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About
OHI/O is The Ohio State University’s premier program dedicated to nurturing and advancing a dynamic tech culture through hands-on, inclusive events. Run by student for students have opportunities to innovate, collaborate, and solve real-world problems, OHI/O organizes a series of hackathons, make-a-thons, and tech-centered events from K-college throughout the year. These events are designed to foster creativity, enhance technical skills, and build a strong community of future tech leaders. Join us at OHI/O to be a part of the technological revolution and turn your ideas into reality.
Mission
The OHI/O Program fosters a tech culture at Ohio State and its surrounding communities, ultimately providing students the opportunity to learn and build with real technologies outside of the classroom. Through the platform, OHI/O better connects students to real world problems and opportunities by engaging with the community and industry partners.
Entrepreneurial Mindset
OHI/O hackathons are designed to go beyond technical skill-building by fostering innovation, collaboration, and entrepreneurial thinking among participants. A significant component of this vision is the adoption of the KEEN framework, which focuses on cultivating an Entrepreneurial Mindset through the “3C’s”—Curiosity, Connections, and Creating Value. By adopting an entrepreneurial mindset, participants not only enhance their technical portfolios but also become better equipped to tackle complex challenges, innovate in their careers, and create meaningful impact in their communities. Embedding this framework into hackathons, OHI/O creates experiential learning opportunities that encourage students to solve real-world problems while developing a mindset that equips them for success.
- Curiosity: Encouraging students to explore the “why” behind problems, ask insightful questions, and challenge existing assumptions.
- Connections: Helping participants recognize patterns and relationships across disciplines to identify innovative solutions.
- Creating Value: Motivating students to design and implement solutions that deliver tangible benefits to stakeholders, including communities, businesses, or society at large.
History & Vision
OHI/O aims to enhance the student learning experience and engagement between students, community members, industry professionals, alumni and staff. OHI/O emphasizes providing students an informal and diverse learning platform regardless of experience or background. The OHI/O organizers possess a fundamental belief in the power of creation and are dedicated to empowering students to develop skills such as technical ability, communication, creativity, and critical thinking. In other words: to grow the excitement, the camaraderie, and access to resources for the thinkers, the makers, and the do-ers of Ohio State.
Beginning with the university’s first hackathon in 2013, the annual event has grown from 100 students in the library basement, to 200 students in 2014, and most recently to 800+ students in 17,389 sqft Ohio Union Ballroom. In addition to the flagship hackathon, the OHI/O platform introduced satellite events in 2014 hosting Ohio State’s first hardware focused hackathon, MakeOHI/O. In 2015, OHI/O sponsored Ohio State students to attend GiveBackHack, a local hackathon focused on social entrepreneurship. Through promoting and supporting additional tech events both on and off campus, such as TownHacks and DataFest, OHI/O aims enhance the student learning experience and engagement between students, community members, industry professionals, alumni and staff.
In 2018, the partnership model began to grow. Events in collaboration with other student organizations include DataI/O, HackAI, Capture the Flag, BioHack and more.
Through the platform, OHI/O better connect students to real world problems and opportunities by engaging with the community, alumni and industry partners.
OHI/O Event Videos
Leadership
Resources
Contact
Want to get in touch? We’re happy to discuss events, partnerships, collaborations, and any questions you may have. Reach out to us at hackathon@osu.edu.
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