Welcome to H@B

This year, Hack@Brown is an exploration of all that is unknown, free of limitations that weigh us down. We'll provide a home base of help and support, but our hackathon is the start of a mission to discover new technologies and imagine the future as AI accelerates. Get ready to ideate, design, create, and hack!

 

Takeoff with us!

Requirements

Hacking ends at noon on Sunday, February 4th. Your project must be submitted to the correct tracks on both Devpost and our project submission form by then to be eligible for judging and prizes. Additionally, please ensure that you have selected the opt-in prizes you want to compete for within your Devpost submission, otherwise we will not be able to consider you. 

If your project is code-based, we ask that you submit a GitHub link. If not (i.e. Design Track), we ask that you submit a Figma link, wireframe screenshots, or some way for us to see your work. While Devpost will give you some questions to help describe your project, answering these questions is optional and will not be considered during judging.

Shortly after hacking ends, we will assign teams to their judging table number via Discord. Judging will happen completely in-person in a science fair-style format. You’re welcome to walk around and look at other teams’ projects, but make sure at least one member of your team is at your assigned table throughout the entire judging process. You can expect at least two judges (exact number will vary based on which prize track your project is submitted to) to come to your table. Each time a judge comes, you’ll have ~7-9 minutes to demo your project and answer any questions that arise. There’s no need to create a video showing off your project since everything will happen in-person!

Hackathon Sponsors

Prizes

$3,600 in prizes
Best Overall Hack
1 winner

Awarded to the best overall project submitted to the hackathon

Prizes:
- Apple Watch SE
- Contrary Capital Founder’s Kit and a meeting with their investment team
- 1-year NordVPN, NordPass and Incogni subscription

Best Design Hack
1 winner

Awarded to the best no-code project prototyped in Figma or another design software

Prize:
- Canon Ivy 2 Mini Photo Printer + Sheets
- Contrary Capital Founder’s Kit and a meeting with their investment team

Best Hardware Hack
1 winner

Awarded to the best hardware-centric project

Prize:
- HOTO Precision Electric Screwdriver Set
- Contrary Capital Founder’s Kit and a meeting with their investment team

Best Spacey Hack
1 winner

Awarded to the best space-centric project

Prize:
- JBL Flip 5 Speaker
- Contrary Capital Founder’s Kit and a meeting with their investment team

Best First-Time Hack
1 winner

Awarded to the best project where all members of the hacking team are attending their first hackathon

Prize:
- Philips 22" Monitor
- Contrary Capital Founder’s Kit and a meeting with their investment team

Best Developer Tool sponsored by Warp
1 winner

Build a hack that focuses on improving the developer experience in some meaningful way - this could be tackling any part of the development lifecycle (creating, modifying or testing software)! You do not need to use Warp (but we'd love for you to try it, if on Mac - warp.dev).

Prize: Keychron keyboards

Best Use of MongoDB Atlas
1 winner

MongoDB Atlas takes the leading modern database and makes it accessible in the cloud! Get started with a $50 credit for students or sign up for the Atlas free forever tier (no credit card required). Along with a suite of services and functionalities, you'll have everything you need to manage all of your data, and you can get a headstart with free resources from MongoDB University!

Prize: M5GO IoT Starter Kit

Best DEI Hack sponsored by Fidelity
1 winner

At Fidelity, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are viewed as major keys to the success of their business, which is why they are challenging you to come up with innovative ways to create forward-thinking financial tech that promotes equality for all people! We want you to use your hacking skills to find and build solutions that put financial opportunities and resources within reach for all communities, creating accessible, sustainable, and/or inclusive solutions. The team with the best hack will win a Fidelity branded wireless charger for each team member!

Prize: Fidelity Branded Wireless Charger

Best Use of Starknet
1 winner

Starknet is redefining the very notion of Web3 by tackling one of the most intimidating technical challenges in the industry - scaling a blockchain while maintaining its security and decentralization.

Starknet was the first general purpose ZK-Rollup service on Ethereum in Feb. 2022, and has proved its potential to be a market leader. Essentially, it increases the processing speed, while reducing the cost of operating on the Ethereum blockchain.

As a result, we are seeing a variety of “traditional” tech businesses - payments / social media / AI / online gaming - now being integrated with blockchains using our technology.

Moreover, the Starknet community is a growing pool of global talent - from feisty college students to some of the most illustrious PhDs in the world.

Wanna be a part of this growing community? Let’s get you started!
https://book.starknet.io/
https://book.dojoengine.org/
https://www.gizatech.xyz/

Prize: Starknet Care Package for Coders

Best .Tech Domain Name
1 winner

Make your Team's Achievements timeless: Win a .Tech Domain Name for Life to Showcase and Expand Your Project, Plus 4 Blue Snowball Mics for Effortless Collaboration on Zoom, empowering you to build even more cool things together!

Prize: Blue Snowball Microphone & a Free .Tech Domain Name for Life!

Best Use of AI in Education by Schmidt Futures
1 winner

Artificial Intelligence (AI) models, such as large language models (LLMs), are transforming how we interact with computers. During this weekend's hackathon, we want you to apply AI towards improving education to produce tools that support the quality, accessibility, and equitability of learning in today's classrooms. You can use AI to address any challenge teachers and students face, such as curriculum planning, question selection, teacher training, content generation, personalized feedback, automated grading and more.

For this challenge, we encourage you to draw on your own educational experiences and propose technical solutions to problems you've regularly encountered as students — after all, you are the best to know where our education system needs improvement. Design impactful and effective AI tools for education for a chance to win a TickTime Pomodoro Timer!

Prize: TickTime Pomodoro Timer

Devpost Achievements

Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:

Judges

Tim Nelson

Tim Nelson
Professor, Brown Computer Science

Malte Schwarzkopf

Malte Schwarzkopf
Professor, Brown Computer Science

Julia Netter

Julia Netter
Professor, Brown Computer Science/Philosophy

John Savage

John Savage
Professor, Brown Computer Science

Sharvan Kumar

Sharvan Kumar
Professor, Brown Engineering

Ranadeep Singh

Ranadeep Singh
Software Engineer, StubHub

Raakesh Premkumar

Raakesh Premkumar
Lead ML Engineer, Home Depot

Carolyn Duby

Carolyn Duby
Field CTO, Cloudera

Donald Stanford

Donald Stanford
CIO and Technology Fellow, IGT Global Solutions

Lena Renshaw

Lena Renshaw
Software Engineer, Flatiron Health

Poornima Muthukumar

Poornima Muthukumar
Senior Technical Product Manager, Microsoft

Priyanka Pande

Priyanka Pande
AI/ML Product Manager, Tripadvisor

Apoorv Khandelwal

Apoorv Khandelwal
PhD Candidate, Brown Computer Science

Alexander Gaidis

Alexander Gaidis
PhD Candidate, Brown Computer Science

Dafne Zorzetto

Dafne Zorzetto
Postdoc, Brown Computer Science

Hilarie Sit

Hilarie Sit
Postdoc, Brown Data Science

Nasim Sonboli

Nasim Sonboli
Postdoc, Brown Data Science

David Paulius

David Paulius
Postdoc, Brown Computer Science

Judging Criteria

  • Creativity and Originality
    Is it an out-of-the-box solution? Do they approach the problem in a unique and creative way?
  • Functionality
    Does it accomplish its stated goal? Does it work as is, or does it require additional resources?
  • Design
    Is the design user-friendly—is it intuitive and catered to user's needs? Is the design visually appealing and aligned with the purpose of the project?
  • Potential Impact
    Does it solve a real problem in society? How many people would it hypothetically help if deployed and released for public use?
  • Growth
    Did the participants step out of their comfort zone by experimenting with new technologies or approaches? Did the team approach and navigate a notable technical or behavioral challenge?
  • Hardware Hack Score
  • Project Spacyness Score

Questions? Email the hackathon manager

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Hackathon sponsors

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