PennApps XVII is scheduled for January 19-21th, 2018 at the Penn Engineering Campus in Philadelphia. The seventeenth iteration of the nation's first college hackathon is upping the hackathon to new extremes, with the world's top and most promising hackers coming together to tackle real world problems using the latest in hardware and software. Teams start working on their hacks (at 8 PM) after the Friday evening kickoff and continue working till Sunday morning (8:00 AM). All submissions MUST be made here on Devpost. Videos are optional.

Eligibility

If you applied to PennApps XVII, received an offer to attend and went on to confirm that you will do so, you are eligible to attend PennApps. If you attended and hacked at PennApps, then you are eligible to make a submission. 

 

Requirements

Make your project, submit your hack to Devpost and attend the PennApps expo to show off what you built. You must demo at the expo and submit on Devpost in order to be eligible for prizes. Furthermore, you must submit on Devpost to be eligible for travel reimbursements.  

Hackathon Sponsors

Prizes

$23,008 in prizes

PennApps XVII Grand Prize

Winning team members will receive a Parrot VR Drone + Sceptre E 24" Ultra Thin LED Monitor + Amazon Fire Stick + year long subscription to choice of Amazon Prime, Hulu/Spotify, HBO, or Netflix + Logitech Surround System + Lutron Plug-In Dimmer Kit + Medal from MLH each.

PennApps XVII Second Place Prize

Winning team members will receive Sceptre E 24" Ultra Thin LED Monitor + Amazon Fire Stick + year long subscription to choice of Amazon Prime, Hulu/Spotify, HBO, or Netflix + Logitech Surround System + Medal from MLH each.

PennApps XVII Third Place Prize

Winning team members will receive a Logitech Surround System + Medal from MLH each.

Hacker's Choice Award

Given to the hack that is the most popular among hackers. Winning team members will receive a Nintendo Switch each.

Best Hardware Hack

Hacks where the main focus is on hardware. Winning team members will receive a Fire HD 8 Table w/ Alexa each.

Best Health & Social/Civic Hack

Hacks that have applications in wellness, medicine and healthcare, or with a primary goal geared towards issues of social or civic impact, or focus on a local community. Winning team members will receive a Fitbit Charge 2 each.

Best Education Hack

Hacks that have applications in education.Winning team members will receive a Seagate 2TB hard drive and a 10000 mAh Portable Charger each

Best Blockchain Hack

Hacks where the main focus is on blockchain. Each winning team member will receive a One year Subscription of a 5 MH/s Etherium Cloud Miner each.

Best VR/AR Hack

Hacks where the main focus is on Virtual/Augmented Reality. Each winning team member will receive a Samsung - Gear 360 Real 360 Degree 4K VR Camera (2017 Edition) each.

Best Retro Hack

Hacks where the main theme is retro-related. Each winning team member will receive the Spectacles by Snapchat.

Best Humor Hack

Hacks that give us the funnies. Winning team members will receive a Retro Bomber Jacket each.

Best UI/UX Hack

Given to the hack displaying the best user experience. Winning team members will have the choice between a HAVIT HV-KB390L Mechanical Backlit Gaming Keyboard or a Wacom Intuos Draw small each.

Best Entertainment Hack

Given to the hack that displays the best entertainment experience. This could be related to movies, music, video games etc. Winning team members will receive a TAIR Wireless Bluetooth Headphones each

Lutron IoT Prize

Presented by Lutron. Winning team members will receive a Lutron Caséta Wireless Smart Lighting Plug-in Lamp Dimmer Kits (HomeKit-enabled) each.

Most Promising Hack (3)

Presented by 1517 Fund. Three $1K grants will be offered to teams that want to keep building on something promising post-PennApps.

Best Use of Cloud Hosting

Presented by Linode. Winning team members will receive a UE ROLL 2 Reef Wireless Portable Bluetooth Speaker each.

Best Financial Hack

Presented by Capital One. Winning team members will receive a $300 Amazon Gift Card each.

Best Domain Name

Presented by domain.com. Winning team members will receive a Raspberry Pi + PiHut Essential Kit each.

Best Use of AWS

Presented by Amazon. Winning team members will receive a $250 AWS Credit each.

Best IoT Hack Using a Qualcomm Device

Presented by Qualcomm. Winning team members will receive a Qualcomm Dragonboard 410C each.

Devpost Achievements

Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:

Judges

Michael Kearns

Michael Kearns
Top Ten Judge

Samantha Caby

Samantha Caby
Top Ten Judge

Craig Freden

Craig Freden
Top Ten Judge

More judges to be announced.

More judges to be announced.

Judging Criteria

  • Technical Difficulty
    Is the hack technically interesting or difficult? Is it just some lipstick on an API, or were there real technical challenges to surmount? This is the most important criterion that your hack will be judged upon for the general prizes.
  • Originality
    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?
  • Polish
    Is the hack usable in its current state? Is the user experience smooth? Does everything appear to work? Is it well designed?
  • Usefulness
    Is the hack practical? Is it something people would actually use? Does it fulfill a real need people have?

Questions? Email the hackathon manager

Tell your friends

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.