Project News

A nuclear physicist, a high school student and three undergraduates find themselves sharing a table at Arizona State University. Fueled by energy drinks, late-night snacks and a break for silent disco, their mission over the next 36 hours is to identify an issue impacting society and hack their way to a solution.

People from a variety of backgrounds took part in Hacks for Humanity, a 36-hour competition at Arizona State University to create technological solutions to everyday problems.

In 2013 Project Humanities, led by Neal Lester, an English professor at ASU and the founding director of the organization, launched the first Hacks for Humanity hackathon. During the annual, 36-hour event, people from all occupational backgrounds team up to create a tech product for social good. Oct. 19–20, Project Humanities will be hosting their sixth hackathon.

Google tells us many search to learn whether the costume their child wants to wear might be racist or insensitive. Many of us moms and dads grew up wearing Native American head dresses and Geisha garb and didn't hear boo about it. Sadly.

Ahwatukee Professor Neal Lester’s Project Humanities at Arizona State University will host its sixth annual Hacks for Humanity hackathon Oct. 19-20. Hacks for Humanity is a 36-hour creativity and innovation event for people of all ages and professions who create technologies that address local and global issues. The finished products must embody these seven principles that Project Humanities identifies as Humanity 101: kindness, compassion, integrity, respect, empathy, forgiveness, and self-reflection. 

Food is not only a staple of life, but a staple of one’s own identity; that’s the idea behind an Arizona State University engagement program designed to examine and discuss how foods define us.

Mention the word “hackathon,” and the people who don’t look puzzled probably think of a group of geeks locked in a room, huddling over computers and working on codes. But Neal Lester, foundation professor of English at Arizona State University, has something a lot different from that going on with his fourth annual Hacks for Humanity scheduled Oct. 6-7.

Project Humanities at Arizona State University will host its sixth annual Hacks for Humanity hackathon on Saturday and Sunday, October 19-20, 2019. Hacks for Humanity is a 36-hour creativity and innovation event that challenges intergenerational and multi-professional participants to create technologies that address local and global issues.

Serving abroad for the Peace Corps. Pledging money to sponsor clean drinking water in developing countries. Working an election booth to ensure fairness. All of these are prime examples of showing humanity. Unfortunately, there is no shared language to define human rights.

First Institutional Baptist Church in partnership with various community organizations will host Arizona’s Commemoration of the 400th Anniversary of Enslaved Africans Brought to North America at a Festival Event on Tuesday, August 20, 2019. This event will bring together Africans, African- Americans and others from across the state to remember, reflect, respond and recover from the inhumane systemic racism that spanned from Africa to North America, while bridging the African Diaspora, moving into the next century with determination and deliverance.