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Hackathon Rules

These are HackUPC Winter 2017 competition rules. They are a customized version of the standard competition rules used at MLH Member Hackathons. If you have a suggestion for these rules or a question about them, please submit an issue here.

The spirit of the competition

Remember that hackathons are like marathons. Some people go to compete but most people take part to better themselves and have fun. Whatever the reason is you're at a hackathon, make sure you're upholding the hacker spirit by collaborating with other teams, helping beginners, and having fun.

The rules of the competition

1. There is no minimum team size, however, the maximum size is 4 people. There will be 1 prize for each member of the team, independently of the team size.
2. Teams should be made up exclusively of students (or recent graduates within one year of having graduated) who are not organizers, judges, sponsors, or in any other privileged position at the event. Volunteers are allowed to participate in their free time, accepting the extra difficulty of hacking and volunteering at the same time, but their role won't give them any judging advantage in front of the rest of participants.
3. All team members should be present at the event. Leaving the venue for some time to hack elsewhere or sleep is fine.
4. Teams can of course gain advice and support from organizers, volunteers, sponsors, and others.
5. All work on a project should be done at the hackathon.
6. Teams can use an idea they had before the event.
7. Teams can work on ideas that have already been done. Hacks do not have to be “innovative”. 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. These days it’s hard to find something that’s fully original and teams might not know an idea has been done before anyway.
8. Teams can work on an idea that they have worked on before (as long as they do not re-use code).
9. 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.
10. 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.
11. Teams must stop hacking once the time is up. However, teams are allowed to debug and make small fixes to their programs after time is up. e.g. If during demoing your hack you find a bug that breaks your application and the fix is only a few lines of code, it's okay to fix that. Making large changes or adding new features is not allowed.
12. Projects that violate the Code of Conduct are not allowed.
13. Teams can be disqualified from the competition at the organizers' discretion. Reasons might include but are not limited to breaking the Competition Rules, breaking the Code of Conduct, or other unsporting behaviour.

Demos

After hacking finishes, teams will show their projects each other and to the judges.

You are strongly encouraged to present a demo of what you have built. Pitches or presentations are discouraged. You are not judged on the quality of your pitch or the quality of your idea. As you are judged on what you built, you'll only hurt yourself by not showing a demo.

You are encouraged to present what you have done even if your hack is broken or you weren’t able to finish. It's okay if you didn't finish your hack—that happens all the time! Completion is only one part of the judging criteria, so you might still do well. Also, demoing is not just about the competition. It's a chance to share with others what you learned and what you tried to build—that's what hacking's all about! For being courageous enough to demo, you'll receive a special MLH "I Demoed" sticker—it doesn't matter how good the demo is! In the case that you don't have anything to demo, you can give a presentation about what you tried and what you learned. Hearing what other people learned is interesting and inspiring for other attendees.

Judging Criteria

Teams will be judged on these four criteria. Judges will weigh the criteria equally. During judging, participants should try to describe what they did for each criterion in their project.

• Technology: How technically impressive was the hack? Was the technical problem the team tackled difficult? Did it use a particularly clever technique or did it use many different components? Did the technology involved make you go "Wow"?
• Design: Did the team put thought into the user experience? How well designed is the interface? For a website, this might be about how beautiful the CSS or graphics are. For a hardware project, it might be more about how good the human-computer interaction is (e.g. is it easy to use or does it use a cool interface?).
• Completion: Does the hack work? Did the team achieve everything they wanted?
• Learning: Did the team stretch themselves? Did they try to learn something new? What kind of projects have they worked on before? If a team which always does virtual reality projects decides to switch up and try doing a mobile app instead, that exploration should be rewarded.

These criteria will guide judges but ultimately judges are free to make decisions based on their gut feeling of which projects are the most impressive and most deserving.

It's important to note that these judging criteria do not include:

• How good your code is. It doesn't matter if your code is messy, or not well commented, or uses inefficient algorithms. Hacking is about playing around, making mistakes, and learning new things. If your code isn't production ready, we're not going to mark you down.
• How well you pitch. Hacking is about building and learning, not about selling.
• How good the idea is. Again, hackathons aren't about coming up with innovative ideas. It's about building and learning.
• How well the project solves a problem. You can build something totally useless and as long as you're learning and having fun, that's a good hack! Sometimes a pointless project is one of the best hacks!

So don't worry about coming up with the next big idea or building the next Facebook. You'll have plenty of time for that outside the hackathon. just focus on learning, having fun, and making new friends. At the end of the day the skills you learn and the friends you make might lead to the next big thing—but you don't have to do that to win a hackathon.

Travel reimbursement

If you have been elected to receive a travel reimbursement, we will contact you after the hackathon to send it to you. You will receive a maximum that has been specified on the email, based on current travelling prices and distances. Requirements to receive travel reimbursement:

• Received an email with travel reimbursement amount.
• Travel reimbursement receipts submitted before the end of HackUPC or before the date specified by the HackUPC Team
• Project submitted to Devpost before the due date

Remember

The competition is just a part of the hackathon. To make the most out of the event, try something new, teach other people, and make new friends!

Happy Hacking from the HackUPC and MLH team!

Hardware List

Live hardware lab availability (number of items available / numbers of items at HackUPC)

FIB API Challenge

Build something with the new FIB API. Find the guide to the challenge here: https://bit.ly/fibapi_guide

Prize

Pioneer headphones

Between Challenge

SmartLocation to save lives.Smartphone with GPS technology can be a very useful tool to save lives in emergency situations. Find a way to help people in need using the geolocation of smartphones. More information on the channel.

Prize

MIXMART Sports Camera 360º

EVERIS Challenge

Help people with Artificial Intelligence. Develop a project using Everis Cognitive API: EverisMoriarty.

Prize

Chromecast

Esri Challenge

Create an application that uses Esri’s Technology that improve Blablarcar search algorithm. Check the available guide here:http://bit.ly/hupc_esrichallenge.

Prize

Mini drone

Scalingo Challenge

Coolest hack hosted on Scalingo

Prizes

Nerf guns, Credit to host your future projects, Scalingo swag

Signaturit Challenge

Best use of Signaturit API

Prize

Raspberry Pi 3

Bloomberg prize

Bloomberg's favourite hack. Also includes a HackerRank competition hr.gs/hackupc2017

Prize

A.R. Drone 2.0

Shapeways Prize

Best 3D printing hack

Prize

25€ on shapeways

Best .Tech domain

Best use of .tech domains

Prize

50$ Amazon Gift Card

Best Domain.com domain

Best domain by Domain.com

Prize

Domain.com Swagbag

Best AWS use

Best use of AWS

Prize

1 TB Portable Hard Drive

HackHarassment prize

Best Hack against Online Harassment

Prize

A HackHarassment hard drive

When shall I arrive?

Registration will start at 3 PM on Friday. The opening ceremony is at 7 PM.

When is HackUPC ending?

The closing ceremony is expected to end on Sunday 5th at 5:00 PM.

What if I cannot make it in time?

No problem. Just come to our InfoDesk for a late check-in. If you are confused, please reach out to any volunteer (red t-shirts) or organizer (gray t-shirts).

I'm not in Slack, how do I get in?

Come to the InfoDesk during the event or send us an email to contact@hackupc.com

Can I leave HackUPC?

Yes. However make sure you have your wristband with you, otherwise we might not let you in when you come back.

Can I sleep now?

Yes, sure. You can find the sleeping spaces in A6 2nd floor. Some matresses will be provided. Unfortunately, we don't have enough for everyone!

Something isn’t working!

If something is not working, please come to our InfoDesk and meet our awesome volunteers. They'll love to help you!

Deadline for project submissions?

The deadline for project submissions is Sunday 5th 9:30 AM. Submit your projects here.

How does judging work?

We will have a judging expo on Sunday from 10:30am-12:30pm. Feel free to wander around and check out other projects, but make sure that at least one of your team members is at your table ready to present to the judges. The top teams will move on to an additional round of panel judging in the Closing ceremony.

When will I get my travel reimbursement?

The processing of travel reimbursements takes some time. Our schedule depends on our sponsors' schedule. We expect to have them sent out in a 1 - 2 months time period. Also, remember that you need to post a project before the deadline in order to get the reimbursement.

I have another question... Biene?

If you have any other questions and you can't find it here, make sure to pay us a visit at our InfoDesk.