Syracuse University's 24-hour in-person hackathon September 19th - September 20th is open to all students!

 

Develop apps, websites, tools, games, or multimedia either solo or in teams. Present your project on Sunday for a shot at winning!



Schedule

Saturday, September 19

11:00 AM — Doors Open

11:45 AM — Opening Ceremony

12:00 PM — Hacking Begins

12:15 PM — Lunch

3:00 PM - Workshop (Topic TBA)

6:00 PM — Dinner

9:00 PM — Monsters and snacks after Dinner

11:00 PM — Movie Night

 

Sunday, September 20

8:00 AM — Breakfast 

12:00 PM — Hacking Ends

12:15 PM — Lunch

1:00 PM — Project Presentations Begin

3:30 PM — Judging Ends

4:00 PM — Closing Ceremony

4:15 PM — Prize Giveaway

4:30 PM — Event Wrap-Up

 

Requirements

Track 1: Campus Impact

"Built for School"

Projects designed to make life better for students, faculty, or staff on your own campus. This includes tools for navigating campus life, connecting students, improving access to resources, streamlining campus services, supporting mental health and wellness, or solving a problem your community actually deals with.

 

Track 2: Usability & Craft

"I'd Actually Use This"

Projects that are genuinely ready to use. These are polished, intuitive, and functional beyond the demo. This track rewards teams who thought about real users: clean UX, thoughtful design decisions, edge cases handled, and an experience that doesn't feel like a hackathon prototype. If a judge could open it on their phone right now and actually use it, this is the track.

 

Track 3: Ambition

"Swung for the Fences"

Projects that took a big swing. Groups that are attempting something technically ambitious, conceptually bold, or just plain hard, regardless of whether it fully came together. This track celebrates risk-taking over safety: teams who reached for something impressive and pushed as far as they could in the time they had.

 

Submission Guidelines:

All submissions will automatically be considered for "Best Overall," "Best Use of AI," and "Best Design" awards. To be considered for specific tracks (Campus Impact, Usability & Craft, or Ambition), you must select them upon submission.

 

How to submit: Submit your code on Devpost, and have a presentation ready for the judging process!

Hackathon Sponsors

Prizes

1 non-cash prize
Gadgets
3 winners

1 Bluetooth Speaker
1 Drone
1 Headphones
1 Lamp w speaker
1 Phone stand
1 Keyboard Cleaner
1 Backpack
1 Portable Charger
1 LED Desk Lap
1 Fancy salt and pepper shaker
1 Mouse
1 Flashlight w charger

Devpost Achievements

Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:

Judges

Alex Levy

Alex Levy
UX Designer at IBM

Jason Sharf

Jason Sharf
Director of Digital Services for the City of Syracuse

TBA

TBA
Syracuse Professor

Judging Criteria

  • Innovation & Creativity
    Is this an original idea or novel approach? Does it solve a real problem in an interesting way?
  • Impact & Usefulness
    How valuable is this project? Does it align with your tracks theme? Would people actually use it?
  • Completeness & Polish
    How finished does the project feel? Is it demo-ready with core features complete? Is it a deployable product?
  • Design & User Experience
    Is the project intuitive, polished, and easy to use? Does it have good visual design and user flow?
  • Technical Implementation
    How technically challenging and well-executed is the project? Does it demonstrate strong programming skills and function properly? This rewards those who truly challenge themselves

Questions? Email the hackathon manager

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