StarterHacks, the beginner-friendly hackathon returning to Waterloo campus this May, grew out of a friendship between co-founders William Nippard and Marium Kirmani based on the principle that opposites attract.
When the friends met while working as residence hall dons at Waterloo in 2014, they could not have been more different. Nippard was a self-described “C’s get degrees” computer science student looking for direction. Kirmani was an overachieving health studies and health informatics student hoping to gain tech experience but frustrated by barriers to entry. They bonded quickly, however, over a shared curiosity and willingness to ask questions the people around them weren’t asking.
“I remember I wanted to learn to code,” Kirmani says, “and all my friends said that if you want to learn how to code, you should go to a hackathon. So, I went to a couple hackathons, and they were such weird experiences.”
“First of all, I was always one of five women at the whole event, which was alienating. But even worse, whenever I approached people to form a team, they would back off as soon as they found out that I was in health, not computer science or engineering or whatever. I remember thinking, ‘Wait, aren’t we all here to learn? Do we need to already be set up to win everything?’”
Read the full story from Waterloo News to learn more.