Welcome to HackHarvard 2022! Join us for the seventh iteration of HackHarvard, a completely free 36-hour hackathon hosted by Harvard University students. For the first time in three years, we will be returning to a fully in-person hackathon!
This year, our theme is "Ctrl, Alt, Create". It’s time to get retro and take inspiration from the past: whether that means harkening to an early technological age, or booting up an old, forgotten project to give it a new, creative twist.
For more information, check out our website: https://hackharvard.io/
In order to participate and be eligible for prizes, you must have applied through our application form and have received an acceptance/confirmation email from us.
All submission are due 8AM EST, SUNDAY OCTOBER 16TH.
TRACKS
Submit to 1 of our 4 tracks for a chance to win track-specific prizes! This year, our tracks are blockchain & web3, education, entertainment, and lifehack. It is not a requirement to submit to a track. You are welcome to create a project on anything you wish.
Blockchain & Web3
Blockchain is ushering in the next wave of technological advancements, and so far has had widespread impacts from transforming the financial system to sparking social innovation. Pi Network, a social cryptocurrency and developer platform founded by a team of Stanford PhD’s, addresses the preexisting accessibility and distribution challenges in the blockchain industry, and is creating the blueprint for true digital citizenship in Web3.
Develop your app on Pi Network’s easy-to-use platform, and have the opportunity to plug-in to our community of over 35 million engaged users. Successful hackers will have the chance to put their work to the test with real-life users, gather feedback, and iterate to create high-level work they can share with the world.
Projects in this track will make use of our APIs and other tech; examples include games, art/NFT apps, DeFi apps, multiverse platforms, social apps and more.
Education
With the rise of online learning resources like Quizlet, KhanAcademy, Duolingo, and EdX, digital learning has become increasingly important to the contemporary student. Projects in this track may provide fresh perspectives on and increased accessibility of digital education and online learning platforms. Additionally, they may find new ways of teaching, motivating, and retaining students.
Entertainment
The role of technology in entertainment has grown explosively. From CGI in movies to mobile apps with hours of storytelling to fun online party games, there is no limit to what technology can do for entertainment. Projects in this track will present new “hacks” of entertainment such as games, arts, and apps. Hackers may invent something entirely new or create an altered/advanced version of an existing form of entertainment.
Lifehack
Let’s be casual for a second. We know it and you know it: Life’s hard. Yet, since the dawn of humanity, people have strived to become the best versions of themselves despite this relentless struggle. Some find it through better health, while others find it in heightened productivity. From fitness trackers to sleep trackers to daily schedulers, we want to see how you can improve life through your project. Projects in this track are far-reaching in type and seek to “hack” the daily lifestyles of people, individually or group wide.
Requirements
- Only one person per team may submit the team's project on Devpost, that person must add all other teammate(s) to the Devpost submission
- You must submit a link to a public GitHub repo that was created during the dates of October 14th - 16th, 2022.
- You must live demo your project in our judging space. Uploading an additional link to a video demoing your project under 3 minutes is optional, but recommended.
- You must select the appropriate tracks and prizes your project is competing for. For example, if you create a project related to education, you must select the "Education" category upon submission in order to be eligible to win the Education track prize.
Prizes
$14,740 in prizes
Prizes paid in cryptocurrency
1st Best Overall Hack
The best overall hack submitted to HackHarvard 2022. Not only is it novel, interesting, and useful, but it is also technically sound and exciting to many. Each team member gets first pick of one of the following: 4 Apple Watch SEs, 4 HP 27" Monitors, and 4 Amazon Echos + $50 Amazon gift cards. Each team member will also receive a 1st place certificate.
2nd Best Overall Hack
The 2nd best overall hack submitted to HackHarvard 2022. Not only is it novel, interesting, and useful, but it is also technically sound and exciting to many. Each team member gets second pick (after the 1st place team) of one of the following: 4 Apple Watch SEs, 4 HP 27" Monitors, and 4 Amazon Echos + $50 Amazon gift cards. Each team member will also receive a 2nd place certificate.
3rd Best Overall Hack
The 3rd best overall hack submitted to HackHarvard 2022. Not only is it novel, interesting, and useful, but it is also technically sound and exciting to many. Each team member gets third pick of one of the following: 4 Apple Watch SEs, 4 HP 27" Monitors, and 4 Amazon Echos + $50 Amazon gift cards. Each team member will also receive a 3rd place certificate.
Best Education Hack
This is for the best Education project. Webcam + Laptop stand for each team member. Leading Learners will also be awarding each winning team member with an EdTech Resource Bundle
Best Entertainment Hack
This is for the best Entertainment project. Speaker + Portable Movie Project for each team member
Best Lifehack Hack
This is for the best Lifehack project. Massage gun + Xiaomi Mi Smart Band for each team member
Best Use of Pi SDK (Sponsored by Pi Network)
Each member of the winning team will receive a Nintendo Switch and an interview opportunity for a position at Pi Network (The position will be individualized to each member, i.e. the role/title, and other specifications (internship, full-time, summer-only, etc) will depend on each individuals’ skill set, experience and availability).
Eligibility:
Teams must integrate the Pi SDK into their apps.
The Pi Access token must be used for creating user access without the need for the user to have additional login credentials. The app must comply with Pi Network’s Developer Terms of Service. The app must successfully operate outside of the sandbox environment (before submission for review).
The app should be optimized for user experience with minimum data collection. The Pi SDK already enables seamless user authentication within the ecosystem, so do not use an alternative signup or ask the user for their contact information after they have signed through Pi authentication.
Best Use of Data (Sponsored by Hudson River Trading)
$150 Amazon card per person on winning team and access to our VIP Swag Store for each member. Effective use of data is important to the decisions we make at Hudson River Trading, and we’re always looking for innovative new ways to strategize with data. This prize will be awarded to the hack that best integrates the use of data into their project.
Help make the Metaverse a reality! (Sponsored by Meta)
The metaverse will be built by everyone, with creative ideas and practical applications being developed every day by all sorts of imaginative people. At Meta, we’re building the future of digital connection! The metaverse will provide new ways to connect, play and learn together in virtual 3D spaces. The winning project will best align with Meta's goals of creating the Metaverse. We can't wait to see what you come up with!
Best Educational Accessibility Hack (Sponsored by Tech Tree Root)
$200 gift-card of their choice for the whole team (not per member). There are many students who have little to no access to educational opportunities. This prize shall go to the team that best utilizes technology to help these students overcome the many roadblocks to a quality education.
Best Use of MATLAB (Sponsored by MathWorks)
(2)
Each winning team will receive a MathWorks swag bag worth $400.
Eligibility:
MATLAB must be used significantly in the submission, using code authored in other programming languages or platforms is permitted but must be integrated into MATLAB. All submissions MUST be tagged with MATLAB on Devpost. Submissions must include external, and user-created functions to run the code. Must contain a PDF or HTML report detailing your submission along with visualization of your output. Apps developed in MATLAB are also allowed.
For extra credit, submit a short 3 minute video explaining your submission and how it tackles the problem at hand on Devpost.
Best use of Sonr Flutter SDK (Sponsored by Sonr)
Apple AirPod Maxes for each member! The Sonr motor-node is a plug-in that you can use to integrate rich crypto features into your applications without additional overhead. Add the #sonr topic to your Sonr submission's Github repo and tag @sonr_io on Twitter for a
chance to win an $SNR airdrop! Useful Link: https://www.sonr.dev/docs/guides/define
Best Contribution to the OSS Sonr Repository (Sponsored by Sonr)
Each team member will receive $100 DoorDash credit and get to skip the first round interview for a Summer 2023 Sonr internship . Useful Link: https://www.sonr.dev/docs/guides/define
Best IOS Project (Sponsored by LocketCamera)
$100 Amazon Gift Card + Chance to Interview with the Locket team for a Summer 2023 Internship for each team member
Hack with AssemblyAI (Sponsored by AssemblyAI)
Each member of the winning team will receive a $100 Amazon gift card.
AssemblyAI is the API platform for state-of-the-art AI models. With a simple API platform, you can access powerful AI models that can automatically transcribe and understand audio data at a large scale. At HackHarvard, we're sponsoring a prize for the team that builds the most creative project using the AssemblyAI APIs.
Sustainability Prize (Sponsored by RaptorMaps)
Awarded to the team that best leverages technology to fight climate change.
Winners will receive:
-Tickets to the Greentown Labs Climate Tech Summit in Somerville. Greentown Labs is the biggest climate tech incubator in North America, and the summit represents an opportunity to learn from the top minds in sustainability.
-A private tour of Greentown Labs.
-Lunch with engineers on the Raptor Maps team.
-$100 to invest in your project.
Best Use of Echo3D (Sponsored by Echo3D)
VIDEO SUBMISSION IS REQUIRED
$50 Amazon Gift Card per team member. This is awarded to the team that has the best project making use of echo3D. echo3D (www.echo3D.co) is a cloud platform for 3D/AR/VR that provides tools and server-side infrastructure to help developers & companies quickly build and deploy 3D/AR/VR games, apps, and content.
Best Use of GoogleCloud (Sponsored by GoogleCloud)
(2)
The winning team will receive four GoogleCloud Patagonia backpacks and two swag boxes.
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.
Best First Time Hack
This is the prize for the best first time hack where all members of the team must be first-time hackathon attendees. Laptop stand + Switchbot for each team member
Most Useless Hack
This award is for the most useless hack. One Useless Box for each team member.
Most Funny Hack
This award is for the funniest hack. 3 screaming rubber chickens for each team member
Raffle Prizes
(4)
We will be raffling off the following to hackers (more raffle tickets can be obtained by going to workshops, speakers and the career fair):
Airpod Pros
2 Oculus Quests
Electric Skateboard
(These are individual raffle prizes, not team prizes)
[MLH] Most Creative Use of GitHub
Prize: GitHub Octocat Puzzle & Sticker bundle
GitHub is one of the best ways to collaborate, push code, get feedback, and show the world what you’ve built during a hackathon. To take it a step further, GitHub is now offering you access to industry tools, events & learning resources through something called GitHub Global Campus. Win this weekend’s Most Creative Use of GitHub prize category, first by signing up for GitHub Global Campus and second by using a GitHub repository to host your hackathon project’s code! Make sure your use of GitHub stands out with a detailed ReadMe page, meaningful pull requests and collaboration history, and even a GitHub pages deployment!
[MLH] Best Domain Name from Domain.com
Prize: Domain.com Branded Backpack
Register a .tech domain name using Domain.com during the weekend. Each team may submit one entry per person on the team. Each winning team member will receive a Domain.com Branded Backpack.
[MLH] Best Accessibility Hack sponsored by Fidelity
Prize: Fidelity Branded Wireless Charger
At Fidelity, accessibility is viewed as a major key to the success of their business, which is why they are challenging you to come up with innovative ways to make tech more accessible! We want you to use your hacking skills to find and build solutions that put opportunities and resources within reach to all communities. The team with the best accessibility hack will win a Fidelity branded wireless charger for each team member!
[MLH] Best Use of DeSo
Prize: $100 worth of $DESO coin and a DeSo branded Tumbler
DeSo is the official Web3 sponsor of the MLH Hackathon League and the first Layer 1 blockchain custom-built for decentralized social media applications. While blockchains like Avalanche or Solana cost $0.50+ to store just a 200-character post, the DeSo blockchain is built with custom indexing and storage optimizations which make it 10,000X cheaper to store social content on-chain! In order to qualify for the contest, you must launch an app that writes to the DeSo blockchain and implements DeSo identity. While social media apps are a great fit for DeSo, you can also build financial apps, marketplaces, and more on the DeSo blockchain. For inspiration on project ideas, you can check out some of the existing 200+ apps already live on DeSo at Bithunt.com as well as our DeSo APIs.
Devpost Achievements
Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:
Judges

Judges from various SWE companies and academia
Judging Criteria
-
Criteria will be given to hackers at HackHarvard
-
Creativity
How original is this idea, in your experience? -
Depth
How thoroughly does this hack solve the stated problem? Can you identify edge cases that would break the hack? -
Technical Difficulty
Was creating this hack technically difficult? -
Design
Is this hack designed to most optimally solve the stated problem? -
Usability
Can someone not involved in creating the hack, but with reasonable computer science experience, use the hack effectively?
Questions? Email the hackathon manager
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