and helpful tips at the end of the conversation. Potential interview questions should be continuously updated and developed.

Three teams took on the UBS/YES challenge and developed creative solutions that support young people in their career choices while aligning themselves with three of the UN goals – goal 4 (Quality Education), goal 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth) and goal 10 (Reduced Inequalities).

During the one and a half days and over several steps, the three teams of the UBS/YES challenge each developed a prototype and presented it for a place in the final judging. The solution conceived by the “Full Snack Developers” team most impressed the jury, whereas their application called "interviewME" was awarded second place overall.

In addition to the challenge they submitted in advance, UBS and its partner YES assigned three hackathon scrum masters the task of methodically guiding and coaching the teams during the two days. Read more about the experience of the first women’s hackathon in Switzerland directly from scrum master Sonia Vitulano in our article “herHACK: Hacks for starting a career”.