{"id":803,"date":"2013-12-18T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-12-18T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.msdn.microsoft.com\/msr_er\/2013\/12\/18\/innovating-for-the-future-second-annual-international-womens-hackathon\/"},"modified":"2016-07-20T07:30:43","modified_gmt":"2016-07-20T14:30:43","slug":"innovating-for-the-future-second-annual-international-womens-hackathon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/blog\/innovating-for-the-future-second-annual-international-womens-hackathon\/","title":{"rendered":"Innovating for the future: second annual International Women\u2019s Hackathon"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a blog (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>last week, I alluded to an important upcoming announcement. Well, here it is: I am pleased to announce that our second annual International Women’s Hackathon (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a> will take place on university campuses around the globe from April 24 to 27, 2014. Last year’s event spanned 14 campuses in seven countries, with more than 600 university women participating. We’re anticipating even bigger numbers this year!<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Women<\/p>\n

We launched the International Women’s Hackathon to encourage, support, and retain women pursuing the computer sciences at the university level. This event, largely promoted by word-of-mouth, empowers young women to become leaders in computer science, informatics, and electrical engineering. By providing a fun and safe environment in which to explore computing, the hackathon encourages and supports young university women around the world, preparing them to create technology innovations that will help meet worldwide challenges in such areas as improving healthcare, protecting the environment, and upgrading manufacturing. <\/span><\/p>\n

The presence of women in technology is essential to innovation. When confronted with a problem, we each encode our perspectives and then apply our particular heuristics to explore new and better resolutions. Diverse teams often outperform homogeneous teams (even those composed of high-achieving individuals), because diversity of perspective and problem-solving approach trumps individual ability. Research has identified the diversity of work teams as one of the key influences in the innovation process—and without question, a diverse team needs women. <\/span><\/p>\n

As I travel around campuses, I hear the same concerns repeatedly from women in computer science courses:<\/span><\/p>\n