WildHacks is Northwestern's overnight hackathon taking place in-person April 11-12 2026. As Northwestern's largest hackathon, WildHacks is an opportunity for students to learn programming skills and develop a final project in a collaborative and inclusive environment. Through workshops, mentorship, and prizes, WildHacks aims to be an inclusive event that welcomes students of all skill levels, majors, and backgrounds.
Visit https://www.wildhacks.net for more information.
If you're a participant, login at https://dashboard.wildhacks.net/dashboard and see the guide for all of the information you need.
Requirements
All submissions must include all of the following:
- A link to a public GitHub repository containing all of your project's source code.
- A showcase video no longer than 2.5 minutes showcasing your project.
- A written description of your project.
Prizes
Grand Prize - First Place Overall
Amazon Ankerspace Headphones
Grand Prize - Second Place Overall
Polaroid camera
Grand Prize - Third Place Overall
JBL Go 3 - Portable Mini Speaker
Track 1 - Past (Childhood games)
MP3 Player with Bluetooth
Track 2 - Present (Community)
Pickle Ball Set
Track 3 - Future (Data Storytelling)
Mini Projector
Crowd Favorite
Otamatone Japanese Instrument
Appifex AI Sponsor Prize
Appifex Pro + Amazon Gift Card
Claude AI Sponsor Prize
$50 Amazon Gift Card
[MLH] Best Use of Gemini API
Google Swag Kits
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?
[MLH] Best Use of ElevenLabs
Wireless Earbuds
Deploy natural, human-sounding audio with ElevenLabs. Create realistic, dynamic, and emotionally expressive voices for any project, from interactive AI companions to narrated stories and voice-enabled apps. ElevenLabs will empower you to build rich, immersive experiences without the need for actors or complex audio production, using simply the power of AI.
Integrate fully autonomous audio experiences into your hack with ElevenLabs and give your project a voice, along with giving your team the chance to win some wireless earbuds!
[MLH] Best Use of Solana
Ledger Nano S Plus
The world of development is evolving fast and Solana is leading the charge with a network built to handle all of your infrastructure needs. Forget high fees and slow confirmations, it’s time to build applications that are fast, efficient, and scalable.
Harness Solana's core advantages like blazing fast execution and near-zero transaction costs to make your hackathon ideas become real world projects. With Solana, the possibilities are endless.
Create a game, social app, or consumer product that relies on instant, high-frequency transactions.
Design a sophisticated trading, lending, or decentralized exchange (DEX).
Build a prototype for supply chain, identity, or payments that can handle massive, real-world volume.
Show us how you can innovate with Solana for a chance to win some cool prizes for you and each member of your team!
[MLH] Best Use of DigitalOcean
Retro Wireless Mouse
DigitalOcean offers a reliable and easy-to-use cloud platform for every stage of your project. Leverage core services like Droplets, Managed Databases, and App Platform to build, deploy, and scale your application effortlessly. Building with AI? DigitalOcean Gradient™ AI enables you to build, train, and deploy machine learning models, including access to GPU infrastructure and serverless inference!
Sign up for DigitalOcean today and get $200 worth of free credits that you can use towards building your next great hack. Build with DigitalOcean's robust cloud infrastructure for a chance to win some great prizes for you and each of your teammates!
[MLH] Best .Tech Domain Name
Desktop Microphone & a Free .Tech Domain Name for up to 10 years!
Make your Team's Achievements timeless: Win a .Tech Domain Name for up to 10 years to Showcase and Expand Your Project, Plus Desktop Mics for Effortless Collaboration on Zoom, empowering you to build even more cool things together!
Devpost Achievements
Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:
Judges
Saiprasaad Kalyanaraman
Afficiency
Shubham Kulkarni
QVC Group
Manthan Lad
Nidec Mobility America Corporation
Cole Lin
OpenAI
Sanchit Gupta
Intel Corp. / University of Southern California
Devabrat Kumar
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Yuchuan Yu
Microsoft
Venkat Srinidhi Vaddy
Stripe
Arunachalam Rajkumar
Rustoleum Corporation
Subha Ilamathy
Dana Farber Cancer Institute (Harvard University)
Viquar Khan
Amazon AWS
Anant Wairagade
American Express
Ashish Keshri
Salesforce
Abhishek Chandrakant Jadhav
PMflow Corp
Sunil Khemka
IEEE | Persistent Systems Inc.
Amit Baran Roy
Amazon
Andrew Finke
Kellogg
Dominic Damoah
Withgiga AI
Dietrich Geisler
Northwestern University Professor
Shreyas Chate
Red River
Elizaveta Belkina
CoinTracker
Sri Hari Sivashanmugam
City of Chicago
Aayush Sheth
University of Michigan Ann Arbor
Lovleen Kaur
Cisco
Sushmita Gopalan
Mission Lane
Siddhartha Biswas
CVS Health
Cigil Achenkunju
NTT Data Europe
Sandeep Gaddamwar
Verizon
Nabil Alshurafa
Northwestern University Professor
Jeff Chiu
Lendingclub
Shamsher Khan
GlobalLogic Inc
Kesavan Cheneerappa
Salesforce
Rahul Khurana
Kroger
Mageshwaran Subramanian
Delaware North America
Sri Katrue
Medline
Rahul Ravindran
Walmart
Todd Warren
Northwestern University Professor
Yiji Zhang
Northwestern University Professor
Aman Bakshi
Apple
Yurii Tovarnytskyi
Design Engineer RunAnywhere
Shashivrat Pandey
Principal Solution Architect/ CDW
Mykola Maksymenko
U.S. Bank
Artem Basanskyi
U.S. Bank
Leeland Zhang
CEO @ Grassroot Academy
Aayush Kumar
Judging Criteria
-
Technical Complexity (30%)
The hack should be technically impressive for a 24-hour project. They should have code and a functioning demo. Anything from frameworks, APIs, algorithms, & more to interesting languages can add to the technical difficulty of the project. -
Usefulness (30%)
The hack doesn't have to be business-ready but should have the potential to be useful in everyday life. It should also be intuitive and easy to use. -
Originality (20%)
The hack should be unique and interesting. This can range from a new spin on a known idea to completely outlandish ideas. The hack should be something damn cool you've never seen before. -
Design (15%)
The hack should look and work beautifully. The closer it looks and feels to a professional-grade application, the better. -
Presentation (5%)
The demo video should clearly explain the problem statement and the solution presented by the hack. The team must showcase their understanding of how their hack adds to, integrates with, minimizes, or assists an existing or potential problem.
Questions? Email the hackathon manager
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