SparkHacks is all about bringing the emotion of a hackathon to UIC along with getting students to think beyond the traditional classroom to build their technical skills for the real world! We want everyone to learn quick, break a lot of things along the way but most importantly build something without the crutch of an autograder or a project description document.
Requirements
What to Build :
You Project must be something that tackles one of our different tracks and problem statements. It should be a unique idea that you only started building during the duration of the hackathon.
What to Submit :
- [ ] Project/Team name and a list of ALL team members
- [ ] A description of what your project does and why you decided to build it + other questions
- [ ] Demo video - should be around 1-2 minutes long (MAX 2 minutes)
- Code track:
- include a demo of your working project
- Public GitHub code repository which includes:
- Meaningful README
- Instructions how to run the service(s) and/or application(s)
- No code track:
- Screen-recorded video of a Figma wireframe, including a demo of your working project.
- FigJam Recipe Card for Design Thinking - more details + template when track is released
- [ ] Link to GitHub repo (code track) or Figma Prototype + Recipe Card (no code track)
- Code track:
Prizes
Sony Headphones
Sustainable Innovation Track (John Deere) - 1st Prize
Ninja Blender
Sustainable Innovation Track (John Deere) - 2nd Prize
Vankyo Leisure Projector
DiscoverTech Track (Discover) - 1st Prize
LEGO Art Hokusai
DiscoverTech Track (Discover) - 2nd Prize
FANGOR HD Projector
Health Track (Sponsored by CAT) - 1st Prize
Mechanical Keyboard
Health Track - 2nd Prize
Portable Monitor
Empowerment Track - 1st Prize
JBL Earbuds
Empowerment Track - 2nd Prize
4k Action Camera
No-Code Track
JBL Go3 Speaker
Crowd Favorite
Devpost Achievements
Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:
Judges
Adam Koehler
Clinical Assistant Professor: Department at UIC
Chris Kanich
Associate Professor & Director of Undergraduate Studies: Department of Computer Science at UIC
Shanon Reckinger
Clinical Associate Professor: Department of Computer Science at UIC
Boris Glavic
Associate Professor: Department ofComputer Science at UIC
Evan McCarty
Lecturer: Department of Computer Science
Zach Pratt
Principle Engineer, John Deere
Niket Patel
Senior Staff Software Engineer, John Deere
Anitha Yeddula
Discover
Lalita Constantine
Abbvie
Heather Ramos
John Deere
Shwetasree Chowdhury
Data Analytics, Discover
Jenna Byron
CAT
Zoa Katok
Jessica White
Discover
Andrew Duckett
Josh Carrington
Chinmay Tarwate
Judging Criteria
-
Innovation
Uniqueness and innovation of the idea, relevance to the track chosen. -
Technical Implementation (for code ONLY)
Quality, reliability and functionality of the implementation, including use of advanced technologies. -
Ideation (no code ONLY)
Clarity, coherence, and thoroughness of concepts, evaluating how well defined the idea is, including potential challenges and implementation plan. -
Potential Impact
Potential benefits for society, scalability, and marketability of the solution. -
Creativity
Creativity in the project. Including project design, presentation and overall execution. -
Presentation
What does your demo look like at the Expo? How well did you work together? -
Bonus
Incorporating the space theme into your project (a tiny bonus so don’t dwell on this) ✨
Questions? Email the hackathon manager
Tell your friends
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