CincyHacks: Southern Ohio's first 24-hour high school hackathon, co-hosted by Cengage Learning.

If you are looking for CincyHacks 2018, please go to https://cincyhacks2018.devpost.com.

There’s an astounding lack of high school hackathons in the Midwest, much less the greater Cincinnati area. Collegiate hackathons may be more widespread, but the thought of competing against older and seemingly smarter college students pushes these talented high school minds away. CincyHacks, however, aims to change this. In fact, CincyHacks is the first of its kind, drawing talented high school students from all over the tri-state area as Cincinnati’s first high school hackathon. The goal is to foster a tech culture for high school students in greater Cincinnati communities and provide an engaging environment and platform for them to showcase their awesome hacks.

CincyHacks is a 24-hour long (free) hackathon where teams of up to 4 students will build innovative solutions to common problems through code. Teams work closely with mentors throughout the entire process; however, they have many other opportunities as well. Eligible sponsors will give tech talks around the clock, with topics ranging from website building to interview tricks. Don’t worry about food either — hackers will be provided all meals, as well as unlimited snacks and drinks.

Saturday, November 4th

  • 11:30AM: Registration opens
  • 1PM: Opening ceremony
  • 2PM: Hacking begins
  • 6PM: Dinner

Sunday, November 5th

  • 12AM: Midnight snack
  • 7AM: Breakfast
  • 11:30PM: Lunch
  • 2PM: Hacking ends
  • 2:30PM: Judging begins
  • 4PM: Final presentations and judging
  • 4:30PM: Closing ceremony

CincyHacks is hosted in partnership with Cengage Learning.

View full rules

Prizes

$4,440 in prizes

First Place

Each team member will receive an Oculus Rift VR headset and an engraved first place medal. They will also be invited to lunch with the CIO of GE Aviation, Jude Schramm.

Second Place

Each team member will receive a GoPro - HERO5 Session 4K Action Camera headset and an engraved second place medal.

Third Place

Each team member will receive a Google Home Mini and an engraved third place medal.

Most Popular

Each team member will receive $50 Amazon gift cards.

Best Mobile App - Sponsored by Atomic Robot

Each team member will receive a $100 Visa Gift Card.

Best Use of Cengage IDE

Each team member will receive an Ultimate Ears Wonderboom bluetooth speaker.

Best User Interface

Each team member will receive a Lifx Smart Wifi bulb.

Devpost Achievements

Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:

Eligibility

  • Participants: Anyone currently (2017-18 school year) in high school (9th to 12th grade)

Requirements

  • Presentations are 3 minutes long (no longer!)
  • Judged on learning, functionality, innovation, and applicability
  • Talk about:
    • What you learned
    • How you thought of the idea
    • How your idea is applicable to the real world (What problem does it solve? Is there a market demand for it?)
  • Show a demo of your project if possible to get points for functionality

Judges

Dr. John Franco

Dr. John Franco
University of Cincinnati

James Carman

James Carman
Cengage Learning

Chuck Kulchar

Chuck Kulchar
GE Aviation

Matt Tower

Matt Tower
Cengage Learning

Judging Criteria

  • Innovation
    How creative is the project? How unique is the solution?
  • Applicability
    Do markets demand it? Does it fill a niche? How much do people themselves want it?
  • Functionality
    How well does it work? Is it easy to use? What kinds of errors and bugs are there?
  • Cengage - Learning
    Cengage Learning recognizes the value of curiosity and vigor for learning, and we agree. While some hackathons are pure competition, CincyHacks will push students out of their comfort zone into potential innovation. Most important part of the judging.