WELCOME TO HACKPRINCETON FALL 2023!

At HackPrinceton, you'll meet fellow hackers from around the world, learn new skills, and work alongside seasoned mentors. We'll have free workshops, lecture series, mentorship, prizes, games, and more. Don't have a team or even an idea? Don't worry! We'll give you the tools to build something incredible.

For 36 hours from November 10th to November 12th in-person on Princeton University's campus, you'll have the opportunity to collaborate and build out brilliant, innovative, and impactful ideas.

Our Tracks for this semester's Hackathon: 

Education
These projects increase access to educational resources, facilitate learning in the classroom, or generally make acquiring knowledge a more engaging process. Hacks submitted to this category can range from all-encompassing edtech solutions to projects that bring awareness to a specific topic.

Healthcare
These projects take on public health challenges, combat health disparities, or assist with maintaining personal wellness. Hacks submitted to this category can range from digital archives of public health information to apps that track the fitness data of an individual user.

Environment
These projects use technology to preserve ecological ecosystems or promote sustainable lifestyles. Hacks submitted to this category can range from sweeping solutions to pertinent environmental crises to apps that encourage small sustainable habits.

Community
These projects use technology to aid local communities or foster new ones based on shared identities or interests. Hacks submitted to this category can range from apps designed for wide scale use in large cities to projects that connect members of smaller groups.

Verbwire Track (Bonus Sponsor Track)

We're offering two prize categories for winning teams that implement the Verbwire API on their projects:

(1) Most Innovative Use of Verbwire API - up to $400 total cash across two teams (up to $200 per team). Each team member will be given a $50 Amazon gift card. Max of 4 people ($200) per team.

(2) Creative Use of Verbwire API - $5000 in Premium API Credits, across up to 20 teams. Limit of $250 (Premium API credits) per team.

 

Please also refer to our prizes for other sponsor-related prizes and their requirements!

Requirements

1. You must submit a link to your project's public GitHub repository created between November 10th - November 12th, 2023.

2. You MAY submit an OPTIONAL video demo that does not exceed 2 minutes in length. Remember to leave time to upload your video to YouTube/any other platform and add the link to your video to your Devpost submission. Note: In-person demos will be required on Sunday, see below!

3. Judging will be from 9:30am-11am on Sunday, November 12th. Hackers will be expected to present their finished work in front of the judges during this time period. You must prepare for a presentation explaining/demoing your project to the judges that does not exceed 2 minutes in length, even if you attached a video to your project. Your presentation should clearly indicate the problem your hack attempts to solve and a walkthrough of your hack’s functionality.

Please add your Discord usernames to your submission so we can contact you if you win a prize!

Hackathon Sponsors

Prizes

$23,630 in prizes
Best Overall
1 winner

Each team member (up to 4) will win a Nintendo Switch OLED and MLH winner pins!

Best Beginner Hack
1 winner

Each team member (up to 4) will win a 3Doodler Pen!

Best Education Hack -- Track Prize
1 winner

Each team member (up to 4) will receive a Kindle and MLH winner pins!

NOTE: You can only opt-in to ONE of the track prize categories (education, healthcare, environment, or community).

Best Healthcare Hack -- Track Prize
1 winner

Each team member (up to 4) will receive a Fitbit Luxe and MLH winner pins!

NOTE: You can only opt-in to ONE of the track prize categories (education, healthcare, environment, or community).

Best Environment Hack -- Track Prize
1 winner

Each team member (up to 4) will receive a Phillips GoZero UV Bottle and MLH winner pins!

NOTE: You can only opt-in to ONE of the track prize categories (education, healthcare, environment, or community).

Best Community Hack -- Track Prize
1 winner

Each team member (up to 4) will receive a JBL GO2 Speaker and MLH winner pins!

NOTE: You can only opt-in to ONE of the track prize categories (education, healthcare, environment, or community).

The Nord Award: Best Privacy and Security Hack
1 winner

Each team member receives 1 year-long subscriptions to NordVPN, NordPass, and Incogni!

Sponsored by Nord Industries!

Most Innovative Use of Verbwire API
2 winners

Each team member (up to 4) will receive a $50 Amazon gift card!

*Must use Verbwire API in your hack; sponsored by Verbwire!

Creative Use of Verbwire API
20 winners

$5000 in Premium API credits goes to 20 teams that utilize Verbwire API creatively in their hack!

Sponsored by Verbwire!

The Wolfram Award
6 winners

The Wolfram Award goes to the top 6 teams/individuals!
This award is for a year of Wolfram|One Personal Edition plus a one-year subscription to Wolfram|Alpha Pro for each member on the winning team.

Sponsored by Wolfram!

Best Use of Flow
1 winner

Flow is a public, decentralized, layer-one blockchain designed for creating limitless Web3 apps for mainstream adoption. Flow empowers hackers like you to build decentralized applications and share them with the world. Write safe and readable smart contracts with Cadence and explore the potential of composable, on-chain logic. With SDKs in multiple languages like Javascript, Go, Kotlin, Python, Swift, Unity, you can jump in and start your hack using Flow this weekend for a chance to win $100 USD worth of FLOW token for each member of your team!

Best Domain Name from GoDaddy Registry
1 winner

GoDaddy Registry is giving you everything you need to be the best hacker no matter where you are. Register your domain name with GoDaddy Registry for a chance to win a Hack from Home Kit! Each Kit contains wireless earbuds, blue light glasses, selfie ring light and a pouch for easy transport.

Best Use of Hedera
1 winner

Hedera is a next generation blockchain technology that’s accessible from familiar programming languages like Java and JavaScript. Their goal? To make Web3 development even more accessible to hackers like you! Build a project on Hedera's test network for a chance to win amazing Glorious Modular Compact Mechanical Keyboards for you and your team!

- Build a decentralized application on Hedera using our JavaScript SDK.

- Build applications that never sleep using EVM compatible smart contract service.

- Say goodbye to cumbersome databases and hello to seamless scalability of Hedera Consensus Service. With no need for writing your own APIs your data is securely stored and easily retrieved.

Best Accessibility Hack sponsored by Fidelity
1 winner

At Fidelity, accessibility is viewed as a major key to the success of their business, which is why they are challenging you to come up with innovative ways to make tech more accessible! We want you to use your hacking skills to find and build solutions that put opportunities and resources within reach to all communities. The team with the best accessibility hack will win a Fidelity branded wireless charger for each team member!

Best Use of AI in Education
1 winner

TickTime Pomodoro Timer
Artificial Intelligence (AI) models, such as large language models (LLMs), are transforming how we interact with computers. During this weekend's hackathon, we want you to apply AI towards improving education to produce tools that support the quality, accessibility, and equitability of learning in today's classrooms. You can use AI to address any challenge teachers and students face, such as curriculum planning, question selection, teacher training, content generation, personalized feedback, automated grading and more.

For this challenge, we encourage you to draw on your own educational experiences and propose technical solutions to problems you've regularly encountered as students — after all, you are the best to know where our education system needs improvement. Design impactful and effective AI tools for education for a chance to win a TickTime Pomodoro Timer!

Most Creative Use of Redis Cloud
1 winner

Libre Mini Computer with Redis Stack Server Pre-Installed
Redis Cloud is the easiest way to build and scale real-time applications - Period! It includes Redis Stack, adding indexing, querying, full-text search, JSON, time-series, and probabilistic data structures to the already-rich set of features of Redis.

Redis Stack works with all of your favorite programming languages and can be added to any existing application. It’s the easiest way to build real-time applications that scale and perform.

Show us how you’ve used Redis Cloud in a way that showcases your unique and specific data structure needs and each member of your team could win a personal, portable Redis Stack server IOT hardware unit to keep developing on the go. Find out why Stack Overflow Developers have voted Redis their “most loved and admired” noSQL database for years-running by rolling Redis into your MLH Hackathon project.

Sign up for your free Redis Cloud account, and head over to the MLH jump off page on Redis University for more info and docs links. Enter coupon code MLHFall2023 to claim your Redis Cloud credits and get started for free!

Best Use of Kintone
1 winner

Breadboard IoT Kit
Still not sure what backend to use in your hack? Kintone is a low-code web database that lets you set up your backend in minutes. It's beginner friendly, allowing you to customize your Kintone app using nothing but JavaScript and HTML. If you're interested in IoT, your team can snag a FREE microcontroller by signing up for Kintone and visiting the MLH table. If you use Kintone in your hackathon project, you'll have a chance to win a breadboard IoT kit to power up the hardware hacking for each member of your team!

Most Innovative Startup Idea
1 winner

Google Branded Backpack

Most Innovative Startup Idea

Imagine having the tools, resources, and support you need to turn your idea into reality. With the Google for Startups Cloud Program, you can harness the power of the Google Cloud Platform to supercharge your startup and scale your project faster than ever.

Come up with your next big idea and form a team around it.

Purchase a domain and create an email forward i.e. setup username@business.com to forward to your personal email.

If you do not yet have a Google Cloud Console account, sign up using your @business.com email address.

Apply here using the same email in Step 3 or apply by visiting goo.gle/mlh

Do these three things, and you can get up to $2,000 USD in cloud credits over 2 years, technical training, business support, and Google-wide offers! On top of that, the team with the most innovative idea will win a Google Branded Backpack.

Best Use of Starknet
1 winner

Starknet Care Package

Starknet is a general-purpose network where you can write and deploy your own smart contracts and interact with other contracts just like Ethereum. Build your application around Starknet using Rust or Python for your backend infrastructure, Starknet DSL for smart contract development, and React / JavaScript for your front end user interface. There are several SDKs available for you to choose from, making integrating Starknet into your hackathon project a breeze. Use Starknet in your project this weekend for a chance to win a Starknet care package, including a backpack, socks, water bottle, and a ticket to a Starknet sponsored Web3 conference of your choice!

Devpost Achievements

Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:

Judges

Emmy Song

Emmy Song
Princeton University

Eliam Medina

Eliam Medina
Telora

Nicolaas Kaashoek

Nicolaas Kaashoek
Princeton University

Arjun Lalwani

Arjun Lalwani
Google

Vidya Venkiteswaran

Vidya Venkiteswaran
Google

Deep Manishkumar Dave

Deep Manishkumar Dave
Johnson & Johnson

Felipe Aragão Pires

Felipe Aragão Pires
Fiber (fiber.dev)

Rayan Dabbagh

Rayan Dabbagh
Amazon Web Services

Narayan Mahajan

Narayan Mahajan
IBM

Jay Jung

Jay Jung
Meta

Anandaganesh Balakrishnan

Anandaganesh Balakrishnan
American Water

Louise Wachtmeister

Louise Wachtmeister
FoodIQ

Saloni Thakkar

Saloni Thakkar
Barclays

Weilin Chu

Weilin Chu
Rutgers University

Claire Adair

Claire Adair
TeRenova

Mitesh Mangaonkar

Mitesh Mangaonkar
Airbnb

Xinyue (Coco) Chen

Xinyue (Coco) Chen
Tinder

Maduri Asokan

Maduri Asokan
JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Parul Batra

Parul Batra
neuro42

Judging Criteria

  • Creativity
    How unique is the concept behind the hack? Does it address a problem you didn’t even know existed? Does it address a common problem in a creative way or with an intuitive algorithm? What is this hack’s “ah-ha” moment?
  • Utility
    Does this hack function? If so, how in-depth is its functionality? How likely would you be to frequently use this hack in its current state in your own life?
  • Charity
    Does this hack address a specific societal need? If so, how well does it address it? What contributions does this hack make in the nation’s service and the service of humanity?
  • Avidity
    How excited do the team members seem about the final state of their project? Passion can be demonstrated through their presentation, the project’s description on Devpost, the future plans they have for their hack, or an overall polished program.

Questions? Email the hackathon manager

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