We are Australia's premier student hackathon!

Teams have 24 hours to design and build something awesome. It can be anything - a website, a mobile application, a video game, or even something hardware. The important thing is that it needs to work when it is presented to the judges.

Whether you are an avid programmer or a first-time hacker, UNIHACK welcomes everyone, regardless of skill level. You will have the opportunity to build, collaborate and learn from your fellow hackers and mentors at the event. The event will also have a number of tech talks throughout to help participants learn new or extend their existing skills.

It will be a virtually hosted event open to all AU/NZ students.

Detailed info @ https://cutt.ly/unihack21-info

Eligibility

You must have purchased a ticket before competing.

In addition, each member of a team must be 18 years or older, and be either:

a student studying at an accredited university or TAFE college in Australia or New Zealand as of 2020 or 2021;
or, a university student currently residing in Australia or New Zealand.

Requirements

In addition to details about your project and how you built it, you must also provide the following:

A list of all third-party material and APIs, including anything that was purchased.
A public link to your repository
Images and/or screenshots of your project
A video that features your pitch and demonstration of your project in action

Your video and link to the repository must be accessible between the judging period (Sunday March 7 to Sunday March 14)

Whilst optional, we strongly suggest having a live working copy of your hackathon project available during the judging period, allowing the judges to actually visit and try the app for themselves. It will only need to be up during the judging period. Afterwards, you can tear it down again.

You must also fill in the required fields with your DevPost submission to help us speed up the judging process. The information you provide will be used to create summary cards for the judges, allowing you to focus on the more important things during your pitch.

Video

You are required to produce a video for of your project. This video will be considered as your pitch to the judges and must:

be three minutes maximum; and
include a demonstration of your hackathon project (i.e. it cannot solely be a video with you talking to slides).

If your video is longer than the maximum allocated time, then judges will stop watching your video after the first three minutes.

We also strongly encourage you keep the video up after the event. This will help us for marketing and promotion of future UNIHACK competitions.

Hackathon Sponsors

Prizes

$22,550 in prizes

FIRST PLACE

- $4000 in cash
- Amazon Echo Dot with Clock (Gen 4) for each team member
- Anker Powercore+ USB-C Charger for each team member

SECOND PLACE

- $2000 in cash
- $50 Redballon Voucher for each team member
- Amazon Echo Dot (Gen 3) for each team member

THIRD PLACE

- $1000 in cash
- Kaiser Baas Drones for each team member

Best Design

Awarded to the usable and best looking user experience

- Adobe Creative Cloud subscriptions for each member

Most Creative Idea

The project that has the most original idea or reinvention

- Wacom Tablets for each member

Best Social Impact Hack

The best idea that addresses one of the UN Sustainable Development Goals or another pressing issue in our society today

- Wacoco Minipresso NS (and sustainable Nespresso pods) for each team member

People's Choice

The people have spoken - awarded to the team that gets the most votes on Devpost.

- Frank Green Tap&Pay Cup (and tea infuser and tea) for each member

The Greatest Makers (from Arcitecta)

The project that offers the most innovative solution through experimentation, iterative learning and discovery...

- An Arcitecta swag pack worth over $300 for each member. Includes a sleek mechanical keyboard, a drop-proof laptop bag, and an sustainably-sourced and locally-printed Arcitecta hoodie.

Best User-Centric Hack (from Medipass)

The best app that we think is transparent, simple and empowering

- $150 Bellroy voucher for each team member in the group

Best IoT Hack (from Telstra Dev)

The most innovative idea that best utilises the benefits of the Internet of Things

- An Arduino IoT Starter Kit from TelstraDev

The Community Prize (from Australia Post)

For the hack that helps the community the most

- $100 gift cards for each team member

Best Use of EchoAR

The best app that used EchoAR for their augmented or virtual reality (AR/VR) application

- $50 Amazon Gift Card (for the team)
- 3-month free Business Tier access (for each team member)
- Featured on the EchoAR "Inspiration" page

Customer Obsessed Award (from Coles)

Opportunity to leverage new technologies and ways of working to drive customer value in every experience at pace.

- Coles Gift Cards to the value of $1800

Data Analytics Prize (from PwC)

Calling all data lovers! We are looking for compelling insights derived from data. Incorporate data analytics and visualisation incorporated as part of your final solution and as part of the pitch.

- Garmin Forerunner 45s Sports Watch
- Jabra Elite 75t True Wireless In-Ear Headphones
- Fitbit Versa 2 Smart Fitness Watch

The Creative Pitch Prize

We are looking for the most compelling and quality pitch! Tell us your story, sell your idea to us and don't be afraid to get creative and incorporate other digital tools and technology!

- Sennheiser HD 458BT Over-Ear Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones
- Ryze Tello Drone Boost Combo
- Logitech G PRO X Mechanical Gaming Keyboard

Best use of Twilio

For the hack that best makes use of the Twilio API

- AirPods for each team member

Be Curious (from Latitude)

For the team that demonstrates curiosity through constant learning. It could be through showing how many ideas (and dead ends!) you’ve chased, insights you’ve gathered or cool tech you’ve hacked together. Show us how curious you’ve been.

- Pre-paid shopping vouchers

Judges

John Allsopp
Founder, Web Directions

Jeanette Cheah
CEO & Founder, Hacker Exchange

Max Lee
Software Engineer, Google

Akanksha Malik
Data Scientist, Telstra Purple

Bec Martin
CTO, MailTumble

Long Zheng
Head of Product - Podcasting, Triton Digital

Rob Crocitti
Head of Engineering, Digital & Service Design, Australia Post

Luannie Dang
Co-founder, Shooting Unicorns

Samantha Wong
Co-founder, Shooting Unicorns

Jake Moxey
Senior Frontend Engineer, Coinjar

Sophia Huynh
Program Director, UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network

Judging Criteria

Polish, Design and Execution
What does the project look like? Is it intuitive, aesthetically pleasing, and accessible? And most importantly, does it actually work?
Technical Difficulty
Does the hack look technically interesting or challenging? Is it simply putting a pretty frontend on an existing API or does it do something more?
Originality and Creativity
How unique is the hack? Does it solve a new problem, or has a new take on an existing problem?
Wow Factor
Does it spark joy? Would this be something you use and show to your friends? Yes, this is totally subjective. But that’s what makes it fun.