Hack K-State is a 36-hour hackathon at Kansas State University organized by students, for students. Our organizing team works year-round to put on the event with tasks such as gathering sponsors, planning events for the weekend, and figuring out logistics with the venue, just to name a few.

Hack K-State is one of the largest (and few) hackathons that brings high school and college students together under the same event! Hack K-State is open to high school students, undergraduate college students, and graduate students from any school (in-state and out-of-state!).

 

Requirements

There is a LOT of vareity of inventions that come out of Hack K-State. Teams with varying level of experiences and backgrounds come together to make their ideas come to life. There are many free tools and hardware accessible during Hack K-State that the hackers can use. From software to hardware and anything in between, your imagination is the limit! Of course you are also encouraged to bring any tech along with you to make your hack happen!

Hackathon Sponsors

Prizes

$6,190 in prizes

Best Use of AppWrite

Building a full-stack application can be time consuming, especially if you’re more of a frontend developer or lack experience with things like databases or authentication. At hackathons you want to make every minute count, which is why Appwrite is the missing ingredient to your recipe for a successful hack. With all the core backend functionalities you need already pre built and ready for customization, all you’ll need to do is make an API call to take advantage of an Appwrite database, media storage, user auth, and even custom compute functions. Use Appwrite in your hack this weekend for a chance to take home some Fitbits for you and your team.

Best Accessibility Hack sponsored by Fidelity

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!

Best Use of Velo by Wix

We know how difficult it can be to create a phenomenal website in a short period of time, especially when it comes to hackathons. Velo by Wix cuts down your development without sacrificing on functionality! With a built-in database and fully customizable JavaScript front-end and back-end, you can develop a full-stack application directly in your browser. With Velo, all the tools you need are conveniently located in one platform! Build your hackathon project with Velo by Wix for a chance to win Wacom Drawing Tablets for you and each of your teammates.

Best Domain Name from Domain.com

Register a .Tech domain name using Domain.com during the weekend for your chance to win a Domain.com branded backpack for you and each member of your team! Each team may submit one entry per person on the team. The more creative the domain the better!

Most Creative Use of Twilio

Twilio allows you to incorporate mobile messaging, phone calls and a ton of other awesome communication features right into your hackathon project using a web service API. Are you building an e-commerce website and want to send text notifications or email confirmations once an order is completed? Or maybe you'd like to verify users based on their mobile numbers? Twilio makes all this possible and more. Build a hack that simplifies your life using any Twilio API for a chance to win a Twilio Swag Box & GameGo Console ! Get started with $50 in free credit

Best Overall Hack First Place

Garmin Venu 2 Plus

Best Overall Hack Second Place

Bose Frames

Best Overall Hack Third Place

JBL Flip 5

Best Mobile Hack (Hack on the Go!) (2)

First Place Prize - Divoom Pixoo
Second Place Prize - Anker PowerCore Slim 10K

Best Education Hack (ACM) (2)

First place - Amazon Echo Dot 5th Gen
Second place - Logitech Desk Mousepad

Best Video Game Hack (Game Development Club)

First Place Prize - The SNES Pixel Book

Best Hardware Hack (Redstone Engineer)

First Place - iFixit Pro Tech Toolkit

Best Hack That Has Community Impact (NIC / Tyler Technologies)

First Place Prize - Tyler Branded High Sierra Outdoor Speaker & Wireless PowerBank

Best Hack with a Business Idea (K-State Center for Entrepreneurship) (2)

$1,000 Scholarship to Take an Intro K-State Entrepreneurship Course (Current or Prospective K-State Students Only) - First & Second Place Prize

Most Creative Website Hack (Web Dev Club) (2)

First Place Prize - DEERC D20 Mini Video Drone
Second Place Prize - Anker PowerCore Slim 10K

Best AI Hack (AI Club)

First Place Prize - Teach Tech Mech 5 Mechanical Coding Robot

Most Inclusive Hack / Do Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Yourself (DDEIY) (Diversity In Computing)

First Place Prize (Winning team can divide all four prizes) - Magnetic Chess Set / Digital Photo Frame / Wireless Keyboard & Mouse with Wireless Earbuds / Raspberry Pi 3b

Judges' Honorable Mention

Devpost Achievements

Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:

Judges

Russ	Feldhausen

Russ Feldhausen
Kansas State University

Rodney Stanfield

Rodney Stanfield
Manhattan Area Technical College

Dennis Lang

Dennis Lang
Kansas State University

Emily Alfs-Votipka

Emily Alfs-Votipka
Kansas State University

Nathan Bean

Nathan Bean
Kansas State University

Jorge Valenzuela

Jorge Valenzuela
Kansas State University

Jordan Wheeler

Jordan Wheeler
Catch + Release

George (Bud) LaVezzi

George (Bud) LaVezzi
Kansas State University

David Invergo

David Invergo
Kansas State University

Justin Wise

Justin Wise
NIC / Tyler Technologies

Kyler Gish

Kyler Gish
Garmin

Trey Schmidt

Trey Schmidt
Garmin

Jonathan Wilson

Jonathan Wilson
Civic Plus

Judging Criteria

  • Technology
    How technically impressive was the hack? Was the technical problem the team tackled difficult? Did it use a particularly clever technique or did it use many different components? Did the technology involved make you go "Wow"?
  • Design
    Did the team put thought into the user experience? How well designed is the interface? For a website, this might be about how beautiful the CSS or graphics are. For a hardware project, it might be more about how good the human-computer interaction is.
  • Completion
    Does the hack work? Did the team achieve everything they wanted?
  • Learning
    Did the team stretch themselves? Did they try to learn something new? What kind of projects have they worked on before? If a team which always does VR projects decides to switch up and try doing a mobile app instead, that exploration should be rewarded.

Questions? Email the hackathon manager

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Hackathon sponsors

Official Partner of Hack K-State 2022
Gold Sponsors
Silver Sponsors
Bronze Sponsors
Other Sponsors

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