With 700 of the brightest developers, engineers and designers in the Pacific Northwest. Whether you're a seasoned hacker or a tech newbie, nwHacks welcomes you; just bring an open mind and an insatiable desire to learn, and we’ll take care of the rest. Create a product, learn new skills, and have fun with friends, old and new - all in 24 hours.

Visit our website for more information! - https://www.nwhacks.io/

Eligibility

  • All attendees must be high school or university students. New graduates are welcome as long as your graduation date is within one year of January 2020.
  • We recommend teams of 2-4, but you are allowed to form a team with at most 5 people.

Hackathon Sponsors

Prizes

$CAD40,257 in prizes

1st place

$1500 Cash
Each team member will also get:
4 months free of Cloudsploit Premium valued at $440
Digital Ocean Tshirts
$125 in Digital Ocean Credits

2nd Place

$1000 Cash
Each team member will also get:
4 months free of Cloudsploit Premium valued at $440
Digital Ocean Tshirts
$125 in Digital Ocean Credits

3rd Place

$500 Cash
Each team member will also get:
4 months free of Cloudsploit Premium valued at $440
Digital Ocean Tshirts
$125 in Digital Ocean Credits

Popular vote

The best hack, collectively chosen by participants.
Each team member will get:
4 months free of Cloudsploit Premium valued at $440
Digital Ocean Tshirts
$125 in Digital Ocean Credits
Mangata Orbit Dual Power Bank Set

Azure Champ Prize - Hack for Good

Judging criteria:
1. Was the project developed using Microsoft Azure and did it have a positive impact? (required for entry)
2. Does the project address a clear need, problem, or opportunity and is the solution clearly explained? (10 points)
3. Does the project include innovations in technical design and/or implementation of services (e.g., Cognitive Services, Bot Services, IoT Hub, Functions) and/or user experience? (20 points)
4. Does the project have a clear target market or audience? (5 points)
5. Is the project’s purpose and basic functionality easily understood? (5 points)
6. Does the project have a professional degree of production in terms of performance, user interface, visuals, and audio? (10 points)
Winner is highest total score out of 50
Tie-break: Does the team have a credible plan for getting their project to market in terms of business model, any required partnerships, or other factors?

Prize:
- $1,000 USD to be donated to an approved charity of their choice to support our joint initiative – social good!

- Prioritized entry in the upcoming Imagine Cup Semi-Finals with two chances to become one of the few elite teams at our regional finals!

- Every team member will be given a Surface Go with keyboard

Best Use of Standard Library

The team with the best use of Standard Library wins a Nintendo Switch for each team member.

SAP – “Analytics Champion”

Build the best app that provides an analysis and/or a visualization of an open dataset (e.g. https://www.sapanalytics.cloud/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Online_Sales.csvhttps://open.canada.ca/en/open-data). Our judges from SAP Analytics Cloud will be looking for creativity and accuracy. Bonus points for those who are able to demonstrate the core values of the Analytics Cloud team (#doittogether, #befearless, #giveadamn). The winning team will receive a mechanical keyboard (Ducky One RBG Gaming Keyboard) for each team member (up to four total), and a tour of our Vancouver office.

RBC - Best Use of Cloud or Containerization Technology

As a bank, we are challenged by shifting volume during the business day as clients tend to bank at key times. Show, with your hackathon project, how you could handle these burst loads by taking advantage of cloud or containerization technology. Winning team will receive a $2000 team prize and a guaranteed interview at RBC!

Hootsuite’s #SocialForGood award

At Hootsuite, our driving purpose is to Champion the Power of Human Connection. For your team to qualify for Hootsuite’s #SocialForGood award, your project must make a positive social impact on how we communicate in today’s connected world. This could mean creating a tool that makes the world a more accessible place, creating an app that helps less-amplified voices to be heard, or providing a way for people to connect and organize in volunteering efforts, and beyond. The internet and our increasingly globally-connected world are powerful influences; what can you hack to harness that power for good?! Each member of the winning team will receive a Raspberry Pi 4. Additionally, the winners will have the opportunity to tour our beloved Hootsuite HQ in Vancouver and participate in a Q&A session with our VP of Software Development Greg Bell as well as some of our team members. Happy hacking from all of us at Hootsuite!

TD - Best "green" development

$250 Visa gift cards for each team member for Best "green" development. Propose an IT system that supports people towards a "green theme" (ex. the environment, finance, financial literacy, etc.)

Sauder School of Business

To qualify to win the prize: Create the most sustainable and project that champions community impact. The winning team will have their application fee for applying to the Master of Business Analytics program waived and 2 UBC Sauder water bottles.

Best Use of Google Cloud, 1st/2nd/3rd Places - Sponsored by Google Cloud and MLH (3)

Best Use of Google Cloud - Sponsored by Google Cloud / MLH
- Use any Google Cloud product in your project (Firebase counts!)
- Each member of the winning team gets: Google Nest Mini, Cloud Patagonia Backpack, Cloud Pillow, Acrylic Trophy, and Cloud Water Bottle
- Each member of the second-place team gets: Google Nest Mini
- Each member of the third-place team gets: Google Nest Mini

Crypto Vancouver - “Best example of decentralization to solve a real world problem”

Crypto Vancouver Meetup will award the team with the most unique hack, taking into consideration long term vision, feasibility, and impact. Think about the future of human connection, economies and government. Your team is open to assert assumptions about the next decade, and there’s no technology requirements.
Prize is $500 + 1 Limited Edition Gold ColdLar Hardware Wallet

Best Domain Registered with Domain.com

Domain.com provides all the domain services you need from registration to hosting to SSL certificates and beyond. Each hacker will receive a FREE domain name and year of domain privacy from Domain.com for their project this weekend!

They will also recieve Domain.com Backpacks

Best use of MongoDB Atlas

Create a hack using MongoDB Atlas to host a database in the cloud! Automate the provisioning and deployment process with ease, while focusing all your efforts on your hack. Projects built using MongoDB Atlas will be eligible to win an AirCharge Plus.

Wolfram Award (35)

This award is for a year of Wolfram|One Personal Edition plus a one-year subscription to Wolfram|Alpha Pro for each team member of the team.

Voiceflow - Best Voice apps

Real world use case
- Does this project have a target user? If so how useful is this project to the target user?

Technical complexity
- Does this project integrate into an API or an integration? How complex is the architecture of this project?

The prize will be a $50 amazon gift card per person for the winning team.

Best Design using Sketch

Design and create a project using Sketch to win a set of full licenses for you and your team! Sketch is a professional digital design toolkit that allows you to create, prototype, collaborate and turn your ideas into incredible products.

Devpost Achievements

Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:

Judges

Rafael Jacinto

Rafael Jacinto
Hootsuite

Ryan Matsumoto

Ryan Matsumoto
Google Cloud

Jacqueline Ashby

Jacqueline Ashby
UBC

Calvin Cheng

Calvin Cheng
Bloomberg

Judging Criteria

  • Technology
    Was the hack technically sophisticated? Was the technical problem the team tackled difficult or a problem that affects many people? Did it use a particularly clever technique or did it use many different components?
  • Design
    Did the team put thought into the user experience? Does the hack look professional? Is the design accessible? For a hardware project, how good is the human-computer interaction? Did the team consider factors beyond the software?
  • Completion
    Does the hack work? Did the team achieve everything they wanted? Does it seem finished or does it seem rough around the edges?
  • Originality
    Is the project unique and creative? When someone sees the project, will they think "WOW, this is cool"? If the project attempts to solve a common problem, does it use a unique approach or improve upon existing solutions?

Questions? Email the hackathon manager

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