In this session, Diana will explore what it takes to build software for physical spaces, where reliability, security, and usability are inseparable. Drawing from the development of the Obama President...

Join Mike Scott, Chief Information Accessibility Officer for the State of Illinois, to learn what’s new in the world of information accessibility, including what you can do to help make sure your IT w...

Join to us for a presentation from the Chicago Teachers Union.

Join to us for a presentation from the Chicago Transit Authority.

Come hear a presentation from Citizens Utility Board on energy use and data centers.

Come hear a presentation from the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers about a criminal case tracker they maintain.

In June 2025, Derek Eder was appointed to be a Trustee for the Village of Oak Park, a suburb west of Chicago with 54,000 residents known for being ethnically diverse and socially liberal. Derek will t...

Join to hear about Chicago's Fight against Automated License Plate Readers.

Come hear a presentation from Friends of the Chicago River

What does it mean to be a YIMBY? As the Illinois chapter of the national “Yes In My Backyard” movement, Abundant Housing Illinois advocates for building more homes of all types; from affordable housin...

Join Reilly Martin from Technologists for the Public Good, Kate Green from We The Builders, and Christopher Whitaker from the Alliance of Civic Technology for a panel discussion on what the last year ...

Legislative data is hard to parse, track, and organize—and existing solutions can disappear overnight, like Google’s Civic Information API did in 2024. What would a decentralized, open-source alternat...

Bike Lane Uprising has conducted a data-driven audit and risk analysis of over 50,000 Illinois companies registered with the United States Department of Transportation - specifically examining their r...

Bike Lane Uprising has conducted a data-driven audit and risk analysis of over 50,000 Illinois companies registered with the United States Department of Transportation - specifically examining their r...

There will be no presentation this week. Instead, we're going to have an Open Hack. Join us in-person at i.c.stars for introductions, socializing, announcements and breakout groups.

In 2024, Cook County and City Bureau partnered to co-design and launch the IMPACT Small Grants Program to provide funding and storytelling support to local nonprofits, media organizations, and librari...

In this talk, the CCAO Data team will explain how and why they built HomeVal. They’ll dive into the nitty-gritty details of how they designed and implemented the app — from developing an AI explainabi...

Namesake was founded in 2021 to help trans people in Massachusetts navigate the legal name change process. Namesake's open source web application is built to securely guide people through the steps re...

The Civics of Technology Project (CoT) is a grassroots education organization that conducts research, develops curriculum, and offers professional development for teachers and students to critically i...

Chicago Food Rescue bridges the gap between food waste and food insecurity in Chicago. Volunteers use an app to deliver surplus food that would otherwise be thrown out directly to organizations servin...

Join us for a facilitated group conversation about how we, as both individuals and a community, might navigate the rising authoritarian government in the US. During these times, it's important to stay...

Hear from the Chicago Department of Tech and Innovation leaders on recent progress and projects.

Hear about CityCamp - an “unconference” designed to bring together technologists, nonprofit leaders, and local government stakeholders to collaborate on innovative ways to improve our cities.

Hear from three CTA employees on technical improvements the Chicago Transit Authority has been working on.

Learn more about technology at CPL

Since 2019, more than 1,000 Cook County homeowners have lost their homes and home equity to investors — called tax buyers — through property tax foreclosure. Collectively, these homeowners owed $2.3 m...

City Colleges helps students enter and evolve in a tech career—no matter where they start. With classes offering college credit, industry certifications, and professional development, it’s an affordab...

Promontory Point Conservancy works to protect and preserve Promontory Point, Burnham Park, on Chicago’s South Side. For the past 25 years, the Conservancy, a community-led non-profit, has advocated to...

The Cook County property tax assessment appeals system shifted nearly $2 billion in property taxes onto homeowners from businesses over just three years, with lower-income, Black and Latino homeowners...

The Illinois Assistive Technology Program (IATP) is a statewide nonprofit agency funded by state and federal grants that has been responsible for implementing the federal Assistive Technology Act sinc...

Show and Tell is our low-pressure session to share what you're working on with the community.

Chicago's weekly event to build, share, and learn about civic tech.

Urban Rivers is a non-profit with the mission of turning our cities waterways into wildlife sanctuaries and is the organization behind the Wild Mile floating park. They presented at Chi Hack Night bac...

Chi Hack Night will be at a new location! i.c.stars, a non-profit tech training & placement program, will be hosting us at their office at 750 N Orleans Suite 500, Chicago. Hear from the researchers l...

After serving as Chi Hack Night's second President, Sean Watland is stepping down after two years. Congratulate Sneha Jalukar & Samanatha Goodman Chi Hack Night's new Co-Presidents!

Rents have risen faster than incomes in Chicago in recent decades, leading to worsening rental affordability issues for residents across the city. Between 2000 and 2022, the number of neighborhoods co...

Since 1998, PCs for People has refurbished over 400,000 devices which were contributed by corporations, colleges, government entities, and other organizations. They have diverted over 23 million lbs o...

The StopWatch analyzes a unique dataset of over 100 million real-time bus locations collected by Chi Hack Night Ghost Bus. Part of the 2024 Local Data Journalism Initiative, this project is a collabor...

On February 3rd, Neighbors For Environmental Justice (N4EJ) released a new tool called ChicagoAQI that lets people suggest locations for city air monitors and explore environmental risks and exposures...

An eviction with no notice is extraordinarily disruptive, straining budgets with unplanned expenses, risking job loss for adults and missing school for kids. Yet lockout complaints to Chicago police h...

In this talk Prof. Palmer will discuss the key findings of Neighborhood Defenders, and present some recent research on other ways that communities fight new housing, even when that housing is allowed ...

Dylan Pederson is a former tenant organizer and founder and lead developer of the Landlord Mapper, a national landlord database initiative. He has developed a novel methodology for obtaining landlord ...

Join us for a facilitated group conversation about the incoming second Trump Administration, the role of technology and data in our society, and how we, the Chi Hack Night community might respond to a...