Hacktech 2025 – Realistic Impact, Real-World Change
Date: April 25, 2024, 9:00 PM PST – April 27, 2024, 9:00 AM PST Location: Caltech (Fully In-Person)
Hacktech is Caltech’s premier annual intercollegiate hackathon, bringing together top talent from around the world for 36 hours of creativity, collaboration, and innovation. This year, we are focused on "Realistic Impact"—encouraging participants to develop projects that have feasible real-world applications.
What’s New in 2025?
- Fully in-person with double the space, improved dining, and dedicated work/sleep areas.
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Three focused tracks:
- Healthcare – Innovate in medical tech, accessibility, and biotech.
- Finance/Data Analytics – Develop fintech tools, fraud detection, and predictive modeling solutions.
- Sustainability – Create projects tackling climate change, renewable energy, and eco-friendly solutions.
- World-class speakers including Nobel laureates Kip Thorne, AI pioneer Anima Anandkumar, and more!
- Industry-leading sponsors like OpenAI, Citadel, Github, and DRW Holdings providing mentorship, resources, and prizes.
Whether you’re a seasoned developer or a first-time hacker, Hacktech 2025 is your chance to turn ideas into reality, connect with like-minded innovators, and push the boundaries of technology.
Location: Caltech, Pasadena, CA
Dates: April 25 - 27, 2025
Team Size: 1 - 4 participants
Cost: Free (travel reimbursement available for select participants)
Let’s hack for real-world impact and shape the future, one project at a time.
Requirements
Submission Requirements
To be considered for judging, all projects must:
Align with one of the three tracks: Healthcare, Finance/Data Analytics, or Sustainability.
Be built within the 36-hour hackathon period (April 25 - 27, 2025).
More details to follow!
Please refer to the Hacker Packet for all details https://hack.caltech.edu/hacker-packet.pdf
Prizes
Best use of AI
RTX 5070, 1/team member + 25k OpenAI Credits
Best Finance Project
Keychron V3 Max TKL Wireless Mechanical Keyboard
Best Health Project
4x Apple Watch SE
Best Sustainability Project
4x Voltaic Systems Converter Solar Backpack
Best UI/UX
iPad Air 128GB, 1/team member
Most Creative Tech Stack
Logitech MX Master 3S 1/team member
Wolfram alpha Prize
Wolfram Alpha opportunity and Pro subscription
Dryft Challenge Prize
Best project judged by Dryft
Orkes Conductor Track Prize
Best use of Orkes Conductor
MLH : Best Use of MongoDB Atlas
M5GO IoT Starter Kit
MongoDB Atlas takes the leading modern database and makes it accessible in the cloud! Get started with a $50 credit for students (https://mlh.link/mongodb) or sign up for the Atlas free forever tier, no credit card required (https://mlh.link/mongodb-free). Along with a suite of services and functionalities, you'll have everything you need to manage all of your data, and you can get a headstart with free resources from MongoDB University (https://mlh.link/mongodb-university)! Build a hack using MongoDB Atlas for a chance to win a M5GO IoT Starter Kit for you and each member of your team.
MLH : Best Domain Name from GoDaddy Registry
Digital Gift Cards
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 some amazing prizes!
MLH : Best Use of Auth0
Wireless Headphones
Auth0 wants your applications to be secure! Why spend hours building features like social sign-in, Multi-Factor Authentication, and passwordless log-in when you can enable them through Auth0 straight out of the box? Auth0 is free to try, doesn’t require a credit card, and allows for up to 7,000 free active users and unlimited log-ins. Make your new account today (https://mlh.link/auth0-signup) and use any of the Auth0 APIs (https://mlh.link/auth0-docs) for a chance to win a pair of wireless headphones for you and each member of your team!
MLH : Best Use of Streamlit
Arduino Tiny ML Kit
Want to take your Python skills to the next level? Streamlit (https://mlh.link/streamlit) is an open-source Python library that makes it easy to share and build custom web apps for machine learning, data science, and more. Instead of writing Python scripts without a UI, you can create a beautiful web app, complete with widgets and data visualizations, and deploy it for free to the Streamlit Community Cloud (https://mlh.link/streamlit-deploy). You can even build a fully functional LLM-powered app with just 25 lines of code! Hack with Streamlit this weekend for your chance to win an Arduino Tiny ML Kit for you and each member of your team.
MLH : Best Use of Gemini API
Google Swag
It’s time to push the boundaries of what's possible with AI using Google Gemini. Check out the Gemini API to build AI-powered apps that make your friends say WHOA. So, what can Gemini do for your hackathon project? Understand language like a human and build a chatbot that gives personalized advice Analyze info like a supercomputer and create an app that summarizes complex research papers Generate creative content like code, scripts, music, and more Think of the possibilities… what will you build with the Google Gemini API this weekend?
Vly.ai Prize
4x Lego F1 Cars
Devpost Achievements
Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:
Judges
Rosy Macedo
Caltech
Mike Vorhaus
Caltech
Isaac Garcia Munoz
Caltech
Jamie Robertson
Caltech
Will Heltsley
Caltech
Drew Brower
Caltech
Adam Blank
Caltech
Tom McWilliams
Caltech
Bach-Thuan Bui
Coolant Climate
Somil Gupta
Broccoli AI
Ada Cyborg
Mokshit Jain
Ter Seesillapachai
Aryan Gulati
Rushil Nagarsheth
Dennis Jin
Toby Brown
Sally Ragab
Andrew Herrera
Wolfram
Jeff Bull
Orkes
Jonas Ebrahimi
Judging Criteria
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Criteria TBD
Questions? Email the hackathon manager
Tell your friends
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