UC Big Ideas Contest joins The Rockefeller-Acumen Student Social Innovation Challenge

In the Fall of 2019, Abby Yue Gao’s first semester in UC Berkeley’s Master of Architecture program, her classes had to repeatedly pause due to another severe California wildfire season. Berkeley was spared the flames, but still suffered power shut offs and dreadful air quality thanks to that year’s worst blaze, Sonoma County’s Kincade Fire. Tens of thousands had to flee their homes; hundreds of thousands faced blackouts. A quarter of the county’s population speaks a language other than English at home — a major hurdle during disasters, when critical information from first responders goes out primarily in English.

By Veena Narashiman ’2020 Originally a portmanteau of the words hack and marathon, a hackathon typically occurs over a day or two, bringing together computer