Student-led hackathon brings AI experts, public sector leaders to Penn

A student-led government technology hackathon at Penn brought together builders, public-sector leaders, and artificial intelligence practitioners to develop prototypes for government challenges.

Hosted by AI platform OnGov in collaboration with Penn’s Fels Institute of Government and Venture Lab, 1776 Lab took place on April 17. The event connected students and technologists with public-sector officials to design practical AI tools for government workflows, and working sessions focused on issues including trauma-informed care, public service coordination, and implementation.

Silas Deane, a Master of Public Administration candidate at Penn and an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Venture Lab, founded OnGov after building reentry software used by over 400 jails across the United States. The experience shaped his view that government technology systems often fail both public employees and the people they serve.

“I noticed that a lot of the legacy government technology was out of date,” Deane said in an interview with The Daily Pennsylvanian. “It was very much monopolistic and really not optimized to build a government by and for its people.”

OnGov is currently working with Philadelphia prisons on reentry technology, a space Deane said shows how outdated workflows can affect people’s lives after incarceration.

“There are 9.6 million people who cycle in and out of the jail every single year,” Deane said. “So much of that is done on paper.”

He added that employees inside the prison system often understand the stakes of reentry work but lack the infrastructure to connect people leaving incarceration with jobs, housing, and financial resources.

1776 Lab was designed as a response to what Deane sees as an overemphasis on abstract conversations about AI in government.

“Government doesn’t need more AI theater,” Deane said. “It doesn’t need another conference. It needs real, deployable solutions.”

The event brought public-sector leaders into working sessions where they presented problems from their own fields and collaborated with participants throughout the build process.

“We’re really trying to actually come with a problem, have a deliverable that can address that problem with the person who’s in charge of making the decision, and then come together with a solution at the end,” Deane said.

Jesse Kohler, who will graduate from Fels Institute of Government’s Executive Master of Public Administration program this year, led a working session focused on HEAL PA, Pennsylvania’s statewide system of trauma-informed care. Kohler is the founder and president of The Change Campaign, a nonprofit that serves as a fiscal agent for HEAL PA.

Kohler’s group focused on how coalitions across Pennsylvania can share findings, reduce duplicated work, and coordinate more effectively across local and state systems.

The difficulty is especially acute because much of trauma-informed care work happens locally, often through coalitions with limited time and resources.

“Each community has different populations, needs, resources and desires,” Kohler told the DP. “The big question we were working to address for the day was around collaboration across coalitions within the state, specifically being able to share emerging findings and learnings.”

During the session, Kohler’s group created a prototype that could help coalitions track standardized key performance indicators while still allowing local groups to adapt those measures to their own communities.

“We started with a full whiteboard of everybody’s ideas,” Kohler said. “Being able to actually see a product amplifies that pitch many times over.”

Sudhire Rahul Karunakaran, a product manager with a background in computer science and engineering management, was part of the winning team at the hackathon.

Karunakaran said he entered the session without much background in the specific government systems being discussed.

“When I went in, I was just drowned in jargon,” Karunakarun told the DP. “I had no clue what was going on initially.”

To make the problem usable from a product perspective, Karunakaran said he divided it into personas, problem statements, workflows, and KPIs before beginning to build.

“The entire goal was to move from a fragmented system where agencies and organizations work in silos toward an integrated system where data funding service, as well as coordination, flows across different levels,” Karunakaran said.

The final prototype focused on creating clearer links between state agencies, county-level systems, and community organizations working on trauma-related services.

Karunakaran added that the format pushed him away from a feature-heavy approach and toward a more grounded understanding of the users affected by the problem.

“Most of the hackathons that I’ve been part of, it’s very easy to be obsessed with the product and the problem that you’re trying to solve, instead of focusing on the people that you’re solving it for,” Karunakaran said.

Deane said Penn’s mix of government, business, and entrepreneurship resources helped make the event possible.

“Penn is a cool, collaborative place,” Deane said. “There’s so many people who want to do awesome things.”

Kohler also emphasized that the hackathon’s value came from bringing people with different backgrounds into a structured environment around a specific issue.

“Bringing together different perspectives to focus on a single issue can really bring about some important innovations,” Kohler said.

Deane stated that he hopes the event encourages students to see government technology as a space where they can build meaningful and financially viable ventures.

“That’s one thing we want to get out of this event,” Deane said. “There is a way to marry these things to create a better future for all people.”

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