Hoya Hacks 2025 Official Rules

These rules have been tailored specifically for Hoya Hacks, Georgetown University’s annual hackathon. Please review them carefully to ensure a positive and successful experience. For additional information, visit our website or Devpost page.

Hoya Hacks is about fostering innovation, learning, and collaboration. Whether you’re here to compete, develop your skills, or meet like-minded individuals, embrace the hacker spirit by supporting others, experimenting with new ideas, and having fun. HoyaHaxa!

• Eligibility:

  • Open to active college students from North America. High school students from the Mid-Atlantic region may also apply. Recent graduates (within one year) are welcome to participate.

  • All participants must register via the registration link.

  • Registration closes on January 13, 2025. No day-of registrations will be accepted.

• Notification of Acceptance:

  • Registrants will be notified of acceptance in December 2024 via email from HoyaHaxa@georgetown.edu.

• Team Formation:

  • Teams must consist of 2-4 members. Solo participation is not allowed.

  • All student teams must register their team on Saturday at 10 AM EST. Team registration is mandatory.

• Check-In:

  • All participants must complete the check-in form.

1. Participation Guidelines:

   • Teams must consist exclusively of eligible students who are not organizers, volunteers, or judges.

   • All team members should be present at the Healey Family Student Center during the hackathon. Leaving for short periods is permitted.

2. Work and Submission Rules:

   • All work on projects must be completed during Hoya Hacks.

   • Teams may build on previous ideas but cannot reuse existing code.

   • Open-source libraries and frameworks are permitted, but pre-written project-specific code is not allowed.

   • Teams can register for multiple tracks but must do so during the mandatory check-in on January 25, 2025.

   • All Hoya Hacks projects must be original. Projects will be judged for creativity, the strength of their code or hardware innovation, and if they work!

   • Teams can of course gain advice and support from organizers, volunteers, sponsors, and others.

   • All work on a project should be done at the hackathon.

   • Teams can use an idea they had before the event.

   • Teams can work on ideas that have already been done. Hacks do not have to be “innovative”. If somebody wants to work on a common idea they should be allowed to do so and should be judged on the quality of their hack. These days it’s hard to find something that’s fully original and teams might not know an idea has been done before anyway.

   • Teams can work on an idea that they have worked on before (as long as they do not re-use code).

   • Teams can use libraries, frameworks, or open-source code in their projects. Working on a project before the event and open-sourcing it for the sole purpose of using the code during the event is against the spirit of the rules and is not allowed.

   • Adding new features to existing projects is allowed. Judges will only consider new functionality introduced or new features added during the hackathon in determining the winners.

   • Teams must stop hacking once the time is up. However, teams are allowed to debug and make small fixes to their programs after time is up. e.g. If during demoing your hack you find a bug that breaks your application and the fix is only a few lines of code, it's okay to fix that. Making large changes or adding new features is not allowed.

3. Coding and Debugging:

   • Hacking ends when the allotted time expires. Minor bug fixes for demos are allowed but no major changes or new features.

4. Submission Requirements:

   • Hackers must submit their projects on Devpost by 9:00 AM EST. No exceptions.

   • Submissions must include:

     • A copy of the project’s code.

     • A 2-2:30 minute video demonstrating the project.

5. Code of Conduct:

   • Projects must adhere to the Code of Conduct.

   • Unsporting behavior or violations of the rules may result in disqualification at the discretion of the organizers.

• All teams are required to present a demo of their project.

• Demos are judged on functionality and implementation, not on the quality of the pitch or presentation. Incomplete or broken projects are still encouraged to demo, as sharing your process is part of the learning experience.

• For presenting challenges or learning outcomes, teams may opt for a discussion-style demo.

• You are encouraged to present what you have done even if your hack is broken or you weren’t able to finish. It's okay if you didn't finish your hack—that happens all the time! Completion is only one part of the judging criteria, so you might still do well. Also, demoing is not just about the competition. It's a chance to share with others what you learned and what you tried to build—that's what hacking's all about! For being courageous enough to demo, you'll receive a special MLH "I Demoed" sticker—it doesn't matter how good the demo is! In the case that you don't have anything to demo, you can give a presentation about what you tried and what you learned. Hearing what other people learned is interesting and inspiring for other attendees.

Judges will evaluate projects on the following equally weighted criteria:

1. Technology: How technically impressive was the hack? Was the technical problem the team tackled difficult? Did it use a particularly clever technique or did it use many different components? Did the technology involved make you go "Wow"?

2. Design: Did the team put thought into the user experience? How well designed is the interface? For a website, this might be about how beautiful the CSS or graphics are. For a hardware project, it might be more about how good the human-computer interaction is (e.g., is it easy to use or does it use a cool interface?).

3. Completion: Does the hack work? Did the team achieve everything they wanted?

4. Learning: Did the team stretch themselves? Did they try to learn something new? What kind of projects have they worked on before? If a team which always does virtual reality projects decides to switch up and try doing a mobile app instead, that exploration should be rewarded.

These criteria will guide judges, but ultimately judges are free to make decisions based on their gut feeling of which projects are the most impressive and most deserving.

It's important to note that these judging criteria do not include:

• How good your code is: It doesn't matter if your code is messy, or not well-commented, or uses inefficient algorithms. Hacking is about playing around, making mistakes, and learning new things. If your code isn't production ready, we're not going to mark you down.

• How well you pitch: Hacking is about building and learning, not about selling.

• How good the idea is: Again, hackathons aren't about coming up with innovative ideas. It's about building and learning.

• How well the project solves a problem: You can build something totally useless, and as long as you're learning and having fun, that's a good hack! Sometimes a pointless project is one of the best hacks!

So don't worry about coming up with the next big idea or building the next Facebook. You'll have plenty of time for that outside the hackathon. Just focus on learning, having fun, and making new friends. At the end of the day, the skills you learn and the friends you make might lead to the next big thing—but you don't have to do that to win a hackathon.

• Location: Healey Family Student Center, Georgetown University.

• Access Hours: Open 24 hours; exterior doors locked from midnight to 7 AM.

• Sleeping Arrangements: A designated sleep room will be available. Bring sleeping bags or air mattresses. Bathrooms are available for freshening up, but no showers will be provided.

• Food and Drinks: Three meals per day, snacks, and drinks will be provided. Please list dietary restrictions during registration.

• Event Support: Visit the Hermann Room or contact the organizers via Discord.

• Technical Help: Use the #code-help channel on Discord to ask for assistance or join #speak-to-a-mentor to connect with mentors.

• General Inquiries: Use the #help-desk channel or email HoyaHaxa@georgetown.edu.

Remember!

The competition is just a part of the hackathon. To make the most out of the event, try something new, teach other people, and make new friends!

Happy Hacking from the Hoya Hacks team!