Conferences & Hackathons

Conferences

The department has sponsored groups of undergraduate and graduate students to attend these conferences. We do not sponsor conferences on an individual student basis. Most of these conferences have their own scholarship applications as well and we highly encourage you to apply for those opportunities.

Grace Hopper Conference

The Grace Hopper Conference is the world's largest gathering of women technologists. The Computer Science department has been sending students to Grace Hopper since 2009, and we have been at least a silver level sponsor since 2010.

We select a small number of female identifying students to attend the Grace Hopper Conference via a lottery system that is generally sent out around March. The conference typically takes place around Duke’s Fall Break in October.

Tapia Conference

The goal of the Tapia Conferences is to bring together undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, researchers, and professionals in computing from all backgrounds and ethnicities to:

  • Celebrate the diversity that exists in computing
  • Connect with others with common backgrounds, ethnicities, disabilities, and gender so as to create communities that extend beyond the conference
  • Obtain advice from and make contacts with computing leaders in academia and industry
  • Be inspired by great presentations and conversations with leaders with common backgrounds

For 2021: The conference will take place virtually Sept. 14-18. The department is making plans to send students to TAPIA, but the department applications will not be open until the summer.

Fleurix Conference

“Our mission is to help people from all marginalized genders/sexes in tech. That means trans women, trans men, non-binary folks, and allies are all welcome to join us. Fleurix aims to increase the number of women pursuing and thriving in technology-related careers by connecting women with an inspiring community and accessible resources that can help conquer common barriers to entry, retention, and promotion of women in IT.”

We sponsored 12 students to attend the inaugural year of the Fleurix conference in 2019.

For 2021: They are hosting a free virtual mini-conference called Fleurix Lite, March 25-26. You can register for it here.

Hackathons

A hackathon is an event where you make, or hack together a coding project within 24 hours with a team. Teams demo their projects at the end of the event for the chance to win amazing prizes. Hackathons are a great place to learn about a particular technology you might be interested in, meet other people who are interested in tech, and also exercise your creativity and curiosity. You don’t have to be a programmer and you don’t have to be majoring in Computer Science.

  • HackDuke - On Campus! Typically in November
  • HackNC - Hosted by UNC; Typically in October
  • PearlHacks - Hosted by UNC for women and non-binary students; Typically in February
  • PackHacks - Hosted by NC State; Typically in March
  • DiamondHacks - Hosted by NC State Women’s in Computing Club for all; Typically in March
  • FEMMESHacks - Become a volunteer with other Duke students to help out at a day long hackathon for high school students; Typically in November

These are just the local hackathons, but you can find a list of student run hackathons across the country on the Major League Hacking website.