Anirudh Bharadwaj Vangara, 18
Anirudh Bharadwaj Vangara: The Visionary Young Leader Bridging Hackathons and Systemic Change
Anirudh Bharadwaj Vangara is an exceptionally driven high school hacker, MLH Hackathon Organizer, and community event organizer who is making waves by turning hackathon innovation into real-world social impact. After teaching himself Python from discarded library books, Anirudh became the Founding Chair of TurnerHacks 2025, one of the Peel District's largest municipally-backed high school hackathons. His passion for tech ignited when he realized its potential to solve inequities. Having competed in over a dozen hackathons, he was part of the youngest team to win in two prize tracks at HackTheNorth 2023, where his team’s project—AI-powered smart glasses for visually impaired students—set him on his current path.
Through his nonprofit Younifind, he connects 2,000+ Canadian high school students monthly to tech opportunities, with dedicated outreach to girls, marginalized communities, and underrepresented students. His work with co-founding OutsideConnection as CTO, a platform using AI to provide fair second-chance employment opportunities for formerly incarcerated individuals, has been utilized by the US Supreme Court and supported by Jay-Z's REFORM Alliance. Furthermore, OutsideConnection has impacted over 11,000 people and raised $60,000 in funding. In addition, he is a part-time Student Researcher at UWaterloo's SWAG Lab, focusing on AI safety.
Python is Anirudh’s go-to language for social impact projects, while C++ is his choice for hardware. Using GitHub Copilot, his favorite collaborative tool, he’s been able to fast-track his projects from ideation to fruition within a weekend’s time. His story is unique in how he channels personal passions and hackathon skills into systemic change, always aiming to make tech radically accessible. At TurnerHacks 2024, a team with a robot car project built from unconventional parts received help and spare components from fellow teams and sponsors after their project crashed—an embodiment of the hacker community’s generosity. Anirudh, who is an incoming Computer Engineering student (Class of ’30), also excels in competitive policy debate (Model UN) and collects hackathon stickers on his thermos as a conversation starter.
Quick Facts
Anirudh Bharadwaj Vangara, 18
Anirudh Bharadwaj Vangara: The Visionary Young Leader Bridging Hackathons and Systemic Change
Anirudh Bharadwaj Vangara is an exceptionally driven high school hacker, MLH Hackathon Organizer, and community event organizer who is making waves by turning hackathon innovation into real-world social impact. After teaching himself Python from discarded library books, Anirudh became the Founding Chair of TurnerHacks 2025, one of the Peel District's largest municipally-backed high school hackathons. His passion for tech ignited when he realized its potential to solve inequities. Having competed in over a dozen hackathons, he was part of the youngest team to win in two prize tracks at HackTheNorth 2023, where his team’s project—AI-powered smart glasses for visually impaired students—set him on his current path.
Through his nonprofit Younifind, he connects 2,000+ Canadian high school students monthly to tech opportunities, with dedicated outreach to girls, marginalized communities, and underrepresented students. His work with co-founding OutsideConnection as CTO, a platform using AI to provide fair second-chance employment opportunities for formerly incarcerated individuals, has been utilized by the US Supreme Court and supported by Jay-Z's REFORM Alliance. Furthermore, OutsideConnection has impacted over 11,000 people and raised $60,000 in funding. In addition, he is a part-time Student Researcher at UWaterloo's SWAG Lab, focusing on AI safety.
Python is Anirudh’s go-to language for social impact projects, while C++ is his choice for hardware. Using GitHub Copilot, his favorite collaborative tool, he’s been able to fast-track his projects from ideation to fruition within a weekend’s time. His story is unique in how he channels personal passions and hackathon skills into systemic change, always aiming to make tech radically accessible. At TurnerHacks 2024, a team with a robot car project built from unconventional parts received help and spare components from fellow teams and sponsors after their project crashed—an embodiment of the hacker community’s generosity. Anirudh, who is an incoming Computer Engineering student (Class of ’30), also excels in competitive policy debate (Model UN) and collects hackathon stickers on his thermos as a conversation starter.
