The Hackathon Spirit

The goal of any hackathon is to encourage participants to learn, build, and share.

 

  • Learn

    • Learn new things.

    • Step outside of your comfort zone.

    • Experiment and make mistakes.

    • Don’t be afraid to ask for help from fellow hackers, mentors, or organizers

  • Build

    • Build cool stuff.

    • If you’re not able to finish your project by the deadline, that’s totally fine.

  • Share

    • Communicate with fellow hackers and teams.

    • Collaborate with others and help each other out.

Competition Rules

  • Only current undergraduate students are eligible to participate in the competition as hackers.

  • Teams are limited to a minimum of one person and a maximum of four people.

  • Every team is eligible to submit exactly one project to only one of the four development tracks (Cybersecurity, Entertainment, Healthcare, Sustainability).

  • All team members must be present during event check-in, judging, and the awards ceremony. Leaving the venue during the event to work elsewhere is fine.

  • Teams are encouraged to receive feedback and support from fellow hackers, mentors, and organizers.

  • All project work must be done within the 48-hour hacking period (5pm on April 3, 2026 to 5pm on April 5, 2026). Teams can use an idea they had before the event.

  • Teams can work on ideas that have already been done. If somebody wants to work on a common idea they should be allowed to do so and should be judged on the quality of their hack.

  • Teams can work on an idea that they have worked on before (as long as they do not reuse any code).

  • Teams can use libraries, frameworks, or open-source code in their projects. Working on a project before the event and open-sourcing it for the sole purpose of using the code during the event is against the spirit of the rules and is not allowed.

  • Adding new features to existing projects is allowed. Judges will only consider new functionality introduced or new features added during the hackathon in determining the winners.

  • Teams can be disqualified from the competition at the organizers’ discretion. Reasons might include but are not limited to violating one or more of the above competition rules.