Introduction
Welcome to Solaris, the premier hackathon for high schoolers taking place online on October 10-11, 2025. For 24 hours, the best high school minds will come together to build incredible software and hardware projects from the comfort of their homes.
At Solaris, we believe that financial barriers should not limit innovation. Big ideas require powerful tools, and we're committed to providing them to every single participant. That's why we've built Launchpad, our custom platform that gives every hacker access to over $20,000 worth of cloud resources from Google Cloud. We believe that everyone should be able to build gamechanging projects and be able to host them at hackathons without having to pay for it out of pocket. With Launchpad, you can spin up servers, deploy databases, and use cutting edge AI inference APIs to integrate into your apps, all without paying a single dime. Bring your most ambiitous ideas, and we'll give you the power to launch it.
Timeline
| Friday, October 10, 2025 | ||
| 5:00PM EDT | Opening Ceremony & Keynote | We will introduce the hackathon theme, and we will have a keynote speaker. |
| 6:00PM EDT | Hacking Begins! | |
| 10:00PM EDT | Late Night Gaming Session | Hop on with the organizers and fellow participants to play some games. |
| Saturday, October 11, 2025 | ||
| 12:00PM EDT | Lunch Break (on your own time) & Mid-Hack Check-in | Eat food and we will check in with how your project is going and provide assistance. |
| 5:00PM EDT | Hacking ends & Submissions due | |
| 5:30PM EDT | Project Demos and Judging Period | You will join breakout rooms with the judges and show 5 minute live demos and they will judge your project. |
| 7:30PM EDT | Closing Ceremony & Prize Announcements |
Requirements
What to Build
Your challenge is to create a functional project from scratch during the 24-hour hacking period. You can build anything, from software, hardware, anything that ends with -ware. The goal is to build a working prototype that brings your idea to life and demonstrates what you have learned.
Be creative, be ambitious, and build something amazing!
What to Submit
To be eligible for judging, you must submit your project on Devpost by 5:00PM EDT on Saturday, October 11th. Your submission must include the following:
- A project description. Clearly explain what your project is, the problem it solves, and how it works.
- A link to your code repository. Provide a link to your GitHub (or other) repository. Your repository should contain all the code you wrote during the event, and must be publicly accessible. We will check if code is written before the event, and if so, your project will be disqualified.
- A video demo (5 minutes hard cap). This is the most important part of your submission. Your video must clearly demonstrate your project in action and explain its purpose. Upload it to a service like YouTube or Vimeo and link it in your submission.
- A list of technologies used. Mention the key languages, frameworks, APIs, and hardware you used.
Prizes
First Place
XYZ Domains (3x) (Variable, depends on domain name)
Raspberry Pi Zero 2W (1x)
USB 2.0 Splitter (2x)
RGB Gaming Keyboard (1x)
Raspberry Pi Pico W (4x)
Mini Portable Charger (1x)
White Bluetooth Overear Headphones (1x)
Wireless Charger (1x)
8 in 2 Type C USB Hub (1x)
512GB Portable External SSD (1x)
Second Place
XYZ Domains (3x) (Variable, depends on domain name)
Raspberry Pi Zero 2W (1x)
USB 2.0 Splitter (2x)
RGB Gaming Keyboard (1x)
Raspberry Pi Pico W (4x)
Mini Portable Charger (1x)
White Bluetooth Overear Headphones (1x)
Wireless Charger (1x)
8 in 2 Type C USB Hub (1x)
512GB Portable External SSD (1x)
Third Place
XYZ Domains (3x) (Variable, depends on domain name)
Raspberry Pi Zero 2W (1x)
USB 2.0 Splitter (2x)
RGB Gaming Keyboard (1x)
Raspberry Pi Pico W (4x)
Mini Portable Charger (1x)
White Bluetooth Overear Headphones (1x)
Wireless Charger (1x)
8 in 2 Type C USB Hub (1x)
512GB Portable External SSD (1x)
Devpost Achievements
Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:
Judges
Lalitha Sangamithra Mantha
Cloud / DevOps Engineer
Siddharth Prabhakaran
Data Engineer
Yolanda Tian
Senior Product Designer at GreenLite
Gaurav Agarwal
Principal Integration Engineer
Sneha Bhat
Lead AI / Data Engineer at AT&T
Nihar Karra
Cloud Engineer at AWS
Nikhil Karra
Lead Cloud / DevOps Engineer
Judging Criteria
-
PRODUCT DESIGN (out of 15 possible points)
How technically well-designed and functional is the solution? Does the project demonstrate mastery of challenging technical concepts? -
INNOVATION (out of 12 possible points)
How groundbreaking is the solution? Is it innovative? Does the project introduce new concepts, ideas, or technologies? How hard would it be for someone entirely out of the loop to recreate this submission? -
VIABILITY (out of 8 possible points)
How realistic and implementable is this solution in a lunar environment? How actually helpful is this product, and how well does it address the challenge? Would this product be viable in the real world? Would anyone care about it? -
USABILITY (out of 7 possible points)
Evaluate the interface design, ease of use, and how well the product serves its intended users. Would the average user be enticed into trying the product out just from the design? -
CREATIVITY (out of 5 possible points)
How imaginative and original is the solution? This is different from Innovation in that you are evaluating the approach, story-telling, and spirit of the solution in relation to the theme of the Hackathon; how interesting is the idea itself? -
PRESENTATION (out of 3 possible points)
How effectively did the team communicate their solution? Is the solution clearly explained and easy to understand? Does the presentation effectively convey the problem being solved and how the solution works?
Questions? Email the hackathon manager
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