Telling our stories – Johanne Thunes
Each year we meet incredible women at womENcourage™ celebrations. We ask womENcourage participants to tell their stories in blog posts. We continue February, 2024 with 
Johanne Thunes, a PhD student in Information systems at the University of Oslo. Her research focuses on digitalization in the public sector.
In this blogpost she writes about her experience at the Hackathon.
Are you interested in using technology to solve problems in the world around you? Then the hackathon at WomeENcourage is a great place to start! My name is Johanne, and I am a PhD student in Information Systems at the University of Oslo. I attended my first ever hackathon at WomENcourage 2023, and it was an inspiring and challenging experience that provided a great start to the rest of the conference. In this post, I will emphasize two of the reasons of why you should attend the WomENcourage hackathon as well.
But first – what is a hackathon? A hackathon is an “innovation marathon” where you work together with groups to solve a given problem in a short amount of time. This year’s hackathon theme was “Social sustainability through integration and inclusion – addressing future challenges in CS”. We were asked to explore and pitch solutions with technology to Sustainable development goals (SDG). Here are two reasons why you should attend:
1. Innovation in an inclusive and collaborative environment
During the hackathon, we were divided into groups where everyone had a variety of different skills. This combination of skills gave us a great starting point for solving the assignment. We began by brainstorming ideas together, making sure that every idea was considered and no idea was dismissed. This allowed all the members to have ownership over the final solution. The supportive atmosphere was a reminder of the importance of uplifting and empowering one another in a welcoming and inclusive environment. The mentors provided input regularly, and discussions with other groups provided an opportunity to establish a network of people with similar interests.
2. Solving real-life challenges
The hackathon presented us with a real-world challenge to tackle using technology. By looking at ways to solve challenges stated in the SDGs, this challenge provided us with a unique opportunity to spark our creativity while bringing our technical and soft skills together to potentially bring about positive change in the world. At the end of the hackathon, many of the groups discussed how their ideas could be developed further. The hands-on experience we were given and the relevant feedback from the mentors and the jury provided a great base for diversifying the voices and talents of those in the tech industry. The conference reiterated the importance of diversifying the voices and talents of those in the tech industry.
In conclusion, if you are interested in learning how to solve real-life challenges in an innovative and inclusive environment, the WomENcourage hackathon is the thing for you!