Welcome to Rice University's 15th annual fall hackathon!

Join us to build and show off awesome projects, collaborate with other hackers, participate in technical workshops, and network with industry-leading companies!

Check out our website at hackrice.com. Note: you must apply through our website in order to participate.

Requirements

Devpost Submission

Whenever you are providing "Additional info" about your project, you will get to the "Sponsor / Special Prizes" section. Here, you MUST CHOOSE AT MOST 1 TRACK, yet you can choose MULTIPLE CHALLENGES.

Prior to the Devpost submission deadline (Sunday, 9/21, 9:00 am), submit a 3-4 minute video to Devpost. We have included a recommended outline for your video submission.

  1. Intro - 30 seconds 
    1. Project name, members, track/challenge, project purpose, technologies used
  2. Demo - 2 minutes
    1. Let’s see your project in action!
  3. Technical design and implementation - 30 seconds
    1. High-level overview of how you designed your code
  4. Impact - 30 seconds
    1. The real-world value of your project; how you’d improve it in the future

Hackathon Sponsors

Prizes

$10,200+ in prizes
+ other prizes
Top Overall Project: First Place
1 winner

Meta RayBans

Top Overall Project: Second Place
1 winner

DJI Neo, Mini Drone with 4K UHD Camera

Top Overall Project: Third Place
1 winner

Lego Ferrari SF-24 F1 Car

Social Impact Track
$200 in cash
1 winner

Healthcare Track
1 winner

WERHY Electric Scooter

Productivity and Education Track
1 winner

$100 DoorDash + $100 Amazon gift card set

Finance & Entrepreneurship Track
1 winner

Sceptre New Curved 24 inch Gaming Monitor 100Hz 2X HDMI AND EPOMAKER TH99 Tri-Mode Wireless Mechanical Keyboard

Best Use of MongoDB Atlas
1 winner

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.

Best Use of Auth0
1 winner

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!

Best Use of Gemini API
1 winner

Google Swag

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?

Best AI Application Built with Cloudflare
1 winner

Arduino Kit

Cloudflare is one of the world’s largest networks enabling hackers like you to build, deploy, and deliver trusted applications, no matter where you are! With Cloudflare, you’ll have all the building blocks to create a full-stack application; from C3 (create Cloudflare command line) instance deployment to object storage. You can even run GenAI (LLMs, text to image, Voice to text etc..) in the cloud and leverage your AI functionality via API requests using Cloudlfare’s Workers AI! Enjoy Cloudflare’s generous free tier to get started at no cost! This weekend, we want you to build an AI Application utilizing Cloudflare’s numerous services for a chance to win Arduino Kits for you and your team!

[TOTAL CASH VALUE OF PRIZES] - don't opt-in
$10,000 in cash
1 winner

Commure Healthcare Challenge
2 winners

Apple Watch SEs

Build solutions that improve the way we deliver, access, or experience care. Projects can tackle any area of healthcare—from empowering patients and providers with better tools, to improving access and equity, to leveraging cutting-edge technologies like AI, wearables, or digital health platforms.

Capital One Best Financial Hack
2 winners

$250 Amazon Gift Cards

Harness your creativity and technical skills to design and innovate tools that will help with anything related to finance.

Build The Future of Video Understanding with TwelveLabs
3 winners

Custom TwelveLabs swag bag for the top 3 teams (fanny packs + socks in colors & black-white)

The Twelve Labs prize track challenges you to harness state-of-the-art video foundation models to make sense of video like never before. Whether you want to search, summarize, analyze, or build entirely new video experiences, our models—Pegasus and Marengo—give you the superpowers to do it.
What can you build?
- Semantic Video Search: Instantly find the exact moment or scene in any video using natural language—no manual tagging required.
- Automated Summarization & Captions: Generate rich summaries, highlights, or social-ready captions for long-form or short-form content.
- Custom Video Analytics: Extract insights, create Q&A bots, or build tools that understand context across hours of footage.

Let your imagination run wild—if you can dream it, you can build it with Twelve Labs!

Lillie Lab AI Challenge [RICE STUDENTS ONLY]
1 winner

$50 Amazon Gift Cards and Lilie Launchpad Acceptance

Build applications, tools, or platforms that utilize Artificial Intelligence in some way to solve a pressing problem in the world. The tool can meet a social need, streamline an area of your life, make a new game, or revolutionize an entire industry – combine your passion with AI and blow our minds!

Warp Best Developer Tool
2 winners

Keychron Keyboards

Devpost Achievements

Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:

Judges

Farhan Jamil

Nicolae Sapoval

Nicolae Sapoval

Yining Zhang

Yining Zhang

Sumit Abhichandani

Sarath Vakacharla

Salvatore Testa

Krushankant Patel

Krushankant Patel

Waseem Ahmad

Nixalkumar Patel

Nixalkumar Patel

Antonio Cao

Michael Schwartz

Parth Saxena

Parth Saxena

Soumya Karnala

Soumya Karnala

Manoj Potnuru

Manoj Potnuru

Divyanshu Joshi

Divyanshu Joshi

Azhaguvelan Thayumanavan

Vaibhav Misra

Vaibhav Misra

Dasha Yefymenko

Judging Criteria

  • Relevance
    If you submit your project to a track or challenge, we are looking for relevance to the spirit/requirements of that track/challenge.
  • Originality/Creativity
    We are looking for original ideas or new angles on existing ideas. For example, using an API in a unique way. We know APIs work—we want to see if you can do something new and awesome with them!
  • Practicality/Impact
    We are looking for impactful projects that solve real-world problems. Additionally, we would like to emphasize the importance of the scope of your project as well as the scalability of your solution.
  • User experience/Design
    We are looking for aesthetically pleasing projects with a clear and intuitive user experience.
  • Technical Rigor
    We are looking for technically advanced solutions to technically challenging problems that make use of hardware and/or APIs. However, making an extensive solution with integrated simple technologies is equally impressive!

Questions? Email the hackathon manager

Tell your friends

Hackathon sponsors

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