About the challenge
Are you passionate about sustainability and the future of food resources? Join us to help create positive change in the world. Our 24-hour hackathon takes place in the Holmes Student Center and will challenge you to solve some of the world’s most pressing issues.
Get started
Get your team of 4-6 people together and register today. Your team members should have a variety of skills and interests. NIU experts will be there to provide guidance, and the event will conclude with a prize ceremony.
Cost: Free for all college students (includes meals, snacks, and a Huskie Hack t-shirt)
Requirements
What to Build
The overarching theme of this hack is sustainability with an emphasis on the future of food systems and its challenges. We are inviting students from NIU and around the Midwest region to form multidisciplinary teams of 4 to 6 members to take a crack at solving problem sets focused on challenges surrounding food systems. They will choose a problem statement from one of the following areas: Food waste, Regionalization of food systems, Human diversity in agriculture.
What to Submit
Pitch your project in a 3 minutes video in the Flip.com HuskieHack22 group.
Submit a 10 slides presentation (PDF) and any relevant artifacts to DevPost.
This isn’t a traditional hackathon that just focuses on coding, but one that focuses on solution-based ideas - Students from all disciplines will be asked to explore the topic, understand the problem sets, and use the knowledge and expertise from industry and university mentors and specialists before pitching their solutions to the judges.
Prizes
Harvesting Award
$500 per team member will be awarded for the grand prize winning team.
Budding Award
$1000 will be awarded to the top team in each problem statement category.
Devpost Achievements
Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:
Judges
Karinne Bredberg
Director of Innovation - Northern Illinois University
Melani Duffrin
Professor School of Interdisciplinary Health Professions Northern Illinois University
Lynn Herrmann
Associate Professor of Health Education & Public Health - Northern Illinois University
Raghela Scavuzzo
Associate Director of Food Systems Development at Illinois Farm Bureau
Jeff Walter
President & Chief Integration Officer - Rhea + Kaiser
Mark Silwka
Graduate Assistant - Innovation Northern Illinois University
Furkan Gur
Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship - Northern Illinois University
Federico Bassetti
Instructor - Northern Illinois University
Judging Criteria
-
Feasibility
Is there a real distinctive competency? (hard to imitate, different enough from alternative offerings, easily recognizable to be superior) -
Value
Is this an excellent offering? (the product/service is clear, reasonable/doable, and has the potential to create value) -
Team
Is the team behind the idea strong? (relevant skills/experience, additional partners, member idea fit) -
Impact
Is the idea unique and creative? -
Customers
Do they have well-defined target customers? (clear definition, insightful understanding, decision-maker and user-defined, customers are accessible, target customers represent significant opportunity). -
Value Proposition
Is there an excellent value proposition? (significantly improves customer well-being/solves a problem, is distinctive, measurable, and sustainable. Succinctly stated, everybody can easily understand.) -
Substitutes or Alternatives
Are there substitutes or alternatives that can easily substitute the offering? (substitute: different forms that have the same functionality. alternative: different functions that serve the same purpose.) -
Presentation
Did the team do a good job explaining all aspects of their solution? Was the presentation well organized and easy to follow?
Questions? Email the hackathon manager
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