Microsoft U.S. invites you to use your creativity, passion, and cloud expertise to create solutions that empower communities and help address a timely and relevant social justice issue.

Social justice is defined in the Oxford Dictionary as “justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society.”  We’ve compiled a list of potential issue areas that you might consider for this hack, but we encourage you to choose an area (or areas) that you’re passionate about working to help change. This may include but is not limited to:  

  • Gender equality 

  • LGBTQI+ and racial equity

  • Criminal justice reform

  • Accessibility and inclusion

  • Skills and employability

  • Environmental sustainability

  • Protecting democratic elections and voting rights

  • Immigration reform

  • Additional timely and relevant social justice issues are welcome

We recognize that technology alone cannot solve the complex societal issues we’ve outlined above, but our hope is that you’ll develop solutions that can help empower communities and drive change. Once you decide where you want to focus, Microsoft Azure is here to empower you to invent with purpose. From databases, to serverless code, to responsible AI and everything in between, we will help you develop new skills and continue on your personal cloud development journey. 

Eligibility

Developers of all backgrounds and skill levels are encouraged to submit projects. Individuals, and teams of individuals, must all be legal residents of the fifty United States (including the District of Columbia), and 18 years of age or older.

Microsoft values and respects individual and cultural differences and is committed to providing an inclusive environment that is welcoming and free from discrimination. As you tackle these issues, we encourage you to develop solutions that empower communities and individuals. Any solutions that promote or encourage discrimination around race, color, sex, national origin, religion, age, disability, gender identity or expression, marital status, pregnancy, sexual orientation, political affiliation, union membership or veteran status, will not be eligible for judging or prizes.

Note: Government officials, corporations, and employees of Microsoft or DevPost are not eligible to win prizes but may submit projects. See full rules for further restrictions.

Requirements

Main requirement

Build an application prototype with Azure that helps empower communities and create change around one or more social justice issues. The application should be functional with real or sample data.  

Additional submission requirements

  • Provide a way to access your working submission for judging and testing. Must enable access to source code for judging. Code must be open source.
  • Include a text description that explains the features and functionality of the submission and describe how the submission could help solve the challenge stated.
  • Submit a 3-5 minute demo video of the app in action (hosted on YouTube, Vimeo), to prove it is a real application, and not an animation. Your video should include a demo of your working submission via a step-by-step visual demo.
  • Please submit at least one image/screenshot of your submission.

Please read the Microsoft Code of Conduct

Hackathon Sponsors

Prizes

$10,000 in prizes

First Place

• $5000 in USD
• 30 minute virtual meeting with Azure team
• Featured on the official Azure Developer Community blog
• Shout out on FB @MSFTDev.US and Twitter @MSTCommunity
• Swag valued at $150

Second Place

• $2500 in USD
• Featured on the official Azure Developer Community blog
• Shout out on FB @MSFTDev.US and Twitter @MSTCommunity
• Swag valued at $100

Third Place

• $1000 in USD
• Featured on the official Azure Developer Community blog
• Shout out on FB @MSFTDev.US and Twitter @MSTCommunity
• Swag valued at $100

Honourable mentions (3)

• $500 in USD
• Featured on the official Azure Developer Community blog
• Swag valued at $50

Completion of Azure Learning Path (Cloud Skills Challenge) (200)

All participants that complete the below Learning Path are eligible to receive swag valued at $10. (https://aka.ms/socialjusticehackcsc)

Devpost Achievements

Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:

Judges

Nitya Narasimhan

Nitya Narasimhan
Sr. Cloud Advocate at Microsoft

Andy Mallon

Andy Mallon
Database Architect at Wayfair

Nirali Shah

Nirali Shah
Program Manager at Microsoft

Evan McKittrick

Evan McKittrick
Business Manager, Justice Reform Initiative at Microsoft

Quala Wright

Quala Wright
Senior Corporate Paralegal at Microsoft, Vice Chair for Blacks at Microsoft (BAM) Atlanta

Michael Wilson

Michael Wilson
Sr. Consultant, SharePoint, .NET, and Azure Development at Microsoft

Navid Azodi

Navid Azodi
Cloud Specialist at Microsoft

Judging Criteria

  • 30% Quality of the Idea
    Includes creativity and originality of the idea.
  • 30% Technological Implementation
    Includes how well Azure services were leveraged by the developer.
  • 30% Potential Social Justice Impact
    Includes the extent to which the solution may help create change or empower communities.
  • 10% Intersectionality
    Includes whether the project submission addresses multiple social justice issues.

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