Women Hackathon GCEK
Submitted by space on Sat, 2016-11-12 13:36
Women Hackathon, a 3 day workshop , second of its kind in this academic year was conducted at Government College of Engineering Kannur on 9,10 and 11 of November 2016.This program was conducted by Department of computer science and Space in association with ICFOSS with an objective of empowering women in the field of free software and information technology. More than 30 students of GCEK from various branches attended the program.
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Hackathon – a 3 day residential workshop on free software for engineering students from all over Kerala- was conducted in association with ICFOSS at the ICFOSS office, Trivandrum from 2 nd -4 th, September. The event was designed to find ambassadors/ from various engineering colleges to work with and also promote the ideas of free software at their respective colleges and other places of work.
The workshop started on 19 th with an introductory session on free software. The idea of freedom in software as a form of knowledge was discussed in an interactive manner. The students were familiarized with the various freedoms users get to enjoy with a free software and the concept of copyleft.An initial skeptical audience soon found it comfortable with the software freedom as a way of sharing and multiplying the knowledge. After a break for lunch, a game was conducted to challenge students in building opinion on an idea independently, expressing the opinion and changing them if needed. A session on GNU/Linux followed, with a step-by- step procedure to install a Linux based operating system (Debian).
Women traditionally face disadvantages in accessing and benefitting from technology, and this is doubly true for women living in rural areas. In March 2016, four women hackathons were conducted at four engineering colleges in various parts of the state, with a focus on rural, far-flung areas. These hackathons included OS installation, PHP Programming, and Database management. More than 50 women students participated, and some of them went on to become trainers for Women Hackathons.
