Submitted by Meera Roy
on
From the the William & Mary Global Innovation Challenge (WMGIC) and the the Public Interest Technology University Network (PIT-UN):
This year, William & Mary is proud to be selected by the Public Interest Technology University Network (PIT-UN) to host a Tech for Change Hackathon on April 9–10, 2026. This virtual event invites students at any university from every discipline to work together on community-driven solutions that advance equity and address global injustices through the study and application of technology for the public good. The Tech for Change Hackathon emphasizes community engagement and public interest technology. Participants will form teams and choose one of the following tracks: Narrative Power, Climate Stability, Medicine at the Edge, and Mobility.
Stream 1: Narrative Power & the Architecture of Misunderstanding (Democracy, Information Integrity, Global Security)
This stream focuses on the increasing proliferation of synthetic media and how it leads to a lack of general trust. The main theme of this stream is the widespread misinformation spread through AI generated fraud and other synthetic media. Students are asked to explore how public interest technologies can be used to help societies rebuild trust and evidentiary ground without falling into censorship or “fact-checking” optimism. Students will present ideas on how to design infrastructure, standards, or tools to help repair trust and improve interpretive transparency.
Stream 2: Climate Stability, Sustainability, and the Limits of Adaptation (Climate Change, Sustainability, Global Equity)
This stream focuses on the effects of climate change and the issues with real-life implementation of current technologies. It not only asks about general global warming public interest technologies, but the distributive issues that occur in many current solutions being implemented. Students are asked to explore how public interest technologies can help governments and communities to confront the real limits and obstacles of climate adaptation. Specifically, students are asked to pitch tools that would help make climate trade-offs participatory and just for the people who are most severely affected by the current climate crisis.
Stream 3: Medicine at the Edge — Power, Responsibility, and Life-Shaping Science (Medicine, Biotechnology, Synthetic Biology, Public Trust)
This stream focuses on quickly advancing medical technology and the lack of governance framework to accompany it. As there has been a rapid advancement in biomedical science, especially synthetic biology, questions of ethics and biosecurity have been raised. Students are asked to explore how public interest technologies can be used to address this asymmetry in development and ensure that biomedical innovation remains accountable and ethical. They are asked to develop strategies and tools for how to use public interest technologies to strengthen ethical oversight, public understanding, and inclusivity.
Stream 4: Mobility, Rootedness, and the Right to Stay (Climate, Migration, Human Dignity)
This stream focuses on how forced displacement has become a defining condition of the present international state. As forced migration continues to take place across the globe, for reasons of war, oppression, famine, climate change, and more, there is an increasing concern over the balance of mobility and the right to stay. Students are asked to explore how public interest technologies can help support both mobility and rootedness without compromising one or the other. They are asked to present ideas of how governments and institutions can avoid normalizing displacement as an acceptable outcome.
Those interested in learning more can see our website or register directly using this form. Additionally, faculty is encouraged to get involved by serving as a Judge or Mentor through this form.
While we wish to include as many teams as possible, streams fill on a first-come, first-served basis. Registration will open on February 17th, 2026 and close on March 30, 2026.
Best regards,
Larisa Badawi
WMGIC Recruitment Director