Analytics Student Yanchen Wang Selected for Vatican Hackathon

Georgetown University, with participation from the Maker Hub, The Global Human Development Program at the School of Foreign Service, Computer Science Department, The Massive Data Institute at the McCourt School of Public Policy, Georgetown Entrepreneurship Initiative, The Center for Social Justice, The Global Social Enterprise Initiative, The Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation, and the Communication, Culture & Technology Master’s Program is sending a team of five students to participate in VHacks, a hackathon at the Vatican. The three -day event will bring students together from around the world to “use technological innovation to overcome social barriers and embrace common values.”

Analytics student Yanchen Wang (MS ’19) was selected as a programmer for the team. In Yanchen’s words:

I finished my undergraduate degree at University of California San Diego. During that time, I started to interact with refugees through International Rescue Center (IRC). In 2015 and 2016, I was a volunteer for the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program at IRC. I heard many stories from refugees about their personal lives and families. At that time, I realized that there are a lot of things we could do to help them. After coming to Georgetown University, I became a Master’s student in the Analytics program. One goal I want to achieve is to become a data scientist to use data for the public good to help people all over the world. I want to bring my skills in data analytics and programming to our great team to develop solutions solving global issues. I am excited about the Vatican Hackathon because the Vatican is the home of the Pope. It will be extremely meaningful to work together to provide solutions aiming at solving global issues In Vatican. It will also be a fantastic experience to visit the Vatican with a goal to make the world a better place.

Meet the Hoyas who will be hacking the Vatican.