PIT-UN 2027 PITathons
The following PIT-UN member institutions have been awarded funding to host a PITathon to engage students from across disciplines in solving community needs. PITathons are civic-focused design challenges where students and community members work as genuine partners to develop technology responses to community-defined problems.
Please get in touch with the PITathon lead for each hosting institution for more information.
April 24-25, 2026
Hackathon Lead: Mohammad Azhar
Professor, Computer Information Systems
March 5-7, 2026
The NYU-2026 Tech for Change “Urban Informatics for Safe, Just, and Thriving Communities” Hackathon invites participants from all backgrounds and levels of (lived) experience with tech and data to assist in building civic tech tools to design and reimagine systems of safe, just, and thriving neighborhoods for tomorrow.
Hackathon Lead: Debanjan Roychoudhury
Adjunct Faculty, Tandon School of Engineering
March 7, 2026
At MakeOHI/O, students will bring the Entrepreneurial Mindset to life with the KEEN framework. By focusing on Curiosity, Connections, and Creating Value, this make-athon is about exploring innovative ideas, combining different concepts, and creating projects that really make an impact.
Hackathon Lead: Cal King
Program Director, OHIO Informal Learning Program
Register for the MakeOHI/O—Ohio State University’s largest makeathon
March 27, 2026
The Philadelphia Social Justice Hackathon is a 36-hour event to bring students, programmers, and other “civic-minded hackers” together – to work in collaboration with justice advocates, public servants, community legal providers, and members of the community, to enhance the use of open data and develop technology solutions that respond to the specific justice needs of residents and neighborhoods most impacted by social, economic, and environmental injustices in Philadelphia. Bring your skills and interests, whatever they may be, and join us to get inspired about what we can do for Philly! For more information, including a full schedule, please check out socialjusticehackathon.com.
Hackathon Lead: Miguel Willis
Innovator in Residence & Lecturer at Law
April 9-10, 2026
The WMGIC x TFC Hackathon style sustainability competition is built to challenge the leaders of tomorrow. Competition streams include: Narrative Power, Climate Stability, Medicine at the Edge, Mobility.
Hackathon Lead: Tyler Lawrence
Feb 21-22, 2026
At Boston University’s invitation only Civic Hacks Hackathon, the students brought the power of code to compile meaningful change in their community.
Civic Hacks Site
Hackathon Student Lead:Jacob Tessema
Hackathon Lead: Lydia Holck
Photos from the 2026 Tech for Change Hackathons
California Polytechnic State University, Howard University, Pennsylvania State University, Boston University, The Ohio State University.
The Tech for Change Hackathon is a program within the Public Interest Technology University Network, a project of the New Venture Fund (NVF), a 501(c)(3) public charity that supports innovative and effective public interest projects.
Tech for Change Hackathon Core Elements
Tech for Change Hackathons are civic-focused, community-driven, and deployed by students to address local public interest technology challenges. Tracks and issue area prompts are equity and values-centered while encouraging relationship building between students and the community. PIT-UN Tech for Change Hackathons focus on three specific areas:
- Engaging community members (via judges, mentors, sponsors, and workshop speakers).
- Exposing students to a public interest technology focus for tech and non-tech disciplines.
- Increasing employer engagement to foster social impact.
Winning proposals include plans for the participation of students from across both technical and non-technical disciplines, featuring partnerships, community engagements, mentors, and judges.
Tech for Change Hackathons include categories as:
- Sustainability: Teams develop a hack that provides an innovative and practical technical solution that is financially or environmentally sustainable.
- Accessibility: Teams develop a hack that promotes accessibility and inclusion.
- Data: Teams produce subject-specific data visuals within the larger hack or utilize data in unique and innovative ways.
- App or Portal Hack: Teams build a decentralized application or portal as open source and share it with the world.
- AI Hack: Teams use or improve AI responsibly and creatively to solve community needs. All teams need to be very upfront about what was created versus the public tools they used in the final project.