Project Team Mentor

Our project team mentors support project teams, but aren’t themselves a part of any team. Mentors have expertise in coding, data science, design, journalism, project management, or UX design, just to name a few possibilities. They commit to attending a part, or all, of #QuestHack’s project day and during their time there, provide support and knowledge to project teams, keeping them focused, motivated, and helping them to work through any stumbling blocks that may arise. Mentors need to have a high level of technical expertise in order to better help project volunteers who may have a varying level of experience in coding languages, data science, etc.

Project Guide

At this hackathon, we’re tackling tough, complex challenges. The people best positioned to identify problems are the people directly impacted by them. Project guides have thorough knowledge and experience with the North Philly community, either as a resident or as a local nonprofit or civic leader. This is a team role that provides the vision and context for what a technical product might do to address a problem. Project guides work closely with project leads to ensure that technology is truly meeting a need within the community.

Project Lead

Project leads are experienced with taking in broad context and forming a technical solution. They help project teams break big goals down into small manageable pieces. They get to know team members and their talents and work closely with the project visionary on how best to apply team member’s skills and turn vision into execution.

Project Team Member

Team members can be journalists, designers, project managers, data scientists, coders, UX designers, content strategists, accessibility experts, and more. They’ll work with one another and with project leads and project visionaries to brainstorm the right application of tools and skills. They build, map, or draft their way from “problem identified” to “potential solution brought to life.”

Event volunteer

We’ll need helping hands the day of events to hang signs, pick up food, put out extra chairs—just to name a few. Keeping project teams fueled and focused on their work is a great way to contribute to the overall mission of the event without having to bring your laptop anywhere (unless you absolutely want to). If you’re interested in being an event volunteer, sign up here.

Project Day Resources

These are tools that can be utilized by anyone, in any of the above roles, as they work on their project.

Open Data Philly — This is the portal for open data collected by the City of Philadelphia. Download data sets that apply to the scope of your project.

How to Run a Successful Hackathon — Don’t let the name fool you, this guide from Joshua Tauberer doesn’t just cover how to run a hackathon, it also supplies tips that will help anyone new to hackathons participate and enjoy their first one.

Help! I’m Going To A Hackathon: A Beginner’s Guide to Hacking — This time, the title really does tell you all you need to know, here. This is a solid introduction to hackathons for newbies.

Civic Innovation Toolkit: How to Run a Civic Hackathon — This guide takes you through what makes a civic hackathon different and lists goals to keep in mind in order to make the most of your time at the hackathon.