SCU students, join us in SCDI on November 11th-12th for the 3rd annual INRIX Hack!

Hackathons are a fantastic way to both develop and show off your technical skills, and INRIX Hack is a great way to do so in front of industry recruiters. Winners get final-round internship interviews with INRIX, but don't let that intimidate you! We'll be having mentors and resources to help you along the way. The hackathon theme is Greener, Safer, Smarter, and INRIX will be providing APIs and Databases to support projects. This hackathon is open to all SCU students but is especially targeted toward those seeking internships next summer. See you out at the Hackathon!

For more information, visit this site

ADVICE

Get to know INRIX mentors

INRIX will interview anyone who demonstrates exceptional technical skills or leadership abilities, not just winners. Get to know the INRIX mentors, and don’t give up!

Consider using frontend frameworks (Vue, React, etc.)

Cooler technologies make for a cooler project. Frontend frameworks are industry standard, and INRIX often uses Vue. That being said, using tech you’re comfortable with could make for a better product, so don’t sweat it too much.

Consider backend integration (writing APIs, DB’s)

Technical impressiveness is a big rubric item, and integrating technologies like an API of your own, or using cloud databases like Firebase, Azure, AWS, etc. can go a long way toward establishing that for your project, on top of enabling new project functionality.

Consider integrating multiple data sources (including external)

One of the easiest ways to differentiate your project from others is to combine multiple INRIX APIs in a unique way, or even to integrate non-INRIX APIs to create something new altogether. Google APIs (Maps, Calendar, Search, etc.), Weather APIs, or even static datasets like government-provided Car-Fatality spreadsheets could all be examples of external integrations or data sources that could add an extra twist to your project. That being said, having multiple data streams certainly isn’t required to create an exceptional project - just some creativity!

Consider making a ‘sellable’ product

Ideas that would make a good research paper (ex. proving that car accidents and extreme weather are correlated) don’t necessarily make for the best product ideas. INRIX loves it when hackathon projects are something they could sell, and frequently winning teams are hired at INRIX to complete their hackathon project during their internship. 

Spend time on ideas, communicating with your team

Teams fall apart because the vision wasn’t clearly defined, or the team hasn’t been effectively communicating about what needs to be done, and by whom. Communication is key!

Don’t skimp on the presentation & Devpost 

At the end of the day, the judges’ only exposure to your project will be your presentation and Devpost (along with any mentoring they give you). You could create the best project at the Hackathon, but without an effective presentation to clearly communicate why it’s so great, it’s going to get overlooked. So make sure to put some effort into the Devpost and presentation!

• Technology
  How technically impressive was the hack? Was the technical problem the team tackled difficult? Did it use a particularly clever technique or did it use many different components? Is it a scalable design/solution?
• Polish
  Did the team put thought into the user experience? For a website, this might be about how beautiful the CSS or graphics are. For a hardware project, it might be about how good the human-computer interaction is.
• Innovativeness
  Does the hack show the team thought “outside of the box”? Does it have a certain “wow factor” to it? Is it different compared to previous solutions?
• Use of INRIX Technologies
  Did you use INRIX API's and technologies to build your project?
• Project Completeness
  Is there a demo of the product’s functionality? Can major user action flows be completed without significant obstacles?
• Sellability
  Could the project be productized and sold? Is there a business plan that explains who would consume this product, and how it would benefit them?