Crania UNHackathon

Why an UNHackathon?

Most hackathons focus on rapid deployment with students coding through the night and relying on large cloud platforms by default. While fast results can be exciting, they frequently come at the cost of control over information, privacy, and long-term financial implications.

The Crania UNHackathon intentionally takes on a different approach. It focuses on:

• Partnerships with local businesses or non-profit organizations
• Open-Source development allowing control over information
• Lowering financial barriers so that partners are not locked into ongoing subscriptions or licensing costs
• Privacy of information through minimal data collection
• Healthy, daytime hours only, prioritizing learning and well-being
• Workshops by experts in the field

For the partner businesses and organizations, this means gaining tools they can fully control and adapt, without ongoing fees or platform lock-in, and with privacy and data ownership built in from the start.

By reducing reliance on large, centralized platforms, students learn that technology can empower communities rather than control them.

This is why we call it an UNHackathon — we are intentionally undoing dependence, opacity, and barriers, and replacing them with ownership, privacy, and access.

Are You a Business Who Needs a Tech Solution?

Do you have a process that feels more complicated than it should be?

Do Any of These Sound Familiar?

• Do you track bookings, clients, students, or members using spreadsheets or paper?

• Do forms, registrations, waivers, or records live across email, PDFs, and folders?

• Do staff or volunteers juggle schedules manually or through long message threads?

• Are repetitive tasks eating up time that could be better spent elsewhere?

• Are you paying for software that feels oversized, restrictive, or expensive for what you actually use?

What Participation Looks Like

• You share a problem(s)

• There is no cost to take part

• There is no obligation to adopt or purchase anything

• Students may take time to understand how your workflow actually functions

• Teams present a prototype or concept at the end of the event

• Software is made available online – you download and install as you please

• Outcomes may be prototypes rather than polished software

Interested?

If you have a challenge that might benefit from a simple tech solution, we’d love to hear about it.

This isn’t about flashy apps or selling software. It’s about identifying practical challenges and seeing whether a small, thoughtfully designed solution could reduce friction, save time, or replace workarounds that have slowly become the norm.

👉 Share your challenge using the link below, and we’ll get a team working on it right away!

Eligibility

• Middle School Students (Grades 7-8)
• High School Students (Grades 9-12)
• University Students
• Graduate Students
• Professionals
• Participants must be self-driven and have at least one year of coding experience