Oakland Tech Week: Civic Tech Design Sprint

What if the people most impacted by AI helped shape what gets built? Join /dev/color and Dream Machine Academy for a hands-on AI design sprint where technologists, AI practitioners, entrepreneurs, designers, and community leaders come together to tackle real civic challenges, and build solutions that help communities be heard, find common ground, and see how their input shapes decisions. Working in cross-functional teams, you’ll tackle a real civic challenge surfaced by Oakland Civic Assembly members and move through a hands-on design sprint, from mapping the problem and ideating solutions to prototyping and testing. You’ll explore how AI can help communities be heard, find common ground, and close the loop by making it easier to see how civic input connects to real decisions. Whether you’re a technologist, AI practitioner, entrepreneur, designer, product leader, community organizer, or civic advocate, you’ll collaborate across disciplines, get feedback from community and technical guides, and build something grounded in a real-world need. You’ll leave with: A tangible AI-enabled solution addressing a real civic challenge Experience applying AI to civic participation, consensus, or traceability New connections across Oakland’s technology and civic communities Come build something real, with the people it’s meant to serve, and help reimagine what’s possible when AI and community come together.