15 Abby Ivory, Anna Dorn, Hack-A-House / Salt Lake City
A conversation with Abby Ivory and Anna Dorn about Hack-A-House, a “hackathon” style competition for innovative solutions in housing affordability.
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15 Abby Ivory and Anna Dorn, Hack-A-House / Salt Lake City
Hack-A-House
Hack-A-House is an annual 24-hour “hackathon” created to engage students in proposing innovative solutions to address the housing affordability crisis. Students are encouraged to engage with peers, our industry experts, and our competition judges in an exploration of housing affordability. Through innovation, participants can help solidify economic opportunity for vulnerable populations in their communities and beyond.
Students will receive a prompt at 12pm MT on September 22nd and will have 24 hours to complete and pitch their proposal for an innovative and scalable solution to a prompt in one of the following categories:
Construction & Design
Finance
Policy & Regulatory Reform
Teams will tailor their solutions to fit their selected theme and participants are encouraged to consider how their solution interacts with existing policy, finance, and/or construction and design practices.
Co-sponsors include: The University of Utah, The University of California at Berkeley, The Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University, The University of Arizona, and The University of Denver.
There is no limit to the number of student teams able to participate from each school.
Teams may consist of one student and have a maximum of five students.
Any student from an accredited college or university is encouraged to participate, no matter their experience of background!
Competition judges will be listed on the Hack-A-House website at
Ideas will be judged by their feasibility, uniqueness, and adherence to the prompt released on September 22nd at 12pm MT. Once the competition begins, participants will have access to a wide array of online resources that will help them understand the issue and prepare their presentations.
Four prizes will be awarded, totaling $12,000:
Overall winner - $5,000
Category winner - $3,000
Category winner - $3,000
People’s choice award - $1,000
Once the competition begins, participants can access a wide array of online resources that will help them tackle the issue and prepare their presentations. These will include links to informative articles and short videos featuring expert practitioners and faculty discussing key issues.
Biography
Abby Ivory - Ivory Innovations was born while Abby was working on the Impact Investing team for the Sorenson Impact Center. Prior to her experience in impact investing, she worked as an intern focused on researching Green Bonds with Equilibrium Capital in Portland, Oregon. Her work has been published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review. Abby graduated with a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Utah in 2016 with an emphasis in Sustainability.
Anna Dorn - Anna graduated from the University of Utah with a degree in finance and a minor in management. She joined the Ivory Innovations team as a student associate during her junior year of college, then joined the team full time in May 2023. She became more passionate about affordable housing throughout this time and enjoys being able to connect with companies that are truly making a difference. Anna interned for Jones Lang LaSalle on the Salt Lake City capital markets team and served as a mentor for the Goff Strategic Leadership Center.
Workplace
Ivory innovations
Hack-A-House
Key words:
Student competition, housing affordability, housing crisis, innovative solutions, construction and design, Finance, Policy and regulatory reform, teams, sustainability, Utah, Salt Lake City, The University of Utah, The University of California at Berkeley, The Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University, The University of Arizona, and The University of Denver.
Episode production:
Soundscapes by Anna Dorn.
Theme music by Sebastian Carreras ONDO, uno. Used with permission.
Art direction by estudiocinco.cl
Edition by sombraurbana.com
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August ‘23