LingHacks is California's first computational linguistics-themed hackathon (24-hour coding event) series for high schoolers. Our goal is to expose students of all backgrounds to the field of natural language processing and inspire students to pursue computer science in their careers. ​LingHacks is a 24-hour invention competition where you come together with a team and build a software project that integrates computational linguistics and solves a scientific or social problem.

Computational linguistics, otherwise known as natural language processing, is the field of artificial intelligence that applies to the synthesis and analysis of language and speech. Things like machine translation technologies, voice assistants, search engines, and chatbots are all powered by computational linguistics tools. It's a fascinating synergy of scientific techniques applied to an elegant humanity that is part and parcel of our core human identities. 

• Creativity
  Do other things like this exist? Is it a new and unexpected application of NLP?
• Practicality
  Does it solve a real-world problem? Could it be implemented in the near future?
• Complexity
  How difficult was it to make the project?
• Potential
  Does it have the potential for long-term research and development?
• Research
  Was the idea thoroughly researched? Were sources and previous research cited? Are potential pitfalls and workarounds acknowledged?
• Understanding
  Was the project and all accompanying algorithms thoroughly explained?
• Completeness
  Is your algorithm or model reliable? Is it accurate and precise?