HackTheU is Utah's largest and most popular hackathon, empowering students to build great projects since our founding in 2016! We provide a venue for creative expression through technology and empower the Utah technology community to innovate and build great solutions for the world's biggest problems.
Students can work on any kind of project they're passionate about during a hackathon! They'll win prizes for great hacks, get resources to facilitate their work, and meet like minded technology enthusiasts.
HackTheU hosts workshops all year round with industry professionals to teach students the skills they need to create, program, and design beautiful technology solutions.
HackTheU connects students with mentors who can answer questions that come up during the project build and coach students about professional technology standards.
We're excited you're along for the ride for our first ever virtual hackathon!
First, register on our DevPost page; this is where we'll be accepting project submissions for judging.
Next, join us on our chat! This is how we'll be able to match you with other team members, mentors, get announcements out, and share a few laughs!
Finally, if you're wanting to relax feel free to join our Minecraft server at minecraft.hacktheu.org.
Saturday, April 04
Hackathon starts, DevPost opens |
1:00PM |
Team matching on chat |
1:00PM |
Minecraft server opens |
1:00PM |
Sunday, April 05
Ongoing mentoring / hacking |
All-day |
Monday, April 06
Ongoing mentoring / hacking |
All-day |
Capture The Flag opens |
1:00PM |
Tuesday, April 07
Ongoing mentoring / hacking |
All-day |
Tron watch party |
9:00PM |
Wednesday, April 08
Ongoing mentoring / hacking |
All-day |
Jackbox games |
9:00PM |
Thursday, April 09
Ongoing mentoring / hacking |
All-day |
Bob Ross MS paint competition opens |
11:00AM |
Bob Ross MS paint competition closes |
7:00PM |
Friday, April 10
Ongoing mentoring / hacking |
All-day |
Type-racer competition |
7:00PM |
Saturday, April 11
Submissions close |
1:00PM |
Capture The Flag closes |
1:00PM |
Winners announced |
7:00PM |
Who can participate?
Anybody who is a graduate or undergraduate student is welcome to participate! We would love to have you regardless of your level of experience or background.
How many people can I have on my team?
You can either work individually or in a team of up to four people. We will be helping people find teams to work with on our chat platform!
How can I ask for help on my project?
We will be mentoring hackathon attendees on our chat platform. Stop by and ask any questions you have, big or small!
Will there be any workshops?
We will be hosting a couple of small games and side competitions! They're posted on the schedule, and as the workshop approaches, we will be meeting up on our chat platform.
How do I make a DevPost submission?
DevPost has a guide about how to make a submission on their site. As we will be doing all judging virtually by looking at DevPost submissions, please make sure your submission reflects your project well! Feel free to attach images, videos, and github pages with source code. Here are some more tips about how to make a winning post.
Are there any special rules for this week long virtual hackathon?
As with normal hackathons, we will be enforcing our code of conduct. We have no other formal rules we will be enforcing, but we ask our attendees to be conscious of the ongoing pandemic; if you are competing with a team, please meet virtually. Since our submission time is a whole week long to accommodate students working from home, we ask that our participants are also conscious of managing their time between schoolwork throughout the week and our hackathon.
What if I don't know how to code?
We would love to have you anyway! Hackathons are open to artists, scientists, musicians, writers, and anybody who wants to build something amazing!
What are the prizes?
For our spring hackathon 2020, we're giving away Nintendo Switches, AirPods, Google Home Minis, and more. Our most up to date prize information is on DevPost.
Are you providing hardware?
Since we're not able to meet in person, we will, unfortunately, not be able to provide hardware for our event. Please feel free to use any hardware you have available for your project!
Don't have a project idea?
Try thinking inside the box. The idea of thinking inside the box is to look at your environment, assess your current skills and knowledge, and use those to create your project. It takes the pressure off yourself and allows you to make something you’ll love. Here are some questions to ask yourself when thinking inside the box: What technology/platform do I really like working with? Is there a hobby I have that could be improved with a program or gadget? What small problem in my life can I fix with my project?
My question hasn't been answered!
Feel free to reach out either on our chat platform or to [email protected]!
