The Black Girl STEM Brilliance Hackathon 2021 was based on the theme of Women Empowerment. It was important for the rising generation of Women in STEM to feel nurtured and guided throughout this Hackathon and to understand the significance that being a woman in STEM and especially a Woman of Color in STEM needs to be more prominent and have various levels of representation. This Theme allowed the students to explore their imagination and create programs that relate to the Empowerment of Women and helping a Woman in STEM be successful in their field.

A javaScript based Hackathon that guided students through coding, but also gave students the freedom to use their creativity based on difficulty level with the help of skilled Computer Science mentors per group . Out of the Maximum of 350 students participating, 4-5 students per Groups were split by grade level (6-12) and in 3 varying levels of prompt difficulty: Beginner Level, Intermediate Level, Expert Level.

• Teams were made up exclusively of students who were not organizers, volunteers, judges, sponsors, or in any other privileged position at the event.
• All team members were required to be present at the event. Leaving the venue (virtual-discord platform) for some time to hack elsewhere was fine.
• Teams could of course gain advice and support from organizers, volunteers, sponsors, and others.
• All work on a project was supposed to be done at the hackathon.
• Teams could work on an idea that they had worked on before (as long as they did not reuse code)
• Teams could use an idea they had before the event.
• Teams could be disqualified from the competition at the organizers’ discretion. Reasons might include but are not limited to breaking the Competition Rules, behaving in a way that violates the code of conduct or other unsporting behaviour.
• Teams could use libraries, frameworks, or open-source code in their projects. Working on a project before the event and open-sourcing it for the sole purpose of using the code during the event was against the spirit of the rules and is not allowed.
• All other hackers were required to be treated with the utmost respect. We asked that they act kindly, behaved professionally, and did not insult or put down other attendees. Remember that harassment and racist, sexist, or exclusionary jokes were not appropriate for this event. If at any point you saw a fellow hacker being harassed, you were supposed to talk to the nearest hackathon organizer. (DEROGATORY LANGUAGE OR ACTIONS WILL NOT BE TOLERATED)
• If you were to join a different group’s server or select the wrong grade level you would be penalized and not receive a prize.
• When a speaker was speaking in the live stream channel did not interrupt or text anything in the text channel, that was only intended for the help channel and between you and your volunteer/ sponsor who were meant to aid your project.