Join us for the third iteration of HackHarvard, a 36-hour hackathon hosted on Harvard University's historic campus. This year, we're breaking new ground - crossing boundaries, discovering new solutions, and pushing the intersection of technology and society forward.

If your project goes off the beaten path, challenges basic assumptions, or is something we'd actually use, we want you to bring it to life here. Every field is fair game - all you need to bring is an idea and the passion to create a proof of concept.

SCHEDULE.

FRIDAY, OCT 20

4:00p	Registration Opens
5:00p	Dinner Begins
7:00p	Opening Ceremony
8:00p	Hacking Begins

SATURDAY, OCT 21

7:00a	Breakfast
12:00p	Lunch
2:00p	Tech Talks
6:00p	Dinner

SUNDAY, OCT 22

7:00a	Breakfast
9:00a	Hacking Ends
9:30a	Project Expo
11:30a	Closing Ceremony

Eligibility

As long as you are a student at any college in the world or are 18 or older, you are invited to apply to HackHarvard!

Prizes

$21,980 in prizes

Best Overall

For the insane wish-we-thought-of-that, wish-we-could-build-that hack. Each team member gets a pair of Snapchat spectacles and $200 Amazon credit.

Most Fundable Hack

For the project most likely to sponsor HackHarvard four years from now. Prize is $400 for the team in exchange for 0.0001% equity.

Hacker Prize

Goes to people who capture the Hacker ethos. Using something the way it wasn't intended; sharing information openly; doing something for its own sake; finding creative solutions to problems (a la life hacks). Each team member gets a Raspberry Pi and supplementary electronics kit.

Most Intrinsically Motivated

If this prize didn't exist, this hack wouldn't get a prize. It's not showy or flashy, but it's sweet. Great example: open-source contribution. Team members can choose between a K'nex 100 Model Building Set and a Lego Classic Large Creative Brick Box, up to two of each per team.

Best Hardware Hack

Software is overrated. Make a cool physical hack, and each team member gets a choice of $100 in hardware.

Breaking New Ground

For a team of three with at least two first time hackers, or a team of four with at least three first time hackers. Each team member gets a GoPro session.

Useless Hack Award

The opposite of the most fundable hack. You build something useless, yet somehow still cool or clever enough to win a prize. You probably had a lot of fun at this hackathon. Sweet. Each team member gets a unicycle, a product capturing the epitome of cool but useless.

MassCEC Cleantech Prize

The Cleantech Prize shall be given to the best Clean tech or Water tech friendly web or app based platform that will help consumers and businesses use energy and natural resources more efficiently. $1000 cash to the winning team.

Best Microsoft Hack

To qualify, hackers need to incorporate at least one of the following into their project: Microsoft API, Microsoft Azure Cloud, Bot Framework, Kinect, HoloLens, Universal Windows (UWP) App. Each member of the winning team will receive a Surface Pro. See https://goo.gl/3WdmDK

Dell Customer Experience Challenge

Customer experience is all about making it easy and delighting customers through their end-to-end journey of buying, deploying, using & servicing a product/service. Submit your project if it enhances customer experience, makes it easy to collect feedback on customer experience, or makes it easy to analyze customer feedback. The winning team will receive a Dell 2-in-1 laptop or up to 4 smaller prizes.

Amazon Web Services - Best Use of AWS

$250 Amazon Web Services Credit

Best use of Facebook API

Each member of the winning team will receive a Samsung Gear VR (2017 Edition) with Controller - Virtual Reality Headset.

Best Use of Voatz Platform & API

Gift Cards, Gadgets & Some Crypto Stuff for the Best Use of the Voatz Platform & API

Hack To Save Homeless Pets - 1st Place

For the best hack to save homeless pets, each member of the winning team will receive a DJI Phantom P3 Standard Quadcopter - and we have a budget to work with teams after the hackathon for all especially promising submissions!

Hack To Save Homeless Pets - 2nd Place

Apple iPad Mini 4 32GB WiFi for each member of the winning team.

Hack To Save Homeless Pets - 3rd Place

Amazon Echo Tap Bluetooth Speaker for each member of the winning team.

Best Financial Hack from Capital One

How will you reimagine banking? $250 Amazon Gift Card for each member of the winning team.

Interesting Use of Data! from Hudson River Trading

Any project that gathers and uses data to infer non-obvious relationships is eligible. Some concrete examples would be twists on collaborative filtering, or (for example), identifying shifts in a corpus over time. Prize: Oculus Rift for the team!

Best Domain Name from Domain.com

Raspberry Pi & PiHut Essential Kit

Best IoT Hack Using a Qualcomm Device

410C Dragonboard for each team member

Best Google Cloud Machine Learning API Hack

4 Google Homes, 4 Google Cardboards, and $2500 in GCP credits

Best Google Cloud Platform Hack

4 Google Homes, 4 Google Cardboards, and $1500 in GCP credits

Devpost Achievements

Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:

Judging Criteria

Creativity
How original is this idea, in your experience?
Depth
How thoroughly does this hack solve the stated problem? Can you identify edge cases that would break the hack?
Technical Difficulty
Was creating this hack technically difficult?
Design
Is this hack designed to most optimally solve the stated problem?
Usability
Can someone not involved in creating the hack, but with reasonable computer science experience, use the hack effectively?

Harvard University - Student Organization Center at Hilles (SOCH)	Public
$21,980 in prizes	315 participants

HackHarvard 2017

Breaking new ground.