Welcome to Rice University's 16th 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. 

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, 9/13, 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 
    • Project name, members, track/challenge, project purpose, technologies used
  2. Demo - 2 minutes
    • Let’s see your project in action!
  3. Technical design and implementation - 30 seconds
    • High-level overview of how you designed your code
  4. Impact - 30 seconds
    • The real-world value of your project; how you’d improve it in the future

Hackathon Sponsors

Prizes

21 non-cash prizes
FIRST PLACE
1 winner

Ruko Drone and MLH Winner Pins

SECOND PLACE
1 winner

Kodak PixPro Digital Camera and MLH Winner Pins

THIRD PLACE
1 winner

Whoop Fitness Tracker and MLH Winner Pins

[TRACK] - Healthcare Track
1 winner

Ninja Air Fryer

[TRACK] - Finance
1 winner

Espresso Machine

[TRACK] - Games and Gamification Track
1 winner

Professional Poker Set

[TRACK] - Work and Productivity
1 winner

Mini Projector with Bluetooth!

[CHALLENGE] - Notability "Trust the Process"
1 winner

Prize: Surprise!!

Where attendees build with Notability Pro during the hackathon. Recommended uses: ideation, brainstorming, discussion summaries, wireframing, etc. The best use of Notability wins a prize. Teams submit on Devpost, tag “Notability” as a tool used, and include a detailed note on how they used Notability Pro (with at least 2 screenshots).

[CHALLENGE] - Persona “Prove You’re Human”
1 winner

Prize: Surprise!!

Build something where access depends on a verified human, and make it amazing!

[CHALLENGE] - Capital One Best Financial Hack
1 winner

Prize: $250 in Giftogram Gift Cards!

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

[CHALLENGE] - Best Use of MathWorks
1 winner

Prize: Special prize, including an article on the MathWorks website.

Best use of MathWorks tools.

[CHALLENGE] - Best Project Built with ElevenLabs
1 winner

Prize: Three months of Scale Tier.

Best use of ElevenLabs!

[MLH] Best Use of Gemini API
1 winner

MLH Swag Kits
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?

[MLH] Best Use of ElevenLabs
1 winner

Wireless Earbuds
Deploy natural, human-sounding audio with ElevenLabs. Create realistic, dynamic, and emotionally expressive voices for any project, from interactive AI companions to narrated stories and voice-enabled apps. ElevenLabs will empower you to build rich, immersive experiences without the need for actors or complex audio production, using simply the power of AI.

Integrate fully autonomous audio experiences into your hack with ElevenLabs and give your project a voice, along with giving your team the chance to win some wireless earbuds!

[MLH] Best Use of Solana
1 winner

Ledger Nano S Plus
The world of development is evolving fast and Solana is leading the charge with a network built to handle all of your infrastructure needs. Forget high fees and slow confirmations, it’s time to build applications that are fast, efficient, and scalable.

Harness Solana's core advantages like blazing fast execution and near-zero transaction costs to make your hackathon ideas become real world projects. With Solana, the possibilities are endless.
Create a game, social app, or consumer product that relies on instant, high-frequency transactions.
Design a sophisticated trading, lending, or decentralized exchange (DEX).
Build a prototype for supply chain, identity, or payments that can handle massive, real-world volume.
Show us how you can innovate with Solana for a chance to win some cool prizes for you and each member of your team!

[MLH] Best Use of Tiger Data
1 winner

Stream Deck Mini
Building high-performance apps under hackathon deadlines shouldn't mean spending half your weekend configuring complex databases or learning obscure query languages. Tiger Data extends PostgreSQL to give student developers an ultra-fast foundation for real-time data, time-series metrics, and complex analytics.

Why build with Tiger Data this weekend?

Standard SQL Power: Query massive datasets instantly using the SQL you already know, with no complex NoSQL aggregation pipelines required.

Unified Data Stack: Store relational user profiles and high-frequency metric streams side-by-side in a single database.

Instant Dashboards: Serve lag-free, real-time frontend charts using pre-computed Continuous Aggregates.

90%+ Data Compression: Store millions of events on free-tier cloud instances without running out of disk space.

Whether you’re building real-time IoT monitoring, AI-driven analytics dashboards, or financial prediction engines, show us how Tiger Data powers your project. The team that demonstrates the most innovative, impactful, and performance-driven use of Tiger Data will take home some great prizes!

[MLH] Best Use of Presage
1 winner

Fitbit Inspire & Presage Perks
Presage is pioneering the Human Sensing Layer, enabling any application to understand a person’s real-time physical and emotional state. With Presage, you can leverage clinically-proven vital signs, movement, emotion, and/or focus tracking to build a project that gives the standard camera super powers.

Use any of the Presage SDKs to integrate capabilities like real-time heart rate, breathing rate, engagement levels, and facial expressions into your hack with just a few lines of code.
Immersive Gaming & Entertainment: Dynamically change game difficulty or story elements based on a player's excitement or focus levels.
Contactless Wellness & Fitness: Build a non-invasive app that monitors stress, recovery, or fitness performance.
Accessibility & Security: Utilize vital signs for effortless authentication, or to enhance accessibility.
Productivity: Design a tool that tracks focus or stress.
Build your next hack with Presage and show us the future of human-computer interaction! Win awesome prizes along for with the following perks from the Presage team:
Free refills for Presage Development credits to accelerate you through your next three months of building
30% off all Presage usage charges for your first year after going live

[MLH] Best Use of Vultr
1 winner

Portable Screens
Vultr empowers hackers to bring their high-performance projects to life instantly; providing everything from the speed of one-click deployment and scalable cloud compute, to specialized Vultr Cloud GPUs that can power AI-driven applications. We want you to push the limits of what can be built when infrastructure is no longer the bottleneck!

Sign up for a Vultr account today and claim your free cloud credits! Take your next hack to the cloud with Vultr for a chance to win some awesome portable screens for you and your team!

[MLH] Best Use of Backboard
1 winner

Tile Essentials Pack
Every AI model API is stateless by default. That means your app forgets everything the second a session ends. State management should be the first step of any AI build, regardless of what LLM you are using, and Backboard gives you that for free. But Backboard is not just state management. It is a single, unified API built on the world's #1 AI memory that gives you everything you need in one place: long-term memory, RAG, embeddings, tool calls, model routing across 17,000+ LLMs, and persistent context that stays alive across every page refresh, session, and user. No stitching together five different services. One API. One integration. Built on the best memory in AI.

Here’s just a small list of things Backboard can make possible for your AI app!

AI-powered Travel Guide: Remembers allergies and preferences from past trips.
Personalized Fitness Coach: Adjusts workouts based on progress and injury history.
Smart Home Controller: Learns routines over time to anticipate lighting and climate preferences!

Use Backboard to build a seamless, persistent user experience without the usual infrastructure headache! Each winning team member will receive a Tiles Essentials Pack because, just like AI, we all need an occasional reminder of where things are!

[MLH] Best Domain Name from GoDaddy Registry
1 winner

Digital Gift Card
GoDaddy Registry is giving you everything you need to be the best hacker no matter where you are. Register your domain name with GoDaddy Registry for a chance to win some amazing prizes!

[CHALLENGE] - Lilie Lab's "Best Use of AI"
1 winner

Prize: $50 Amazon Gift Cards + immediate Launchpad acceptance to Launch Group 1 (~$100 non-dilutive grant)

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 revolution an entire industry – combine your passion with AI and blow our minds!

Devpost Achievements

Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:

Judges

Michael Schwartz

Michael Schwartz

Nicolae Sapoval

Nicolae Sapoval

Yiyun Peng

Yiyun Peng

Neeharika Sompalli

Neeharika Sompalli

Ganesh Harke

Ganesh Harke

Konstantinos Gkatzonis

Konstantinos Gkatzonis

Sri Ram Swaminathan

Sri Ram Swaminathan

Sai Nagabhairava

Sai Nagabhairava

Akshay Khatavkar

Akshay Khatavkar

Vikas Gangadhara

Vikas Gangadhara

Manjunath Shivarudrappa

Manjunath Shivarudrappa

Salvatore Testa

Salvatore Testa

Tomilayo Komolafe

Tomilayo Komolafe

Tony Kordova

Tony Kordova

Alvin Zhang

Alvin Zhang

Bill Zeng

Bill Zeng

Navneet Tyagi

Navneet Tyagi

Abhik Sengupta

Abhik Sengupta

Ragul Balaji

Ragul Balaji

Akash Mahtani

Akash Mahtani

Anurag Bihani

Anurag Bihani

Mohamed Abead

Mohamed Abead

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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Hackathon sponsors

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