About the challenge
OwlHacks, Temple University's premier student-led hackathon, is back for its sixth year! Making its debut in 2019, OwlHacks has seen incredible projects, attracted a strong turnout, and received immense support from our sponsors and university. OwlHacks 2024 is expected to surpass all expectations! Whether you're a freshman or senior, undergraduate or graduate, we look forward to seeing everyone take part in this remarkable event!
Get started
Register Here!
Registration closes on October 4th, 2024!
Requirements
What to Build
Tracks are goals that will help you focus your project when it comes time to create. You will be able to select the track you wish to submit your project to.
Around the World Tracks for 2024
1. Smart Health
The recent Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of good health. How can we design technology that promotes healthy lifestyles and improves accessibility?
2. Urban Tech
With new technology constantly arising, living environments can rapidly change. Can we make technology that can help cities improve safety, sustainability, efficiency, and more?
3. Inclusive Education
How can we use technology to promote equality for all students?
4. Philly Special
Are you a fan of Philadelphia's rich historic culture? Do you want to find the best cheesesteaks? This track is for hackers to get creative and make anything Philly related!
5. BONUS: Finance ML Challenge
For the first time ever, we will be hosting a machine learning challenge related to finance as part of our hackathon. This challenge aims to bring together data scientists, finance and software engineer to tackle real-world financial problems using cutting-edge machine-learning techniques.
How to Submit
Here is a guide on how to submit a project:
Prizes
Best Inclusive Education
MLH Winner Pin
Gift Card
Best Smart Cities
MLH Winner Pin
Gift Card
Best Accessible Healthcare
MLH Winner Pin
Gift Card
Best Philly Special
MLH Winner Pin
Gift Card
Best Strategic Trading
MLH Winner Pin
Gift Card
Best Beginner Hack
Gift Card
Best Use of MongoDB Atlas - M5GO IoT Starter Kit (MLH)
MongoDB Atlas takes the leading modern database and makes it accessible in the cloud! Get started with a $50 credit for students or sign up for the Atlas free forever tier (no credit card required). 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! Build a hack using MongoDB Atlas for a chance to win a M5GO IoT Starter Kit for you and each member of your team.
Best Use of Streamlit - Arduino Tiny ML Kit (MLH)
Want to take your Python skills to the next level? 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. 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.
Best AI Project with Databricks Open Source - Assorted Lego Sets (MLH)
Databricks is an open analytics platform that helps you build, deploy, and maintain large scale data & AI solutions! Whether you’re working with large language models using Mosaic AI, storing data with Databricks Data Lakes, or deploying GenAI powered applications using MLflow, Databricks Open Source software has the tools you need to make your hackathon project state of the art.
Build an AI powered project utilizing Databricks Open Source projects like the ones mentioned, or Databricks friendly Open Source projects like LanceDB and Llama Index, for a chance to win some amazing prizes for you and your teammates!
Most Creative Adobe Express Add-On - Wacom Wireless Drawing Tablet & JBL Go3 Speaker (MLH)
Adobe Express is an AI-first, all-in-one content creation app that makes it fast, easy and fun to design and share videos, images, PDFs, flyers, TikToks, logos and more. Best of all, it’s free to get started.
Add-ons in Adobe Express are simply extensions and integrations that are built upon very powerful APIs. These APIs provide access to the user’s document, connections to third-party tools, and so much more. You can extend the functionality of Adobe Express using add-ons to unlock new capabilities and workflows. Check out these add-ons to see what other cool ideas developers have implemented!
For this hackathon, we want you to build a creative add-on for Adobe Express. Users are looking for add-ons that involve assets like stickers or icons, work with presentations and data visualization, and work in roles like marketing and e-commerce. Build an Adobe Express add-on this weekend for a chance to win a Wacom Wireless Drawing Tablet and JBL Go3 Speaker for you and each member of your team!
*You can also submit to this prize category if you have a prototype idea for an add-on or have a partially completed add-on. As long as you’ve built with Adobe Express, we want to see your hack!
Best Use of Terraform - Hashicorp Swag Bag (MLH)
HashiCorp Terraform is a source available infrastructure as code (IaC) tool that makes building, deploying, and managing your projects even easier! Whether you’re working in the cloud or using local resources, Terraform can make managing and configuring your application simple and organized. From deploying Machine Learning models to spinning up virtual containers for your web applications, Terraform supports a wide array of cloud providers and services, taking the guesswork out of your next hackathon project. Dive into the documentation and discover all the ways Terraform can take the way you hack to the next level!
Terraform’s community edition is free to use with no credit card required! Utilize Terraform in your hackathon project this weekend for a chance to win some awesome Hashicorp swag for you and each of your teammates!
Best Use of Defang - Touch Screen IoT Sensor (MLH)
Defang is a radically simpler way to Develop, Deploy, and Debug hackathon projects, letting you go from idea to a cloud-deployed application in less than 5 minutes! Build your project in any language, deploy to the cloud with a single command and iterate seamlessly. The Defang CLI is compatible with Linux, MacOS, and Windows, making it a great solution regardless of your operating system.
Download it today for free and save countless stress-filled hours of trying to get your application up and running on the cloud. Use Defang in your project this weekend and you’ll also qualify to win a Touch Screen IoT Sensor for you and each of your team members!
Devpost Achievements
Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:
Judges
Emily Thyrum
Alex Pang
Stephen MacNeil
Aidan Ouckama
Claire Vania
Kevanch Peltek
Judging Criteria
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Functionality and Feasibility
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Technical Difficulty
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Design and User Experience
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Concept and Originality
Questions? Email the hackathon manager
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