500 participants creating innovative software and hardware hacks in less than 36 hours.

HackUMass, powered by the Berthiaume Center for Entrepreneurship, is the largest hackathon in the Pioneer Valley, attracting over 500 hackers from all over the country to one arena. In 36 hours, participants will bring innovative ideas to life through both software and hardware projects.

View full rules

Prizes

$18,650 in prizes

Finalist (8)

Each member of the 8 finalist teams will receive one NVIDIA SHIELD, courtesy of NVIDIA.

Champion (3)

Each member of the 3 champion teams will receive a Myo and Pebble Steel, courtesy of the HackUMass Team.

IBM Bluemix Cloud Development Innovation Award

Win $12k in IBM Cloud Credits and be fastracked into MassChallenge. Students who register for and use IBM Bluemix for HackUMass, qualify for the IBM Bluemix Cloud Development Innovation Award. IBM will present one Cloud Development Innovation Award to a HackUMass team for the most innovative use of IBM Bluemix. Selected winning team will be awarded admission into the IBM Global Entrepreneur Cloud Start Up program, and receive $12K of IBM Cloud Credit. In collaboration with MassChallenge, the world's largest startup accelerator and competition, winners of the IBM Bluemix Cloud Development Innovation Award at HackUMass will also be fastracked into the 2nd round of judging at MassChallenge 2015. All prizes, or any prize components will be awarded to the winning team as a whole and not to each individual member of a wining team. IBM is not responsible for any disputes among team members concerning prize or prize components.

Communication Innovation Award

Each team member will receive a glass trophy and a $50 visa gift card, courtesy of Verizon Wireless.

Best Use of TripAdvisor API

TripAdvisor will award up to 4 Dell Chromebook to the team that best uses TripAdvisor API

Best UMass Dining Hack

UMass Dining will award their top prize to the best hack related to instant customer feedback and interaction, dining analytics, and/or location based promotions. Design, App UI/UX, and dashboard layout are all things that will be part of the hack, as people will aim to build complete apps around the features. $200 Visa gift card per team member

Best Hacks for Health Prize Category

Techspring will award 3 prizes in health related categories. Details: http://www.techspringhealth.org/hackumass

Best Use of Machine Learning

Indico will award Machine generated portraits and 1 million free API calls to the team that makes the best Machine Learning Hack

Best use of Google API, Hardware, or Tool

Google will award swag to the team with the best hack using Google API, Hardware or Tool (including cardboard)

Best use of Edison

Intel will award 2 Anki Drive & 2 Parrot Mini Drones for the best Edison hack!

Best use of Fusion 360 (2)

Autodesk will award a duffle bag full of swag to the team that has the best utilization Autodesk Fusion 360

HackUMass Popular Choice

MLH will award a Dell tablet to each member of the team that gets the most votes during public voting.

Eligibility

  • Students (Undergraduate, Graduate, or High School)
  • Individuals or teams of up to 4 members

Requirements

  • Project description
  • Team name
  • Video demo (optional)
  • Picture (optional)

Judges

John Cole

John Cole
Long River Ventures

Aaron Soules

Aaron Soules
Angel Catalyst

Steve Willis

Steve Willis

Bill Bither

Bill Bither
MachineMetrics

Karen Utgoff

Karen Utgoff
Utgoff Consulting

Daniel Smith

Daniel Smith
Raytheon BBN

Dave Waymouth

Dave Waymouth
Raytheon BBN

Jessica Lau

Jessica Lau
IEEE

Chuck Malloch

Chuck Malloch
UMass ECE - M5

Dave McLaughlin

Dave McLaughlin
UMass ECE - Professor

Martin Muthee

Martin Muthee
UMass ECE

Sandesh Virupaksha

Sandesh Virupaksha
UMass ECE

Sergio "The Surge" Cunha

Sergio "The Surge" Cunha
Verizon Wireless

Judging Criteria

  • HackUMass Finalist & Champions
    HackUMass Judges will select 8 finalist and 3 final CHAMPIONS based on these technical and non-technical criteria. - Creativity / Originality - Presentation / Polish - Design Process - User Experience - Technical Depth
  • Communication Innovation Award
    *The Surge is the sole judge for this category* Create a project that allows users to communicate with one another in a unique way; it must be effective and have a potential societal impact.