Teams will compete by completing projects for nonprofit organizations. Participants can sign up with a fully-formed team, or look for a team via a web portal. We'll accommodate cross-school collaboration on a case-by-case basis.

We will reach out to nonprofits to find projects that are open-ended so that hackers have creative liberty to solve them, and projects that are interesting and have the appropriate level of technical difficulty for a hackathon. Based on the number of participating teams, each project will be allotted a certain number of teams.

The Opening Ceremony will begin Friday, April 5th, at 5 pm PST. Projects will be announced at the opening ceremony, and teams will select their project in the time after the opening ceremony. Project selections will be due half an hour before the hacking period.

Hacking will begin Friday, April 5th, at 7 pm PST and conclude Sunday, April 7th, at 7 am PST (36 hours later). Throughout the hacking period, sponsors will come in to give talks on subjects of their choosing (product development, project management, how to use a specific tool e.g. MongoDB). Additionally, teams will have the opportunity to communicate with a representative from their nonprofit (virtually, or in-person) to ensure their project serves the correct need (and gives them the best chance of winning!).

After the hacking period, judges and nonprofits will begin reviewing projects. Each nonprofit representative selects the project that best addresses their organization’s needs. The judges then choose 3 projects from this pool to be the “grand prize winners.” Independently from the nonprofit-chosen pool, sponsors can choose a project to win their own associated category (i.e. best use of MongoDB, most innovative).

Winners will be announced at the Closing Ceremony, on Sunday, April 7th, at 5 pm PST. Grand prize winners will receive a prize selected by the Hackathon Organizers, while the category winners will receive a prize provided by the sponsor.