About the challenge
HackCMU is Carnegie Mellon's biggest fall semester hackathon bringing together hundreds of undergrad students from across campus come together to make something awesome — like an app, website or hardware hack. Students develop a project in groups of up to 4, and present a pitch to our board members and sponsors.
Schedule
Visit https://www.acmatcmu.com/hackcmu2025/ to see schedule updates.
Requirements
When: You should submit your project by Saturday 4 pm and your demo booth should be set up by 4 PM for expo.
Where: Simmons Auditorium (Tepper)
What: A 3-minute pitch, 1 minute Q&A
Who: Sponsors, Peers, & HackCMU organizers
Why: Prizes, food, people, & raffles!
Some FAQ for Project Submission:
What am I submitting at 4pm?
The 4pm deadline is just for securing your place in the project expo, declaring your project's tracks/categories, giving a small description of your project, and linking to your project's GitHub. You do not need to stop coding at 4pm!
Then when do I stop coding?
You must stop coding prior to your judging timeslot between 4-6pm. Your judging timeslot will be sent via Discord and Email prior to the Expo.
What am I presenting to the judges?
The judges are looking for a 3-minute pitch of your project, and no longer than that. Showcase your technical expertise, creativity, and innovation with a concise and comprehensive presentation of your work!
What happens after the judging?
From 4-6pm you'll be in the Expo, where you get a chance to see all the amazing projects everyone has made! Your job is to go around looking at all the projects and vote on whichever one deserves to win the People's Choice Award.
When do we learn who won?
We unveil the winners during the Closing Ceremony at 7pm in Simmons Auditorium! We have tons of awesome prizes, categories, and sponsor opportunities this year, so make sure you don't miss it
Prizes
Grand Prize
Philips Monitors
Best AI Hack
$2500 Claude API Credits
Devpost Achievements
Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:
Judges
ACM@CMU
ACM@CMU - Carnegie Mellon's ACM University Chapter
Judging Criteria
-
Originality
Entirely novel. A fresh approach to a problem. -
Technical Difficulty
Real technical challenges. vs ChatGPT wrapper. -
Demo Quality
Clear, understandable, and under 3 minutes. -
Usefulness
Practical and fulfills a real need. -
Relevance (Track only)
How related the project idea is to the track it applied to.
Questions? Email the hackathon manager
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