Info, Rules, Guidelines

Theme: There will be a theme introduced on the first day of the event. Competitors will brainstorm, develop, and implement their solution for submission based on this theme. More information will be provided in the theme introduction workshop, which begins shortly after the opening ceremony.

Structure: The competition begins on the first day with the opening ceremony, and ends on the second or third day (depends on hackathon) with the presentations and awards. Throughout the competition period, we will offer a multitude of workshops to present content that participants may want to learn for both the hackathon and their personal benefit. Additionally, we will have organizers and mentors ready to help during the hackathon to answer any questions/clarifications that participants may have during the competition period. 

Teams: The team size for the hackathon must be 2-5 total team members, and team members must be all in grades 6-8 or 9-12. Participants have three options for teams when signing up. The first is signing up with a team of 2-5 total members on registration. The second is signing up alone, in which we will find other solo participants to create teams. The third is signing up in a partial team that is not full (2-4 total members), and requesting us to add other partial teams or solo participants to the team.

Submissions: Submissions for hackathons will be made online, before the end of the competition period. Competitors will be submitting their projects to Devpost, where they can add demo videos and written descriptions of their process and solution. Submissions made after the end of the competition period will not be accepted. Each team must submit only one project, accompanied with their written descriptions (in the form of a “README.md” file) and any additional information they would like to include. After the hackathon ends, the projects will be opened to the public, where people can add comments and questions to your project in Devpost.

Presentations: Teams will present their solution to judges for scoring (8 minutes max), followed by a Q&A session (3 minutes max). If a team spends more time on the presentation, their Q&A session will be cut shorter accordingly, and vice versa.

Judging: There will be multiple divisions in which teams are sorted in, typically sorted by grade, skill, and team size. Each submitted project will be presented by their respective teams to the panel of judges for their division. These judges will score the projects, resulting in the final rankings of the division. The judges will grade based on this list of criteria: Innovation, Execution, Practicality, and Presentation.

Prizes: Prizes will be awarded based upon the final rankings in each division from the judges. Within each division, there will be one 1st place prizes, one 2nd place prizes, and one 3rd place prizes. Depending on the specific hackathon, the 1st place team will be awarded $80-100 in gift cards. The 2nd place team will be awarded $60-80 in gift cards. The 3rd place team will be awarded $40-60 in gift cards. Prize money is split evenly across the whole team, unless there are exceptions approved by most of the team and the organizers. We also have numerous other prizes from our sponsors, which are usually worth more than the cash prizes.

Workshops: There will be a few free workshops being offered throughout the competition period, each around one hour long. You may attend as many as you would like, but we highly encourage at least one member from each team to attend the workshop. Some workshops may directly benefit your development of a project, while others may provide you with valuable knowledge about interesting topics. In the end, it is up to you to decide which workshops to attend.

 Any violation of the rules below and/or failure to comply with organizers, staff and volunteers may result in consequences; ranging from temporary punishments to permanent removal from the event and/or not receiving prizes. 

Respect: Communicate, behave, and act appropriately and with respect towards fellow participants, organizers, volunteers, parents, staff, and presenters across all platforms, in-person and online. Do not send spam, inappropriate content, or similar items on messages and emails to all the people of the hackathon. Do not damage, destroy, or vandalize anything inside the building. Do not cheat, sabotage, or impede the hackathon in any way. Please use common sense in your words and actions and communicate with organizers and staff to clarify if you are violating any of these rules.

Safety: Respect the venue, and be considerate of the space and your fellow participants by cleaning up after yourselves, disposing of trash properly, and avoiding any horseplay or disruptive behavior. Treat the space as if it is your own house.

Resources: While we allow the use of AI tools to support your hackathon projects, for example to evaluate ideas or aid research, you may NOT use it to generate code or content for your project. Please be aware that the judges can and will ask technical questions and scrutinize your project material and code to ensure authenticity.