HackCarleton 2019
Rules and Prizes
All attendees, sponsors, partners, volunteers, and staff at our hackathon are required to agree with the following rules. Organizers will enforce these rules throughout the event. We expect cooperation from all participants to ensure a fair competition for everyone.
[Adapted from MLH Hackathon Rules]
Hackathon Rules
These are standard competition rules used at MLH Member Hackathons. Not all MLH Member Hackathons will use these rules as organizers can choose to use these or their own rules. Organizers can use these rules exactly or fork them and edit them to suit their needs. If you have a suggestion for these rules or a question about them, please submit an issue here.
The spirit of the competition
Remember that hackathons are like marathons. Some people go to compete but most people take part to better themselves and have fun. Whatever the reason is you're at a hackathon, make sure you're upholding the hacker spirit by collaborating with other teams, helping beginners, and having fun.
The rules of the competition
There is no minimum team size, maximum team size is 4 people. Teams should be made up exclusively of students (or recent graduates within one year of having graduated) who are not judges, sponsors, or in any other position of privilege.
All team members should be present at the event. Leaving the venue for some time to hack elsewhere is fine.
Teams can, of course, gain advice and support from organizers, volunteers, sponsors, and others.
All work on a project should be done at the hackathon.
Teams can use an idea they had before the event.
Teams can work on ideas that have already been done. Hacks do not have to be “innovative”. If somebody wants to work on a common idea they should be allowed to do so and should be judged on the quality of their hack. These days it’s hard to find something that’s fully original and teams might not know an idea has been done before anyway.
Teams can work on an idea that they have worked on before (as long as they do not re-use code).
Teams can use libraries, frameworks, or open-source code in their projects. Working on a project before the event and open-sourcing it for the sole purpose of using the code during the event is against the spirit of the rules and is not allowed.
Adding new features to existing projects is allowed. Judges will only consider new functionality introduced or new features added during the hackathon in determining the winners.
Teams must stop hacking once the time is up. However, teams are allowed to debug and make small fixes to their programs after time is up. e.g. If during demoing your hack you find a bug that breaks your application and the fix is only a few lines of code, it's okay to fix that. Making large changes or adding new features is not allowed.
Projects that violate the Code of Conduct are not allowed.
Teams can be disqualified from the competition at the organizers' discretion. Reasons might include but are not limited to breaking the Competition Rules, breaking the Code of Conduct, or other unsporting behaviors.
Demos
After hacking finishes, teams will show their projects to each other and to the judges.
You are strongly encouraged to present a demo of what you have built. Pitches or presentations are discouraged. You are not judged on the quality of your pitch. As you are judged on what you built, you'll only hurt yourself by not showing a demo.
You are encouraged to present what you have done even if your hack is broken or you weren’t able to finish. It's okay if you didn't finish your hack—that happens all the time! Completion is only one part of the judging criteria, so you might still do well. Also, demoing is not just about the competition. It's a chance to share with others what you learned and what you tried to build—that's what hacking's all about! In the case that you don't have anything to demo, you can give a presentation about what you tried and what you learned. Hearing what other people learned is interesting and inspiring for other attendees.
Judging Criteria
Teams will be judged on these four criteria. Judges will weigh the criteria equally. During judging, participants should try to describe what they did for each criterion in their project.
- Novelty (5 Points) Is the hack more than just another generic social/mobile/local app? Does it do something entirely novel, or at least take a fresh approach to an old problem?
- Utility/Function (5 Points) Is the hack practical and something people would actually use? Does it fulfill a real need people have?
- User Experience (5 Points) Is the hack usable in its current state? Is the user experience smooth? Does everything appear to work? Is it well designed?
- Overall Impression (5 Points) Please give the team’s project an overall score.
These criteria will guide judges but ultimately judges are free to make decisions based on their gut feeling of which projects are the most impressive and most deserving.
It's important to note that these judging criteria do not include:
- How good your code is. It doesn't matter if your code is messy, or not well commented, or uses inefficient algorithms. Hacking is about playing around, making mistakes, and learning new things. If your code isn't production ready, we're not going to mark you down.
- How well you pitch. Hacking is about building and learning, not about selling.
So don't worry about coming up with the next big idea or building the next Facebook. You'll have plenty of time for that outside the hackathon just focus on learning, having fun, and making new friends. At the end of the day the skills you learn and the friends you make might lead to the next big thing—but you don't have to do that to win a hackathon.
Prizes
Prizes will be awarded based on the judging criteria and at the discretion of the judges. Only projects that have followed the overarching theme will be considered for the first 3 positions, all projects are eligible for honorable mentions.
1st Place: Nintendo Wii
2nd Place: Rasberry Pi 3 Kit
3rd Place: Arduino Kit
Honorable Mentions: Pi 0
Remember!
The competition is just a part of the hackathon. To make the most out of the event, try something new, teach other people, and make new friends!
Happy Hacking!