Dates

The coding phase of the Hackathon begins at 11am and ends at 3:45pm. You should not work on any part of your submission prior to or after that time frame. The repository should not be created prior to the coding phase, and you may not reuse your final project code. All work for the hackathon should be completed during the hackathon. Planning and general idea brainstorming before the event is allowed.

Eligibility

Only Honors students enrolled at University of Delaware who are taking CISC106 or CISC108 honors may participate in the Hackathon.

Honors students who have already completed CISC106/108 are invited to participate as Mentors and help out any participants with their hack.

You must be physically present during judging and the awards ceremony to receive prizes.

Team Membership

Teams may include 1 or 2 students, no more.

All team members must be registered Honors students enrolled in CISC106 or CISC108.

Each participant may only join one team.

Team Formation

Once a team is confirmed, members may not switch teams.

Project and Submission Requirements

You are required to submit the following:

  • The GitHub URL of your project

Final Presentations

You will have a maximum of 2 minutes to present your hack to the judges.

All teams still participating by judging time must present.

Teams who voluntarily withdraw from presenting are ineligible for prizes.

Intellectual Property

All code, art, UI design, and written work must be produced during the hackathon, except:

  • Publicly available open-source libraries
  • Licensed or free-to-use images/media
  • Public datasets
  • Gemini or other generative tools (with disclosure)

You are free and even encouraged to use Generative AI tools like Gemini and other LLMs to produce code quickly and effectively.

Technology

Your website must use Drafter, and not other alternative web frameworks (e.g., Flask, Django, React, Angular). The website must successfully deploy on Github Pages. Being unable to access your site from your repository's link will likely cause you to lose.

Presence & Participation

You may leave and return throughout the day.

You must attend:

  • Judging session
  • Closing ceremony

Technical issues should be reported immediately to organizers.

Prizes

There will be four categories of prizes:

  • Best Overall
  • Best Technical
  • Best Concept
  • Best Use of Gemini

Each member of a winning team will receive their own individual prize.

Judging Criteria and Winner Selection

Your project will be reviewed by at least one pair of judges across two major dimensions:

  • Technical Quality: This looks at how well your project works in practice.
    • Is the application functional end-to-end?
    • Are interactions smooth and intuitive?
    • Is performance responsive?
    • Are bugs noticeable or blocking?
    • Projects that score high in this category feel polished, reliable, and user-ready.
  • Concept/Idea Strength: This looks at the value and originality of your idea.
    • Does the concept address a real need or insight?
    • Is it creative or innovative?
    • Is its purpose clear and meaningful?
    • Is the idea viable, if more development time was available?
    • Projects that score high in this category present a compelling, well-defined, and distinctive vision.

Distinct winners will be selected for the three categories as follows:

  • Best Technical: The most impressive execution and engineering
  • Best Concept: The most compelling idea or insight
  • Best Overall: The best balance of innovation, usability, and polish

Separately, any team that uses Gemini in their application is eligible to win the "Best Use of Gemini" category. There will be 2-3 winning teams in this category, and they are still eligible for the other categories. Judges will consider how thoughtfully Gemini was integrated and whether AI meaningfully upgraded the solution.

Acceptable Conduct

Treat fellow participants with respect, kindness, and professionalism.

Discrimination or harassment of any kind is prohibited.

Treat mentors, organizers, judges, and speakers courteously.

Healthy discussions and sharing of ideas are encouraged, but:

Collusion that undermines fair competition is not allowed.

  • Teams may coincidentally work on similar ideas.
  • However, independently developed solutions must be distinguishable.
  • Overly similar implementations may trigger review for possible collusion.