About the challenge
Hack the Change 2025 is a competitive in-person two-day for-charity hackathon hosted on November 8/9th by Code the Change YYC.
Code The Change YYC is a student-driven community initiative where computer science and engineering students use their skills for social change.
This hackathon is a great opportunity for participants to test themselves under pressure, build their skills in software development, and do something good for the community.
The prize pool this year includes $10000 CAD of winnings split between charities and winning students.
The hackathon is in-person at the University of Calgary campus in Alberta. Throughout the two-day event, students will have the opportunity to build projects centered around a social change theme, listen to relevant talks about software development and social change, and work with qualified industry mentors to spin up their awesome hackathon projects. In the end, students will have the opportunity to showcase their project to judges live to compete for the first-place prize.
We invite students from all backgrounds to compete in this competitive and exciting challenge.
Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are provided!
Get started
Please sign up for the hackathon on our Hackathon Website. You can also utilize this page for hackathon updates, check-ins, and scheduling.
Requirements
What to Build
On the day of the event, a topic prompt will be displayed to all students. As a team, it is your responsibility to build a software project (We will not be accepting Figma projects) around that theme and submit it in ~24 hours.
Your submission MUST have the following:
A 2-5 minute video presentation of your project
A link to your project Github
Please include your Team Name and Team ID as they appear on the Hack the Change website in your submission title.
Format as following : ‘Team ID’-’Team Name’ - ‘Project Name’
Prizes
1st
$2500 in donation dollars, $2200 in cash
2nd
$1400 in donation dollars, $1200 in cash
3rd
$1000 in donation dollars, $1000 in cash
Side Pots
Benevity Side Pot
$100 in donation dollars, $200 in cash
Devpost Achievements
Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:
Judges
Topan Budiman
AWS
Rayhan Khalid
Armin Sandhu
Sahil Sachdeva
RBC
Daniel Dias
RBC
Karam Baroud
ZeroKey
Tyler Mitton
Voltex
Gurjot Grewal
Nokia
Sankar Achary Jankoti
Infosys Limited
Kingsley Zhong
Gopinath Ramanan
Helcim
Sachin Singh
EchoStar
Christian Roatis
Arcurve
Sidrah Abdullah
Vijay Pahuja
Cox Automotive Inc
Matthew Liu
Enbridge
Niloufar Ashayeri
Judging Criteria
-
Innovation & Creativity
Is the idea original or a fresh take on existing solutions? Does it creatively apply technology to urban challenges (e.g., housing, mobility, disaster resilience, inclusivity)? -
Impact & Relevance to Prompt
Does the solution clearly address the challenge? Could it meaningfully improve lives? -
Feasibility & Scalability
Is the solution practical given real constraints (budget, infrastructure, etc.)? Could it scale beyond a demo into a real city/community setting? -
Technical Execution
Quality of the implementation (working prototype, technical depth, stability)? Use of appropriate technology stack. Is the solution technically sound and well-built? -
User Experience & Design
Is the solution intuitive, accessible and user-friendly? Is the solution aesthetically pleasing? Does the design of the product elevate its function and original idea?
Questions? Email the hackathon manager
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