How To Win Hackathons and Influence Prizes by Andrew Carnegie

📅 🏷featured

I just got back from Hoya Hacks, a hackathon a Georgetown this past weekend. Someone asked me by email what tips I had to win hackathons (since I have won multiple prizes heh heh :), and I responded:

  • Incorporate some hardware, such as Raspberry Pi or Arduino. Hoya Hacks didn’t have a prize for best hardware, but some do and either way, hardware usually makes your project stand out.
  • I like to bring my own hardware because the MLH hardware lab sometimes doesn’t have a great selection, or they run out. If you come to Bitcamp (at UMD in April), I can lend you some stuff. Make sure hardware works before the event. If you are going to use a Raspberry Pi, for example, make sure it boots up, you remember the password, install updates, etc.
  • Go for the challenges, for example we used MongoDB to store our data even though we could have just put it in a file. We didn’t win the MongoDB prize, but I did learn a lot. Also we spent some time brainstorming a domain name, which is how we won the award for best domain.
  • Make something fun: at bitcamp last year, we made a trash can that insults you when you put recycling in, and won most entertaining! (it actually couldn’t tell between trash and recycling, so it would always insult you :)
  • Or make something you need/want, that way even if you don’t win, you can still use it! One time we made a chatbot, and we didn’t win but I still enjoy talking to it sometimes: https://games.jjv.sh/carl
  • Add this stuff to your resume, and you can even include a link to the project. Employers will be impressed that not only do you know flask, but you also have a public flask app on the internet to prove it! And if you ask me, getting an internship means you were the real hackathon winner. :)

Here’s some upcoming hackathons at umd:

Good luck, and let me know if you have any more questions about this stuff! (Same goes to you, the blog reader, feel free to get in touch.)

This site's source code is released under the MIT License.