Building the Future: A Life-Centric Climate & Civic Tech Makeathon
Spend the day building for a better world! This is a hybrid hackathon and learning space, powered by Hopamine and Seeding Sovereignty and hosted at NYU CUSP.
Let’s come together to create the just, resilient, and community-powered world we dream of, with expert mentors in the room. Learn how technology is shaping climate resilience and civic participation, connect with people working on real-world projects, and spend the day building tech for good. Participants collectively vote on one project to take home the Launch Toolkit, a year of Superprofile, and Lovable credits to keep building.
Who should join:
Beginners are welcome to explore, ask questions, and get hands-on. Builders are welcome to prototype, ship, and get feedback from a community that cares about the same problems you do.
What to expect:
Intro sessions and resources for folks new to civic/climate tech
Mentors present to give feedback and help you build
Open build time for teams and solo builders working on projects
A mix of structured learning and unstructured making
A community of people who want tech to serve people and the planet
The flow of the day:
9:30am Doors open
10:00am Opening from NYU Center for Urban Science and Progress: Hear about the projects incubating in their lab
10:30am Mentor Panel: Experts discuss what’s getting built in climate and civic tech right now, and what it takes to build. Featuring: Kristy Drutman of Green Jobs Board, Pierre Pariente of Moody’s, Xavier Vazquez, and Forrest Sparks of CUNY.
11:15am Build Block 1, mentors on the floor
1:00pm Lunch from Jarelle’s Better Burgers
2:00pm Build Block 2
3:30pm Training: Go-to-market strategies, featuring Mawuli of Hopamine and Gayatri Kawlra from Meta’s Creator Program
4:30 Demos, 5 minutes each
5:00 Mixer
About Hopamine:
The mission at Hopamine is to build an optimistic future for the next generation. Helping and magnifying people, changing the world the way they know how. Putting Dopamine behind our Hopes and aspirations.
About Seeding Sovereignty:
We are a multi-voiced environment and social justice organization working on emergent frontlines to slow climate change and disrupt systemic oppression. We meet the moment by equipping individuals and communities with tools, action, resources, and training to build systemic change, promote climate justice, and co-create just futures for all. Our Community Action Portal is a digital movement tool that makes hyper-local civic action fun, accessible, and community-driven.