In January 2018, a group of Computer Science students at the University of Washington, with a vision to bridge students with technical project initiatives to build experience and learn how tech could be used beyond the classroom, reached out to Microsoft's Hack for Good program. After working to build a data management tool for the King County Sheriff's Air Support unit, interest spiked, and the team joined to build a fully-fledged student driven organization - Impact++
As the club continued to grow and gather interest on the University of Washington campus and the founding members graduated to pursue exciting ventures in industry, the incoming leadership team pioneered the organization as a space to engage directly with the intersection of social good and technology.
Our technical projects have now expanded to host over 30 student developers and 6 technical program managers on 5-6 projects each year since 2020. With missions to innovate with collaboration from nonprofits and industry-led volunteer initiatives, Impact++ now works to use technology to better education access, social justice, healthcare management, ethical data collection, and open source software.
Alongside our technical projects, a non-technical, engagement-driven part of the organization came to conception after interest among students to engage in the discipline of tech + social good by promoting awareness for such an interdisciplinary objective among students and general public grew. Our community committee, led by our team of Impact Ambassadors, have designed high school curriculum, hosted campus-wide talks with researchers, and led our first virtual installment of our hackathon - the impact innovation challenge. Having hosted this hackathon in-person in 2019, with collaboration with UW's premier hackathon group Dubhacks, as a space to showcase Impact++ and promote tech + social good, adjustments to this key part of Impact++ had to be made due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
As the club continued to grow and gather interest on the University of Washington campus and the founding members graduated to pursue exciting ventures in industry, the incoming leadership team pioneered the organization as a space to engage directly with the intersection of social good and technology.
Our technical projects have now expanded to host over 30 student developers and 6 technical program managers on 5-6 projects each year since 2020. With missions to innovate with collaboration from nonprofits and industry-led volunteer initiatives, Impact++ now works to use technology to better education access, social justice, healthcare management, ethical data collection, and open source software.
Alongside our technical projects, a non-technical, engagement-driven part of the organization came to conception after interest among students to engage in the discipline of tech + social good by promoting awareness for such an interdisciplinary objective among students and general public grew. Our community committee, led by our team of Impact Ambassadors, have designed high school curriculum, hosted campus-wide talks with researchers, and led our first virtual installment of our hackathon - the impact innovation challenge. Having hosted this hackathon in-person in 2019, with collaboration with UW's premier hackathon group Dubhacks, as a space to showcase Impact++ and promote tech + social good, adjustments to this key part of Impact++ had to be made due to the COVID-19 pandemic.