About the challenge

HackFRee will follow the typical format of hackathons. Students in groups of up to four, are to come up with a project of any type and design a working solution using programming. Our hackathon is open to all levels of experience.

There will be assistants wearing black shirts in order to help you through every part of a hackathon like making and using GitHub, turning in your project, etc.

Get started

1. Find up to three other people to work with and create a team name

2. Think of an ongoing issue that has long-reaching effects on a specific audience. This can be your age group, your community, or people you know. 

3. Using the design thinking framework to design and build a solution to this problem.

Requirements

By 1 PM EST on January 18th, create a submission (which you will later edit to add your hack) that includes:

  • Names of all team members
  • School
  • Team name
  • Table Number

Please leave the other sections blank with some sort of placeholder until you finish them

By 8:30 PM EST on January 18th, resubmit your submission (this can be edited) which includes your project/idea description in order to check in.

All FINAL projects must be re-submitted before 8:30 PM EST on January 18th. For submissions, we need:

  • A short written passage about your project, the inspirations for your project, how your project was built, its features, challenges you ran into, and future plans for your project (max of 100 words each). They can also be bullet points.
  • A Hack that adheres to the scoring rubric and a project uploaded to the Devpost
  • A prepared 2-3 minute presentation/pitch for the judges. 

Hackathon Sponsors

Prizes

$900 in prizes
Hacks of Distinction
6 winners

Seven top teams. Each member will receive: An exclusive invitation to present their projects at the NJ Makers Fair at InfoAge Museum in Wall Township on March 15th.
$50 Amazon Gift Card

Revolutionizing Scholarship Research Award
1 winner

$250 per team

Synergy Award (Best Teamwork)
2 winners

Amazon gift cards ($25 each team member)
Access to the online courses Solving the PM Interview ($125 value each) and Building a Winning PM Resume ($25 value each). ***Product management is a dynamic and rewarding career that requires strong problem-solving, communication, and decision-making skills, making these courses valuable for anyone looking to enhance their ability to manage projects, lead teams, and drive successful outcomes.

Devpost Achievements

Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:

Judges

August, Kit

August, Kit
Stevens Institute of Technology, Bell Labs, IEEE

Ayyagari, Leena

Ayyagari, Leena
Bank of America, Senior Technology Manager at Bank of America

Ayyagari, Sarma

Ayyagari, Sarma
AdvanSix, Chief Information Security Officer & Director, Cybersecurity

Bardipurkar, Sapna

Bardipurkar, Sapna
Novartis Pharmaceutical

Collemi, Lisa

Collemi, Lisa
Collemi Consulting & Advisory Services LLC, Member & COO, Data Analytics & Data Mining

Gorti, Vishwanath

Gorti, Vishwanath
Deutsche Bank, Vice President

Guirgius, Mark

Guirgius, Mark
UBS, Director of Investment Bank Technology

Hiller, Ron

Hiller, Ron
BLX.io

Komnenos, Stephanie

Komnenos, Stephanie
Business Owner, Balloonacy

Liang, Jiebin

Liang, Jiebin
AT&T, Software Engineer

Mittal, Anshul

Mittal, Anshul
Lockheed Martin, Software Engineer

Nguyen, Justin

Nguyen, Justin
Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, Systems Engineer

Judging Criteria

  • Problem Definition
    5: Vague or irrelevant. 10: Clear and relevant. 15: Very clear, important, and compelling.
  • Solution & Innovation
    5: Basic or unoriginal. 10: Innovative but not groundbreaking. 15: Very creative and effectively solves the problem.
  • Functionality
    5: Project is incomplete/does not work, but effort was shown 10: Project works partially, clear progress (for beginners: progress in understanding) 15: Project is mostly/fully functional, (for beginners: strong effort and application of bootcamp)
  • Process & Improvement
    5: Minimal progress or effort in troubleshooting, but worked through challenges. 10: Student showed improvement in skills and project development. 15: Student demonstrated consistent learning/overcame challenges, improved their project significantly.
  • Presentation & Teamwork
    5: Poor presentation or collaboration. 10: Clear presentation and good teamwork. 15: Excellent presentation and strong collaboration.
  • Space Theme Integration
    2 bonus points: The team successfully incorporates the space theme into their project.

Questions? Email the hackathon manager

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Hackathon sponsors

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