March 31, 2025
In the rapidly growing fields of computing and information, students from the Pittsburgh area have the opportunity to participate in events to help them build their skills, grow their portfolio, and expand their professional network – SheInnovates being one example. Hosted by SCI, the hackathon opens its doors to hundreds of students each year, where they collaborate to create technical projects, network, and win prizes. This year’s SheInnovates took place from Jan. 31-Feb. 2 in Alumni Hall’s Connolly Ballroom with 117 students from Pitt and other local universities in attendance.
SheInnovates strives to increase access to STEM opportunities for women and non-binary students. With 26 teams of students from across 12 different majors, the hackathon attracts a diverse range of participants and submissions. The founder of SheInnovates, Mackenzie Ball, Director of Outreach and Alumni Engagement at SCI, is seeing the change the hackathon makes year after year.
“Despite the push for technically skilled college graduates to fill the thousands of computing related positions across the country, there exists a huge disparity in who fills these positions,” said Ball. “Diverse teams make better products and more accurately serve and benefit the entire population. We hope that by encouraging the meaningful participation of our female and non-binary students through events like SheInnovates, we can begin to change their representation in the technology field.”
Seven prizes were awarded to students for their hard work and innovative projects. First place was awarded to SafeSpeak, an AI-powered program that tackles the pervasive issue of hate speech on social media platforms. The program not only identifies overt hate speech, but also subtler forms of hate speech like dog whistles, which signal hate speech through acronyms, phrases, and numbers. During a time when social media platforms can be a breeding ground for hate speech, SafeSpeak makes online communities safer and more positive. SafeSpeak was developed by SCI students Conrad French (SCI ‘25), Diana Lysova (SCI ‘26), Alex Malfregeot (SCI ‘25), and Ryder Pham (SCI ‘26).
“SafeSpeak has many applications in the technology field,” said French. “It can be integrated within social media sites, which would drastically cut down the workload for moderators and help identify hate speech that would otherwise slip through the cracks.”
Participants found the SheInnovates environment inspiring, sparking new ideas for their projects.
“SheInnovates was an extremely conducive environment towards problem-solving and collaboration,” said French. “It helped me grow a lot as a team player and taught me about the importance of considering multiple perspectives. SheInnovates fostered diversity and creativity, which led to many amazing and unique projects being created.”
In addition to fostering collaboration and teamwork among students, SheInnovates has meaningful impacts on diversity and representation in STEM.
“Computing was pioneered by women like Ada Lovelace and Grace Hopper, and it’s crucial that gender bias in computing and STEM is overcome,” said Malfregeot. “SheInnovates is a great opportunity to recognize our biases and set them aside to compete and collaborate. It was a great opportunity to express creativity and share ideas with peers in a way that isn’t always easy in class or free time.”
SheInnovates will continue to foster a more diverse and inclusive environment in STEM. Students not only feel inspired to continue their STEM degrees but also go on to pursue careers that they might not have if not for the opportunity to showcase their skills and learn from top industry leaders at SheInnovates.
SheInnovates is hosted by SCI and sponsored by PNC, NetApp, CGI, ANSYS, and Naval Nuclear Laboratories. Learn more about SheInnovates and view the 2025 project gallery.