Civic Tech in Action: Femmecubator’s Civic Tech Camp Champions Equity and Open Data
Civic Tech in Action: Femmecubator’s OpenCivic Tech Camp Champions Equity and Open Data
At a time when communities are grappling with urgent challenges—from housing access to environmental justice—events like Open Sprints: Civic Tech Camp 2025 are more vital than ever. We're creating space for collaboration, learning, and innovation rooted in purpose. By encouraging technologists to convene with community members; enabling university students to collaborate with industry experts, we’re not just solving technical problems—we’re building tools for equity, accountability, and impact.
This year, Open Sprints by Femmecubator launched Equity Mapping as a new Design Challenge, welcoming civic tech enthusiasts from NYC and beyond (including a few visitors from DC!). In collaboration with Superbloom Design and with support from mentors at Data + Women NYC, we hosted our first-ever Equity Mapping Hackathon.
Participants explored the question: “How might we use spatial data to effect change in our communities?” The goal of the Equity Maps project is to empower developers, designers, data scientists, and community members to propose topics and important issues that tells a story based on data and research. By leveraging publicly available datasets, we aim to develop a platform that help New Yorkers engage with data, make informed decisions, and provide supporting evidence to highlight existing issues that affect their communities.
Using NYC Open Data, three finalist teams presented thoughtful, innovative proposals! (Learn about it on Devpost!) During the workshop, we also had a chance to learn about the process behind The Museum of Transversal Art, a project built by MTA Open Data Challenge finalist Bianca Ng.
Highlights from the event:
• 15 Civic Tech Fellows collaborated on open-source projects, including Project Husky: A chatbot for education; Project Foxhound: A research workshop focused on improving hiring culture; Continued work on the Equity Maps project is happening through Project Great Dane.
• 7 Project Pitchers presented their ideas with guidance from mentors in a dynamic speed mentoring session. This was an awesome way for teams to meet mentors and network with new team members of the project they will be working on.
• 3 New Civic Tech Open-Source Projects launched this year — now continuing virtually for students and volunteers on http://www.opensprints.tech
This program and event were brought to life by our incredible team of volunteers—none of it would’ve been possible without their passion and dedication.
A huge shoutout to all our partners, mentors, judges, volunteers, and facilitators who made Open Sprints: Civic Tech Camp 2025 such a success!
Special thanks to our core volunteer team, cohort captains, and project leads: Kris Rubiano Mariama Ford Kellee Massey-Ruhlman Medha Paturu Simran Kaur Radhika Phansalkar Rizel Enad Erika Jeffers Abigail Castillo.
Gratitude to our amazing panel of judges: Jordanna Yap Amy Shim and @Ponce Samaniego.
And to our Superbloom Design facilitators: Anh L. Katie Wilson, as well as our generous mentors: jinjin qin Jeel Sukhadiya Wittawas Chotwanwirach.
Thank you also to Bianca Ng Lyon Abido Erlina Cahyadi for leading the Tableau sessions with our students.
For more information, please reach out to community@femmecubator.org. Stay tuned for more updates on future project showcase and ongoing virtual sprint schedule.