EconHacks 2021— The largest Student-led Economics Hackathon Press Release
Despite the ongoing pandemic, the financial sector is ever rapidly expanding with the introduction and advancements of new technological innovations, and digital forms of currency are becoming increasingly ubiquitous even in our daily lives. With the presence of online banking, the intersection of technology and economics has finally arrived. However, according to a 2014 study from the National Endowment for Financial Education, only 24% of Millennials could answer 4 out of 5 questions on a basic financial literacy test. Approximately 77 million Americans are accumulating debt in collections, according to the Urban Institute, and around a third of Americans only pay the minimum amount on their credit cards monthly, as stated by a study conducted by FINRA, titled National Financial Capability. The need for citizens, especially teenagers, to be educated on finance has never been greater.
In hopes of bridging this gap, 5 teenagers started brainstorming for a hackathon to educate others about economics and technology. EconHacks, coined by lead director Benjamin Chen (TAS), is a 24-hour online hackathon being held across the world from 12 pm on February 13th, 2021 to 12 pm on February 14th, 2021. In order to make it accessible for as many students as possible, it is free for anyone to enter as long as they are in grades 8–12.
“We wanted to make sure that secondary school kids could access and learn about the uses of financial technology with no restrictions whatsoever”, said director, Ashley Pandya. The hackathon will feature lectures from world-renowned professors from universities such as Stanford Business School, as well as entrepreneurs in the finance field. “Getting taught from the best can be a transformative experience for a lot of people, and we want as many people to discover their passions in the areas of economics and computer science”, said director Ishan Panchamia.
Participants will have 24 hours to create an innovative project that aims to improve an aspect of the financial sector or helps to solve a current economic problem. To promote education beyond the hackathon, Econhacks is also planning on holding biweekly lectures about different fields in economics, from behavioral economics to basic quantitative trading. “We really want to make sure that people gain access to as many resources as they can get to understand how economics works in the real world”, said director Rishabh Varshney. They already have plans to hold a second in-person hackathon in the fall of 2021 with the option of internationals competing via video chat.
See you there!
