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.
- Intro - 30 seconds
- Project name, members, track/challenge, project purpose, technologies used
- Demo - 2 minutes
- Let’s see your project in action!
- Technical design and implementation - 30 seconds
- High-level overview of how you designed your code
- Impact - 30 seconds
- The real-world value of your project; how you’d improve it in the future
Prizes
Top Overall Project: First Place
Meta RayBans
Top Overall Project: Second Place
DJI Neo, Mini Drone with 4K UHD Camera
Top Overall Project: Third Place
Lego Ferrari SF-24 F1 Car
Social Impact Track
Healthcare Track
WERHY Electric Scooter
Productivity and Education Track
$100 DoorDash + $100 Amazon gift card set
Finance & Entrepreneurship Track
Sceptre New Curved 24 inch Gaming Monitor 100Hz 2X HDMI AND EPOMAKER TH99 Tri-Mode Wireless Mechanical Keyboard
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.
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!
Best Use of Gemini API
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
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
Commure Healthcare Challenge
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
$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
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]
$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
Keychron Keyboards
Devpost Achievements
Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:
Judges
Farhan Jamil
Nicolae Sapoval
Yining Zhang
Sumit Abhichandani
Sarath Vakacharla
Salvatore Testa
Krushankant Patel
Waseem Ahmad
Nixalkumar Patel
Antonio Cao
Michael Schwartz
Parth Saxena
Soumya Karnala
Manoj Potnuru
Divyanshu Joshi
Azhaguvelan Thayumanavan
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
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