FAQ

An innovation challenge is an event centered around solving a problem through collaboration. Participants are encouraged to generate new ideas and remain engaged as the challenge progresses, even after the duration of our event. 

While an "innovation challenge” was originally used to help companies find relavent ideas, tehcnologies, and innovative approaches to solving specific problems in a competition outside their own organization, a Sustainability Innovation Challenge will focus on gathering creative and motivated people from diverse backgrounds to design interesting solutions for sustainable development. Students will form teams in order to address specific sustainability challenges and will be judged on the creativity, feasibility, and impact of their ideas. We emphasize that participants can come from all areas of expertise, and solutions can come in any form ranging from well-thought out business proposals, mobile applications, to hardware prototypes, and so on.

While a “hackathon” was originally used to refer to a collaborative computer programming event, a Sustainability Hackathon will focus on gathering creative and motivated people from diverse backgrounds to design interesting solutions for sustainable development. Students will form teams in order to address specific sustainability challenges and will be judged on the creativity, feasibility, and impact of their ideas. We emphasize that participants can come from all areas of expertise, and solutions can come in any form ranging from well-thought out business proposals, mobile applications, to hardware prototypes, and so on.

GreenHacks is always looking for people to be speakers, judges, or experts to be part of our events. This opportunity is not limited to people who are in the sustainability field, but rather those who have a passion for innovation and bettering the planet. 

In the past, GreenHacks has collaborated with:

• Ralph O'Connor Sustainable Energy Institute 

• JHU Environmental Health and Engineering

• JHU Department of Sustainability

• Bloomberg School of Public Health

• JHU Earth and Planetary Sciences

• JHU Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering

• Institute for NanoBioTechnology

And our participants have come from many different JHU majors and departments!

The event is open to students of ALL backgrounds and skills from the Homewood campus, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Carey Business School, MICA, and other Hopkins-affiliated schools, undergraduate or graduate student, regardless of area of study! GreenHacks will also be open to the entire network of Baltimore-area universities! 

GreenHack's innovation challenge is a rewarding experience that combines collaboration and impactful ideation. We encourage individuals of all concentrations to sign up for our Spring 2024 event.