Hacktech: The West Coast's Premier Interdisciplinary Hackathon!

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California Institute of Technology

600 S Holliston Ave, Pasadena, CA 91106, USA

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$32,038 in prizes
Best Hardware Hack

Each member of the winning team will receive a unrestricted JetBrains license for a tool of their choice, a Google Cardboard, an Ardunio Uno Ultimate Starter Kit, and a Dell Venue 10 Tablet from MLH!
Best Sports/Entertainment Hack

Each member of the winning team will receive an unrestricted JetBrains license for a tool of their choice, and a Misfit Flash Fitness and Sleep Smartwatch.
Best Education Hack

Each member of the winning team will receive an unrestricted JetBrains license for a tool of their choice and a 8-GB WiFi Enabled Kindle Fire.
Best Medical Hack

Each member of the winning team will receive a Bitalino Medical Sensor Kit.
Best Use of Twilio API [Twilio]

Each member of the winning team will receive a Pebble Time Smartwatch.
Best Use of Postmates API

$500 in Postmates credits to be split amongst members of the winning team
Best Use of Wolfram Technology

Each member of the winning team will receive: 1 Raspberry Pi, $100, 1 year access to Wolfram Alpha Pro, and 1 year access to the Producer level of the Wollfram Development Platform.
Caltech Fund Social Good Prize [Caltech Fund]

Each member of the winning team will be given $125 in cash. Each member is also encouraged to donate a portion of their winnings to a charity of their choice!
Best Synaptics Hack - Fingerprint [Synaptics]

Winning team will be given $2,500 to be split amongst team members.
Best Synaptics Hack - Touch [Synaptics]

Winning team will be given $2,500 to be split amongst team members.
Best Hack on .TECH Domain

Each member of the winning team will receive a gift voucher for $30. The prize will go to the best hack hosted on a .TECH domain.
Best Overall Use of Microsoft Technology

Each member of the winning team will receive a Surface Pro 3.
Most Useful Prompt Command

The winning team will share a UDI 818A Quadcopter Drone with HD Camera.
Gamify Wallstreet by Quantiacs

The winning team will share a Boosted Board.
Best Use of Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Each member of the winning team will receive a 1 TB Hard Drive, courtesy of MLH!
Coolest Developer Tool

Kick-ass trophy of Mona the Octocat by MLH!
Best Use of Big Data, Machine Learning, or Data Processing by Taboola

Each member of the winning team will receive a Skeye Mini Drone with HD Camera!
Best Use of Postmates API

$500 in Postmates credits to be split amongst members of the winning team
Best Use of Wolfram Technology

Each member of the winning team will receive: 1 Raspberry Pi, $100, 1 year access to Wolfram Alpha Pro, and 1 year access to the Producer level of the Wollfram Development Platform.

The West Coast's Premier Interdisciplinary Hackathon!

Hacktech is the West Coast's premier interdisciplinary hackathon! 500 of the nations best programmers, engineers, and scientists will collaborate to make innovative projects in 36-hours!

View full rules

Judges

Yisong Yue
Professor of Computing and Mathematical Sciences & Machine Learning Researcher at Caltech

Wen Hsieh
General Partner at KPCB

Anthony Chong
CEO of StatSketch & Director of Caltech Alumni Board

Max Horton
Targeting Team Engineer at Facebook

Archan Luhar
Account Access Team Engineer at Facebook

Tom McGovern
Managing Director at Idealab

Judging Criteria

Usability
How usable is your hack in its current state? Strive to create a functioning project even if it doesn't have a ton of features!
Interdisciplinary
Does your hack combine principles from across different fields? Live up to our theme and make a hack that explore the intersection of computer science with other fields!
Creativity
How creative is your hack? Try to approach the problem you are trying to solve from a novel angle!
Polish
Is your hack polished? Create a streamlined hack that looks as great as it functions!