A hackathon is an event, typically lasting several days, in which a large number of people meet to engage in collaborative computer programming.
- Building a developer community within campus.
- Create a hackathon (tech events) culture at USIU.
- Mentor younger hackers; mentor/ mentee program.
- Build teams/ team building: Get attendees to work with others they may not regularly work with.
- Creative output: Give everyone the opportunity to get away from their desks and daily tasks to squeeze out their creative juices.
- Product development: Create working products or services.
- A shirt :)
- Snacks and Drinks throughout the event.
- You get to meet other developers and techies.
- Be part of building a new community.
- Swag from our awesome Sponsors.
- And lots of other perks/ gifts :D
No. We can try to help you find one at the event.
Because you want to: Hone your skills, connect with other developers that are passionate about building good software, learn about tools and new dev patterns, demonstrate your skills... and have a chance at wining cool prizes!
Relax. In the programming world, hacker means: "A person who enjoys exploring the details of programmable systems and stretching their capabilities, as opposed to most users, who prefer to learn only the minimum necessary.
- Coding must take place during designated programming hours. No outside work allowed.
- Each team gets 5 minutes to present their project.
- Each project must be solving a problem identified in any area.
- Bring your own device (BYOD) laptop, tablet, testing device.
- We encourage teams to be composed of two to five people - you need a good reason to work alone (optional).
- If and when voting occurs, each team must cast votes for ANOTHER team. No self-voting allowed! (for the audience choice award).
- Upon judging, no complaints can be made whatsoever: their choice is final.There will however be an audience choice award.
- Participation awards - recognition on the IT club website for respective teams.
- No running torrents within the network or unnecessarily deteriorating the network.
- For those running hacking demos, be sure to get permission before penetrating a system or setup a virtual environment for your tests.
- Short demo and presentation, 5 slides max, 5 mins max. Sharpen that elevator pitch.
- No running torrents within the network or unnecessarily deteriorating the network (Looking at you IDM users!).
- Have a modest goal; a simple concept or app to build. Do one thing and do it well, concentrate on building a prototype, not a finished product! Build something simple; a finished product is better than one that can't compile.
- Get enough rest, stay hydrated and just relax. Relax, take it easy, have fun! - Mika
- Set your tools - sublime-text, Netbeans, Jetbrains, VIM, Emacs ... etc your compilers and get your coding mojo.
- Clean your comp, fine tune it - just get it working.
Unfortunately, we can’t allow you to participate in the event or be on site during hacking. If you’re looking to mentor (i.e. someone with technical skills who’d be willing to help out participants during the weekend), you should reach out to us at [email protected]. Otherwise, you can see the finished products at the demos(see the schedule below).
Not really, the hackathon is open to techies and enthusiasts alike (programmers, devs).
- School of Science Building - LT3.
The room has all the tools for a successful hackathon, reliable WiFi, microphone, speakers - sockets.
Students who are:
- Hackers and ideaters alike
- Techies
- Tech Enthusiasts
- Pitch your idea to the attendees.
- Pitching takes 3 mins max - no slides, no powerpoint!
- Get to know members and form teams.
- If you don't have a team, listen to the pitches and join a team with a problem solving idea that interested you.
- Need help with your elevator pitch? Scott
Everybody will be called back to the back into the main room, and the teams will get ready to show off their work.
- Each team will receive between three and five minutes to describe their problem, how they intend to solve it, and demo what they come up with. It’s a hard limit, and teams will be cut off if they go over the stipulated time.
- Q&A's are allowed after each teams presentation (or only allow the judges to ask questions if the time available is not be adequate)
Keep things moving: Part of the competition is being able to concisely describe what you did.
With such an appealing grand prize on the line, we want to make sure that the judging criteria is as transparent and fair as possible. Given the time constraints and available resources, teams are not required to have a fully functioning demo of their product. Instead, everyone is given the breakdown of exactly what the scoring sheet will look like, so that they plan their presentations accordingly:
- Does this product identify a real need, demand, or problem?
- Does this product solve the identified need, demand, or problem?
- Does the team identify clear customer segment(s)?
- Does the team present the Unique Value Proposition(s) clearly and effectively?
- Does the team effectively use channels to acquire new users and customers?
- Does the team present a strategy for customer relationships and retention?
- Overall, does the team thoroughly and persuasively present the product/service?
- Is this idea a creative or new solution to a need or problem?
- Does the product innovate on AT LEAST ONE of the following? (a) features (b) design (c) user interactions (d) technical solutions
- Is it possible to create a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) within 3 months?
- Is it a stand alone product that can be built with our own resources? Or does it require other contributing partners to complete the product?
- Did each team member participate?
- Does the team clearly demonstrate each member’s roles and responsibilities (R&R)?
Feedback? - collection of feedback from the attendees. (just before the judges announce the winning team)
- On a scale of 1 to 10, how much did you enjoy the USIU hackathon?
- Would you like to participate in another USIU hackathon in the future?
- Is there anything you didn’t like about the USIU hackathon?
- Is there anything you liked about the USIU hackathon?
- What would you like to improve about the USIU hackathon in the future?
- How many teams had finished products?
- Demographics of attendees? (age, country, gender)
- Attendee satisfaction?
After the event, we will follow up with an email to all attendees thanking them for their attendance. We will provide information about follow-up events that might occur, such as future hackathons and meet-ups.
The hackathon should last just under 10 hours. Not a lot of time, admittedly, but having a tighter deadline will make teams much more productive!
- 9:00 AM: Hackathon Kick-off!
- 9:00 – 9:20 AM: Idea Pitches
- 9:30 – 9.50 AM: Team selection and announcements
- 10:00 – 11:30 AM: Start hacking!
- 11:30 – 11:50 AM: Snacking!
- 12:00 – Teams continue hacking
- 1:00 – 1:30 PM: Lunch
- 1:40 – 5:30 PM: Teams continue hacking - with teams snacking at will
- 5:40 PM: Hand in final presentations
- 5:50 – 7:00 PM: Team presentations
- 7:00 – 7:20 PM: Scoring period - Judges break off to make objective/ subjective rulings
- 7:30 - 7:40 PM: Announce winning team and MVPs
- 7:40 PM: Team bonding