Hack Western is one of Canada’s largest annual student run hackathons and will be hosted virtually from Western University. Hack Western 8 will welcome more than 800 students from November 19th to 21nd, 2021. Participants will collaborate in teams of up to four to build web, mobile, and hardware projects, while participating in workshops, learning from mentors and competing for prizes. Our sponsors are central to Hack Western’s success, and allows the event to be free of charge for all students.
This year, we're helping you Level Up! Whether that's through our very first public preweek filled with workshops and panels, to real conversations with your fellow peers about the questions you've always wondered; Hack Western 8 is here to support you in your journey into the field of tech, no matter your experience level!
Chat with other attendees and access the rest of your Hack Western 8 experience on the official event Discord here: https://discord.gg/hackwestern
Requirements
Your project must follow the Rules outlined for this event - see the Rules tab for more details. Additionally:
- Please add each member of your team to your project
- Provide a short write up of your project, what it does, why you built it - tell us the story behind it!
- (Optional) Attach images, videos, GIFs of your projects
Prizes
$CAD19,350 in prizes
First Place Overall
Hack Western will provide each member from the first-place overall team with their choice of a Standing Desk or ErgoChair Core from Autonomous (valued at ~$500)
Second Place Overall
Hack Western will provide each member from the second place overall team with their choice of an Apple Watch SE or Galaxy Watch (~$400 in value)
Third Place Overall
Hack Western will provide each member from the third place overall team with their choice of a Logitech MX Master 3 mouse or MX Keys Keyboard (~$200 in value)
Fourth Place Overall
Hack Western will provide each member from the fourth-place overall team with a $75 Amazon card per team member.
Best Fintech Hack, Presented by Scotiabank
Have an idea for the future of financial technology? Scotiabank is offering each member of the winning project a Nintendo Switch!
Leverage technology to build a more environmentally and socially sustainable future, Presented by Telus
(2)
At TELUS, we strive to challenge ourselves and those around us to seek innovative ways to drive positive change towards a sustainable future. Whether it be advancements in agriculture, smart cities or health care, we are constantly seeking ways in which we can contribute to matters of sustainability. We hope that you will join us in this pursuit and we look forward to seeing the creative solutions that you come up with.
The first-place team will win 1 pair of Beats Headphones per team member. The team with the best pitch will win 1 Fujifilm Instax Share SP-2 Mobile Printer per team member.
Any winner will also receive preferred consideration for the TELUS GTLP and Co-op programs, beginning Spring/Summer 2022.
Best Health Hack, Presented by Sunlife
(2)
Ideate the future of healthcare with a health-themed project. Each member of the winning team will receive a $100 Amazon Gift Card!
Best use of Amazon Web Services (AWS), Presented by Amazon
The first-place project will win an amazon Alexa and $100 in AWS Credits. Potential coffee chats with Amazon recruiters/employees will be offered to winners!
Best Use of Dasha AI
Ever thought of how cool it’d be to bake conversational AI into your projects? No more messing around with clunky visual interfaces; Dasha makes it super easy to build a voice interface straight into your application!
We're offering Keychron Mechanical Keyboards (or) Anker Noise Cancelling Over-the-Ear Headphones + an exclusive swag kit!
In addition, every valid submission to the Best Use of Dasha AI category will receive some super-cool swag shipped straight to them!
Best Use of Google Cloud
Build your hackathon project with a suite of secure storage, powerful compute, and integrated data analytics products provided by Google Cloud. See full list of products here: g.co/cloud. Winners located in the US will receive a Google Cloud Swag Bag complete with a beanie, pillow, journal, socks & lanyards. Winners outside of the US will receive a Google branded backpack.
Get started here: http://hackp.ac/gcp
Most Creative Use of Twilio
Twilio allows you to incorporate mobile messaging, phone calls and a ton of other awesome communication features right into your hackathon project using a web service API. Are you building an e-commerce website and want to send text notifications or email confirmations once an order is completed? Or maybe you'd like to verify users based on their mobile numbers? Twilio makes all this possible and more. Build a hack that simplifies your life using any Twilio API for a chance to win some awesome prizes! Get started with $50 in free credit!
Get srated here: https://www.twilio.com/try-twilio?promo=mlh-twilio
Best Domain Name from Domain.com
Register a .Tech domain name using Domain.com during the weekend for your chance to win a PowerSquare Qi Wireless Phone Charger for you and each member of your team! Each team may submit one entry per person on the team. The more creative the domain the better!
Best Use of Coil
Coil is all about providing better ways to access and reward the creators, publishers and platforms that you love. Coil members get to view web monetized sites while streaming micropayments directly to the website owner, or in this case, you! In turn, you can react to payments in real time by displaying a thank you message, unlocking bonus content, features and so much more! Build a web monetized hack using Coil for a chance to win an Anker Quick Charge Portable Charger, Coil pin and $60 Coil credit redemption card!
1517 Prize for Entrepreneurial Projects
(2)
Each winning project will receive a $1K grant, $10K of AWS credits, and mentorship from 1517. At least one member of the team must be in undergrad or high school. Team must be interested in continuing to work on their project post-hackathon.
Devpost Achievements
Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:
Judges
To Be Announced!
Judging Criteria
-
Creativity
How creative is this project? -
Technical Difficulty
Simpler and less technical projects (no-code tools and mockups allowed!) will not be penalized -
Demonstrates Learning
Has your team demonstrated growth or a journey to learn a new skill? -
Usefulness
Would this be something that could be used in the real world? Does this solve the problem its trying to solve? -
(Bonus Points) Polish
How is the presentation of the project? Is there a video? Does the team present the project well?
Questions? Email the hackathon manager
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