What is HackJPS?
HackJPS is a hybrid (in person & virtual) hackathon hosted by students of John P. Stevens High School in Edison, NJ during the weekend of June 14th, 2025. This is the fourth iteration of the HackJPS program following successful hybrid and virtual events in 2024, 2023 and 2020.
Participation will be open to middle and high school students (aged 13+). Participants may have any level of experience, or none at all. We are welcoming to beginners and experts alike!
Additionally, you will be able to attend in-person or virtual workshops hosted by sponsors or student organizations, exposing you to a multitude of other topics that might interest them or be relevant to your project.
For more information and updates, make sure to join our Discord server and check out our website.
Event Schedule: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VqMnnHrCyGf7CnKtIlEwHbtuesXKoKnE/view?usp=sharing
Requirements
Specific categories and related criteria will be disclosed during the opening ceremony.
Requirements for all submissions:
- Should be submitted here on Devpost
- All team members should be added to the submission in Devpost
- Each team member's school name should be specified on the project submission page
- The project does not need to be 100% completed nor 100% functional but there should be some demonstrable progress
- A 1-3 minute video demonstrating part or all of your project's features as well as a brief overview of how you put it together, including a description of your codebase (can be uploaded to YouTube or another public site)
- Including a screen recording of your code while you are explaining it will help us make a more accurate judgement regarding the quality of your project
- A link to your project's source code (either in an online repository or publicly accessible via a file sharing service like Google Drive)
- You can also upload it directly to your submission as a ZIP archive
Prizes
Best Overall Hack
All projects submitted to HackJPS will automatically be considered for this category. Projects that demonstrate a combination of technical talent, practicality, creativity, and presentational/explanatory skills are most likely to succeed.
Prizes: Interview Cake licenses for every member, Code Crafter 2 year membership
Best Youth Hack
We know there's a lot of middle school students here. That's okay! To make the playing field a bit fairer, teams where more than half the members (e.g. 1/2, 2/3, 3/4, 4/4) are registered as middle school students will be eligible to receive this prize!
Prizes: Interview Cake licenses for every member, Amazon Gift card
Best Game Design
Game development is a fun way to expand on your programming abilities. Projects submitted to this category don't necessarily need to be games written from the ground up — they can also be modifications/plugins/extensions to existing games, provided your project adds enough original functionality.
Prizes:
1st: Interview Cake licenses for every member, Code Crafter 1 year membership
2nd: Interview Cake licenses for every member, one month X-mind for every member, Code Crafter 6 month year membership ($180 each member), GenAI interview voucher
Best Use of AI/ML
If you indicate that your project uses any kind of artificial intelligence or machine learning technology, it will be considered for this category. This category is NOT necessarily for projects in which AI tools were used to write the code; instead, the focus is on integrating AI/ML technology into a project in a way that makes sense and is genuinely useful.
Prizes:
1st: Interview Cake licenses for every member, $10 Amazon Gift Card for each member, Nord security for all members
2nd: Interview Cake licenses for every member, Nord security for all members, 3 3-Month X Mind Premium
Best Use of AI & Verbwire API
See Best Use of AI/ML. Goes to teams which use AI in conjunction with the Verbwire API in building applications. Feel free to use MagicPilot.ai by Verbwire to build web3 programs using AI.
Prizes:
All members of top 5 winning teams receive $45 Verbwire Premium API Credit {$45 credit per team member}.
Most Innovative Use Of Verbwire API
See Best Overall Hack. Goes to the best overall projects that use the Verbwire API.
Prizes:
Top 5 teams will be awarded Premium API credits {$45 credit per team member}.
Public Choice
After submissions, all registrants on Devpost will be able to choose their favorite project, and that project will be eligible for prizes. See the schedule for timing details.
Prizes: $25 Art Of Problem Solving coupon for each team member, Interview Cake licenses for every member($50 each)
Participation Prize
All participants will receive a 60-day extended free trial to Balsamiq cloud, access to the Flatlogic AI App Generator, and swag provided by Figma (in-person only).
Devpost Achievements
Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:
Judges
Krishan Trikha
Rohith Nadimpally
Sreekanth Narayan
Sohan Sunkari
Ravi Jaiswal
Sairam Jalakam Devarajulu
Tanish Mittal
Abir Modak
Dhairya Sarvaiya
Jay Nankani
Judging Criteria
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Judging Criteria will be released during Opening Ceremony!
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Video Requirements
The video should be 1-3 mins; grace period of +/- 20 seconds. Demonstrate part or all of the project's features, a brief overview of how it was put together, including a description of the codebase. (10 points)
Questions? Email the hackathon manager
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