O-Penn Mic

A note from curators: Aswathi Thummarukudy and Varsha Shaheen

Openn Mic

Hey makers,

You know that moment when someone says "ugh, this is so annoying" about something small and everyday, and someone else in the room goes "wait, that happens to me too"? That's basically Openn Mic.

Every month, you show up, you talk, and somewhere in that conversation, something worth working on finds you. Not the other way around.

Am I gonna need to know how to code?

No, genuinely. This is for tech and non-tech folks alike, arts, science, commerce, engineering, whatever you're studying.

A lot of what comes out of this room won't need a single line of code. The ones that do will get there eventually, just not first.

What kind of things are we talking about?

Pick one of three lanes:

Something that interests you. A curiosity you've never had space to chase.

Something where you sense a real opportunity. A gap nobody's filled yet.

Something that's a problem. An everyday annoyance you've stopped noticing, or one you'd usually shrug off as "not my problem."

All three count equally. You don't need a "real problem" to justify showing up.

Okay, but what's the actual catch?

Here's the one rule that matters: we don't want you asking Gemini or GPT to hand you an answer. We're not handing you a starting point either, that's on you to find, together, in the room.

Bring what's real. Something you noticed, something you love, something someone said. Let the group sit with it before jumping to fix it.

Tech is a tool to solve for something, not the thinking itself. The nuance, the "but what if," the "wait, why is it like this in the first place," that has to come from people talking to each other first.

How it actually works

1. Show up, check in. No topic yet, just a room where people talk about what's going on. This is where things usually

surface, half by accident.

2. Pick your one thing. In your first session, name what you want to sit with, interest, opportunity, or problem. Doesn't need to be polished. Stuck? Ask, we'll hand you a few to start from.

3. Sit with it as a group. Don't rush to fix it. Ask what's actually going on, who this affects, why nobody's dealt with it already.

4. Everyone throws in a take, no AI, no shortcuts. Each person's own response, independently, before you merge ideas.

5. Push it with "but what if." As many rounds as it takes. This is where the real understanding shows up.

6. Only now, ask if tech helps. If a tool or a bit of code genuinely makes this better, great. If not, that's a complete answer too.

7. Take one small step. Not the whole thing, just the smallest version you can actually try before next session.

8. Check in again next month. What moved, what didn't, what's next.

Keep a notebook. Bring it every session. Write down what you notice, half-formed ideas, what someone else said that stuck with you, what you tried and what happened. You'll need it, both to pick this back up next month, and to bring to WIT meetups, where you'll be asked what you're working on and how it's moved.

Talk to people who actually live with this, on campus or beyond. You'll understand it better than any amount of guessing, and you might end up building something they've needed for years.

A few ideas to get you thinking

The empty pad dispenser. Someone mentioned the dispensers in their hostel are basically always empty. Turned out three others had noticed the same thing and just stopped expecting them to work. First step, someone told facilities.

Next, a shared log of which dispensers run out fastest. Eventually, a notification system alerting the right person when stock's low. Tech showed up last, not first.

The craft show nobody knew they wanted. A few people into arts and crafts realised there was no space on campus where that was visible, no showcase, no way to sell what they made. They started with an informal show and tell at

Openn Mic. Once it was clear people cared, they tried a table at a campus event. Only after that worked did a website to sell online start to make sense, backed by real interest, not a guess.

The problem bigger than one campus. Someone kept missing their bus with no way to check real time timings. They mentioned it at Openn Mic, and someone from a different campus said the same thing happens to them. A one person annoyance turned out to be a shared, cross campus problem worth building for.

The gap nobody could fix but them. Someone in a niche course had no seniors to ask "is this normal, how do I deal with this." Not a rule anyone could change, just nobody around her doing the same thing. She found one alum in a similar field elsewhere and set up a single informal call. That grew into a loose list of women across campuses willing to be asked a question. No one signed off on it. They just made it exist.

So keep an eye out for your next Openn Mic. Bring whatever interests you, whatever opportunity you've spotted, or whatever's bugging you. Sit with it. Push on it. Try the smallest version of an answer.

You don't need to already know how to build something to start.

You just need to notice something worth sitting with.

Specifics To Be Specific

Name: O-Penn Mic Category: Discussion Series Type: Weekly Tech Discussions Summary - oneliner: A women-exclusive weekly discussion series fostering tech confidence and knowledge sharing across campus communities. Purpose: To boost women's participation and confidence in tech-related fields through regular discussions, learning, and project sharing.

How:

Weekly topic release in WIT Leads group and via email
Participants review provided learning resources
Online discussions with video capability
Bi-weekly offline meetups for in-depth discussions
Project work based on weekly topics
Sharing and voting on best projects

Expected outcome:

Increased confidence among women in tech discussions
Enhanced knowledge of various tech topics
Development of presentation and discussion skills
Creation of a supportive community for women in tech
Completion of practical projects related to discussion topics

How to measure impact:

Participation rates in online and offline discussions
Number and quality of projects completed
Feedback from participants on confidence levels and knowledge gained
Increase in women's participation in larger tech events (e.g., Useless Projects, Tink Her Hack)
Long-term tracking of participants' involvement in tech fields

Pre-project checklist: