Blog

In October 2020, the Appery.io platform was selected as the primary technology stack for the Reimagining Black Futures virtual hackathon organized by Black Girls CODE(BGC) and General Motors (GM).

The hackathon’s theme revolved around Afrofuturism — a concept that merges African culture and history with elements of science fiction. Several high-profile guests attended the event, including renowned historian Tyree Boyd-Pates and New York Times Magazine culture writers Jenna Wortham and Kimberly Drew.

Over the course of three days, #futuretechbosses from the Bay Area, Detroit, and New York City developed social justice-focused application concepts and software platforms. 

Prior to the hackathon, Alexander Ancipov from the Appery.io team held a series of workshops to teach the participants how to use the app builder. During the event, Alexander answered the girls’ questions via email, Slack, and the hackathon forum and helped them solve technical challenges.

When the pitch day arrived, the students presented their ideas to a panel of judges from several IT companies. The winning project was Rooted — a mobile application that connects Black professionals with HR specialists from technology companies in Silicon Valley. Apps like Rooted could potentially help Black youth fill the 1.4 million computing jobs created in the United States in 2020.

Appery.io is thrilled to have been part of the hackathon and is looking forward to collaborating with BGC in the future. We strongly encourage our colleagues from the IT industry to take a leadership role in gender and racial equity.