This year’s Pygmalion Festival will include PygHack, a free hackathon that is open to professionals and students alike. PygHack will be taking place at EnterpriseWorks, located in Research Park. 

“PygHack is our inaugural hackathon that we’ve dreamed up this year to implement into the TECH programming at PYGMALION,” said Patrick Singer, one of the producers of Pygmalion. “The idea is to mix all sorts of individuals from Champaign-Urbana — professionals, college and high school students, and everything in between — to work together to help solve an issue in our community.”

This event will begin on Saturday, Sept. 23 at noon and will last for 24 hours. Registration will begin on July 18, and the space is limited. Walk-ins are not permitted, so anyone who is interested must apply to participate.

Food and drink will be provided at the hack. It is not required to have a team or an idea when PygHack begins. During the early portion of the event, avenues will be available for participants to explore ideas with other people that are registered.

The final product submissions will be judged right after the hack, and winners will be announced on Sunday, Sept. 24 at 4:00 p.m. at Beckman Institute for Advanced Technology.

“The hope is that hackers examine the community, and work to produce something that helps benefit it in some way,” Singer said. “This is a fairly unique and exciting opportunity, so we’re thrilled to get to present this concept this fall.”

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