• Be kind and respectful. All hackers must abide by MLH's Code of Conduct.
• Any projects submitted must be started and completed during the duration of Rice Datathon.
• 4 hackers maximum per team (anything less, including 1, is okay but we encourage finding a full team as you can get a lot more done with 4 people!)
• Only submit to Rice Datathon 2026 — projects that submit to other hackathons will be disqualified.
• All code must be uploaded BEFORE the deadline and linked to Rice Datathon — project demos with a working product yet have no code uploaded will be disqualified. The recommend way to upload code is to a PUBLIC Github repository. THIS MUST BE INCLUDED.
• Public frameworks and libraries are allowed, but submitting mostly copied code will result in project disqualification. We run of the 80-20 rule, where AT LEAST 80% of the code must be yours written during this datathon, and AT MOST 20% of your code can be code not written during the datathon.
• Taking code from any open source repository must be attributed.
• Teams and hackers are only eligible to win prizes in one track.
• Everyone is entered into the overall track. All opt in prizes/challenges must be submitted in the opt in section before the judging deadline. After this deadline, there are no guarantees we can accommodate last minute changes.
• There should be no coding or building before 8:00pm on Friday, however you can ideate beforehand with your team!