Maddy Chellathurai, Software Engineer, eBay Inc.
This year PyLadies Austin hosted Austin’s first ever ladies focused Hackathon - Austin Ladies Hack - from the 15th to the 17th of August. Twenty-five women discussed and formed five teams on Friday, and jumped promptly into projects Saturday morning.
Rackspace not only generously donated space, but also sponsored food for this event. On Sunday, all the teams worked feverishly to finish their apps and presentations before lunch. Special prizes - books from O’Reilly Media - were also handed out to winners of the foosball tournament, which was held during judge’s deliberations. All attendees were given door prizes - glasses laser etched with a PyLadies Logo and “Austin Ladies Hack” made by PyLadies Austin organizers Jess F.
First-time hackathon attendees, including a teenager, scored the third prize with their app Workout Buddies. This app helped find workout partners with similar interests and also featured creating events. Technologies used: Ruby, Sinatra, and Postgres. Each of them won a 50$ gift card.
Second prize went to the Water your wallet team, who presented an app which calculated the cost of watering a plant, based on its size and location. Technologies used: Kivy and Python
Finally, Texas Women's Clinic Finder won first prize with their app, which provided maps and funding information for women's health in Texas. They also translated their site into Spanish. Technologies used: Python, Google Maps API, Mapbox, and JavaScript.
A big thank you to all sponsors: Rackspace, NumFOCUS, PSF, O'Reilly and LearnPython. The eBay team was more than happy to help see this inaugural event come to life, and we look forward to an increase in community involvement and participation.
For more info, check out the official PyLadies hashtag, or the PyLadies Austin .