Join 350 hackers at NewHacks to transform your ideas into reality! In this 24-hour event, you and your team will build a project from scratch. Afterwards, you will present your project to a panel of industry judges to compete for prizes. This year's themes are Video Games, Cybersecurity, and Tech for Natural Disasters!
Our hackathon is designed for anyone to participate, regardless of whether or not you have a technical background. To help facilitate your learning experience, we will host workshops throughout the event featuring speakers from some of the top companies in the industry. This hackathon will be in person at the University of Toronto!
To help facilitate your learning experience, we will host online workshops throughout the event featuring speakers from some of the top companies in the industry. We can't wait to see your creations!
Requirements
All work on a project should be done at the hackathon and solely for NewHacks. We will verify it by your git repository.
The following ideas pertain to the requirements of the teams
- Teams can use an idea (but can not use materials-code from previous hackathons) they had before the event. Teams can work on an idea that they have worked on before (as long as they do not re-use code).
- 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.
Devpost Requirements:
In order to submit your project, you must submit the following items through Devpost:
- Project Name
- Team Member Names
- A short description of your design
It is always good to link it to your Devpost project in case other groups want to check it out. Please ensure that you select all of the prize categories that you wish to be considered for!
Prizes
1st Place Overall
Win first place overall and get Apple Airpods 3rd Gen for your entire team!
2nd Place Overall
Win second place overall and get robot vacuums for your entire team!
3rd Place Overall
Win third place overall and win power banks for your entire team!
Theme Prize: Video Games
Win best Video Game hack and get Hyper X - Microphone for your entire team!
Theme Prize: Natural Disaster Tech
Win best Natural Diaster hack and get a JBL Flip Essential 2 for your entire team!
Theme Prize: Cybersecurity
Win best Cybersecurity hack and get an Owl Echo Dot for your entire team!
Theme Prize: Gen AI in Telecom - TELUS Theme
Win the best Gen AI in Telecom and get a black stainless steel tumbler, a TELUS critter, and a $200 Visa gift card for your entire team!
Best Use of MongoDB Atlas
M5GO IoT Starter Kit
MongoDB Atlas takes the leading modern database and makes it accessible in the cloud! Get started with a $50 credit for students (https://mlh.link/mongodb) or sign up for the Atlas free forever tier, no credit card required (https://mlh.link/mongodb-free). Along with a suite of services and functionalities, you'll have everything you need to manage all of your data, and you can get a headstart with free resources from MongoDB University (https://mlh.link/mongodb-university)! Build a hack using MongoDB Atlas for a chance to win a M5GO IoT Starter Kit for you and each member of your team.
Best Domain Name from GoDaddy Registry
Hack from Home Kit
GoDaddy Registry is giving you everything you need to be the best hacker no matter where you are. Register your domain name with GoDaddy Registry for a chance to win a Hack from Home Kit! Each Kit contains wireless earbuds, blue light glasses, selfie ring light and a pouch for easy transport.
Best AI Project with Databricks Open Source
Assorted Lego Sets
Databricks is an open analytics platform that helps you build, deploy, and maintain large scale data & AI solutions! Whether you’re working with large language models using Mosaic AI (https://mlh.link/databricks-mosaicai), storing data with Databricks Data Lakes (https://mlh.link/databricks-datalakes), or deploying GenAI powered applications using MLflow (https://mlh.link/databricks-mlflow), Databricks Open Source software has the tools you need to make your hackathon project state of the art.
Build an AI powered project utilizing Databricks Open Source projects like the ones mentioned, or Databricks friendly Open Source projects like LanceDB and Llama Index, for a chance to win some amazing prizes for you and your teammates! Check out the following link to see all qualifying Databricks' Open Source technologies (https://mlh.link/databricks).
Most Creative Adobe Express Add-On
Wacom Wireless Drawing Tablet & JBL Go3 Speaker
Adobe Express (https://mlh.link/adobe-xp) is an AI-first, all-in-one content creation app that makes it fast, easy and fun to design and share videos, images, PDFs, flyers, TikToks, logos and more. Best of all, it’s free to get started.
Add-ons in Adobe Express (https://mlh.link/adobe-xp-addons) are simply extensions and integrations that are built upon very powerful APIs. These APIs provide access to the user’s document, connections to third-party tools, and so much more. You can extend the functionality of Adobe Express using add-ons to unlock new capabilities and workflows. Check out these add-ons (https://mlh.link/adobe-xp-inspo) to see what other cool ideas developers have implemented!
For this hackathon, we want you to build a creative add-on for Adobe Express. Users are looking for add-ons that involve assets like stickers or icons, work with presentations and data visualization, and work in roles like marketing and e-commerce. Build an Adobe Express add-on (https://mlh.link/adobe-xp-tutorial) this weekend for a chance to win a Wacom Wireless Drawing Tablet and JBL Go3 Speaker for you and each member of your team!
*You can also submit to this prize category if you have a prototype idea for an add-on or have a partially completed add-on. As long as you’ve built with Adobe Express, we want to see your hack!
Sauce Labs Hot Sauce Raffle
Sauce Labs Swag Bag
Sauce Labs (https://mlh.link/saucelabs-docs) empowers you to develop, test, and deliver top-tier web and mobile apps quickly and efficiently. Their unified platform makes automated testing and error monitoring easy to do, enabling you to save time building your hackathon project! Let Sauce Labs help resolve any issues with your code so you can get back to building an award winning hack. Make sure your project is hackathon-tested by signing up for a Sauce Labs account!
To spice things up even more, we're running the Sauce Labs Hot Sauce naming raffle and selecting up to 4 individual winners at this event. To qualify come up with a cool hot sauce name and submit it to the Sauce Labs raffle form (https://hackp.ac/saucelabs-rafflesubmission-form) for a chance to win some awesome swag including a backpack, beanie, and a bottle of Sauce Labs hot sauce!
Best Use of Terraform
Hashicorp Swag Bag
HashiCorp Terraform is a source available infrastructure as code (IaC) tool that makes building, deploying, and managing your projects even easier! Whether you’re working in the cloud or using local resources, Terraform can make managing and configuring your application simple and organized. From deploying Machine Learning models to spinning up virtual containers for your web applications, Terraform supports a wide array of cloud providers and services, taking the guesswork out of your next hackathon project. Dive into the documentation (https://mlh.link/terraform-docs) and discover all the ways Terraform can take the way you hack to the next level!
Terraform’s community edition (https://mlh.link/hashicorp-signup) is free to use with no credit card required! Utilize Terraform in your hackathon project this weekend for a chance to win wireless keyboards for you and each of your teammates!
Devpost Achievements
Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:
Judges
IEEE UofT
UofT Alumni
Jeff Li
Telus
Daniel Freiji
Telus
Ali Tizghadam
Telus
Muhammad Shakeel
Telus
Doug Cannell
Telus
Sean Victory
MLH
Emily Mamcarz
Co-President of UofT Cybersecurity Student Association
Charlotte Fritz
Co-President of UofT Cybersecurity Student Association
Micheal Gerzhoy
UofT Computer Science Professor
Madeline Ahn
Vice President of UofT Cybersecurity Student Association
Judging Criteria
-
Idea Originality
Novel idea/innovation. No other team has an idea similar and this idea does not exist elsewhere already. -
Technical Complexity
The project demonstrates high technical complexity that is appropriate for a beginner. The team effectively implements challenging features using advanced methods or technologies, showing strong problem-solving skills and a deep understanding of concepts. -
Working Demo
Demo runs perfectly, no errors appear when attempting to demo, the demo matches the expected output based on the idea and features discussed. -
Presentation
The team is well-prepared, demonstrates outstanding presentation skills. All members contribute confidently, clearly, and enthusiastically. The presentation covers the purpose, main idea, and functionality, including details like future plans or benefits.
Questions? Email the hackathon manager
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