WildHacks is Northwestern's overnight hackathon taking place in-person April 5-6 2025. As Northwestern's largest hackathon, WildHacks is an opportunity for students to learn programming skills and develop a final project in a collaborative and inclusive environment. Through workshops, mentorship, and prizes, WildHacks aims to be an inclusive event that welcomes students of all skill levels, majors, and backgrounds.
Visit https://www.wildhacks.net for more information.
If you're a participant, https://guide.wildhacks.net has all the information you'll need.
Requirements
All submissions must include all of the following:
- A link to a public GitHub repository containing all of your project's source code.
- A showcase video no longer than 2.5 minutes showcasing your project.
- A written description of your project.
Prizes
Grand Prize - First Place Overall
Apple Airpods 4
Grand Prize - Second Place Overall
Fuji Film Instax Mini 11 Instant Film Camera
Grand Prize - Third Place Overall
Anker Magnetic portable battery
Track Prize: Agriculture
Uber Eats gift card
Track Prize: Productivity / Wellness
Comfy sweatshirt
Track Prize: Finance
Pickleball set
MLH: Best Use of Gemini API || Google Branded Backpack
It’s time to push the boundaries of what's possible with AI using Google Gemini. Check out the Gemini API to build AI-powered apps that make your friends say WHOA. So, what can Gemini do for your hackathon project?
Understand language like a human and build a chatbot that gives personalized advice
Analyze info like a supercomputer and create an app that summarizes complex research papers
Generate creative content like code, scripts, music, and more
Think of the possibilities… what will you build with the Google Gemini API this weekend?
MLH: 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 or sign up for the Atlas free forever tier (no credit card required). 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! Build a hack using MongoDB Atlas for a chance to win a M5GO IoT Starter Kit for you and each member of your team.
MLH: Best .Tech Domain Name || Blue Snowball Microphone & a Free .Tech Domain Name for up to 10 years!
Make your Team's Achievements timeless: Win a .Tech Domain Name for up to 10 years to Showcase and Expand Your Project, Plus 4 Blue Snowball Mics for Effortless Collaboration on Zoom, empowering you to build even more cool things together!
MLH: Best Use of Auth0 || Wireless Headphones
Auth0 wants your applications to be secure! Why spend hours building features like social sign-in, Multi-Factor Authentication, and passwordless log-in when you can enable them through Auth0 straight out of the box? Auth0 is free to try, doesn’t require a credit card, and allows for up to 7,000 free active users and unlimited log-ins. Make your new account today and use any of the Auth0 APIs for a chance to win a pair of wireless headphones for you and each member of your team!
Devpost Achievements
Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:
Judges
Kedar Kulkarni
Senior DevOps Architect, Apple
Ramakanth Ayalasomayajula
Lead Software Engineer at Capital Vacations
Nagaraju
University of Missouri Kansas City
Mahendra Krishnapatnam
Sanjay Kumar Naik Mood
Director - Solution Management, Data axle
Shailin Saraiya
Roku Inc.
Faiz Gouri
Lead Software Engineer, Microsoft
Sarbani Paul
Bidisha Goswami
The Pokemon Company International
Prashanthi Matam
Senior software engineer
Saptarshi Banerjee
Qihang Zhang
Steve Tarzia
MongoDB
Chuanrui Li
Jeff Chiu
FNU ANUPAMA
Shashank Iyer
Pull Systems
Jiazhao Shi
Amazon.com, inc
Tina Tsung
Kaushal
Rivian Automotive LLC
Nand Vinchhi
Axal (Y Combinator W25)
Can Erdogan
Intuitive Surgical
Dietrich Geisler
Assistant Professor of Instruction
Yiji Zhang
Assistant Professor of Instruction
Trevor Gordon
Software Engineer at Google
Dilan Nair
Apple
Sri Hari Sivashanmugam
Data Scientist / City of Chicago
Tejul Pandit
Sr. Staff Machine Learning Engineer - Palo Alto Networks
Judging Criteria
-
Technical Complexity (30%)
The hack should be technically impressive for a 24-hour project. They should have code and a functioning demo. Anything from frameworks, APIs, algorithms, & more to interesting languages can add to the technical difficulty of the project. -
Usefulness (30%)
The hack doesn't have to be business-ready but should have the potential to be useful in everyday life. It should also be intuitive and easy to use. -
Originality (20%)
The hack should be unique and interesting. This can range from a new spin on a known idea to completely outlandish ideas. The hack should be something damn cool you've never seen before. -
Design (15%)
The hack should look and work beautifully. The closer it looks and feels to a professional-grade application, the better. -
Presentation (5%)
The demo video should clearly explain the problem statement and the solution presented by the hack. The team must showcase their understanding of how their hack adds to, integrates with, minimizes, or assists an existing or potential problem.
Questions? Email the hackathon manager
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