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Hackathon 101

Slides (click me)​

What is a Hackathon?​

Unfortunately, the word hackathon is a bit of a misnomer. Contrary to what most people would assume, hackathons have absolutely nothing to do with hacking. Rather, it's an event where people come together to either approach a problem or create an idea in order to build a unique solution from scratch. It usually comes in the form of a web app or mobile app, but you can take this any direction that you want.

What does the schedule for the event look like?​

There are many kinds of hackathons but the typical one involves a 24 hour window to ideate, solve, and build a solution. We have free meals, snacks, drinks, and a plethora of swag. Keep an eye on the schedule for extra activities such as fun-events and workshops.

What makes HackUTD special?​

HackUTD is the hackathon that is hosted annually at the University of Texas at Dallas and is ran by a branch of ACM. We are officially the largest hackathon in North America with over 1100 participants that come from unique backgrounds such as various schools from freshman to graduate students. And of course we have to talk about the prize money. For HackUTD 2024, we had a prize pool of over $100,000!

What can I build?​

The primary goal of our sponsors is to crowdsource solutions to their particular interests, through the minds of brilliant students. That is why they pay money to get their challenge statement on the board for hackers to take a crack at. These problems will be tailored to the company's interest, and have specific constraints. However, we also have general tracks for people who want to build solutions that don't fall into a particular company's challenge statement. These tracks have separate prizes, but you can apply to both a general track, and a company sponsored track.

What does it take to win?​

There's no perfect formula to win a hackathon, but there are definitely a few standout characteristics that elevate a project.

  • Helpful to a marginalized group of people
    • Ex: Underserved minorities, some form of disability, victims of trauma, etc.
  • Unique features
    • Ex: Last year, our grand winner was TalkTuah which involved an AI help agent that was accessed via phone call
  • Finished product
    • Try to avoid overcooking and pumping out a project with a bunch of features that barely work. Instead, try to hone in on the defining purpose of the app and ensure that it performs that one thing proficiently.
  • Comprehensive pitch
    • When you present your project to the judges, you're not just demoing the project and explaining what it does. You need to create a story. It's helpful to discuss your inspiration, the problem at hand, the target audience, and the obstacles that you overcame.

What should I know to do well in a hackathon?​

To successfully develop project, you would need to have knowledge in at least one of the following topics:

  • Web Development
    • React, Next.js, Svelte
  • Mobile App Development
    • React Native, Flutter, Kotlin, Swift
  • Backend
    • Flask, Google Firebase, Supabase, FastAPI, Cloud Computing
  • Free APIs to pull information from
    • Spotify, Google Maps, OpenWeather, etc.

How can I learn those topics?​

On this site, you will find many resources to help you such as our Guided Project which will take you to an elaborate step by step guide in creating your very own full stack app. Furthermore, we have various workshop guides and blog posts that may assist you on your journey. If you don't know where to start, visit this link to dip your feet and don't be afraid to use Google or AI when you face any major confusions. And of course, don't forget that you can always find us in person for some assistance!

What should I do at a hackathon?​

There are 4 things that we recommend you do:

  • Learn
  • Build
  • Meet new people
  • Have fun

It's going to be difficult to do all of these things, so we try to focus on 2 of the four.

The 4 parts of the project​

1. Ideation​

Make sure to spend a lot of time brainstorming a solution via the following questions.

  • What problem are we solving with our product?
  • How big is this opportunity?
  • Why is solving this problem important to us?
  • Who is our target audience?
  • Is there a way to specifically cater to them?
  • Are there any other existing solutions that we can improve upon?

2. Planning​

If you have a team, make sure you divide your responsibilities by role. If you have a team of 4, you can have two people working on the frontend and two people working on the backend. I’ve seen some teams do a 1-3 split because of the focus on impressive back-ends and functionality but don’t forget that it’s gotta look good too.

You also want to have a relatively solid outline of tasks that you need to get done. But I advise that you be careful with this. If you go too granular and specific, then it can become counter productive. A good blueprint should start with your high level goals, and then split them down into manageable milestones. Bonus points if your high level goals are independent of one another, which allows your team to work on them in parallel!

And of course it’s important to discuss the tech stack. Often times the project you want to build will have a specific tech stack best suited for it so make sure you do your due diligence and research what is, not really most common, rather most reliable and understood.

3. Implementation​

It’s almost guaranteed that you’re going to run into roadblocks and obstacles. Don’t be surprised or overwhelmed when issues arise. Google is your best friend, and nowadays chatgpt might be your

4. Pitching​

We’ll be going into a little more detail about pitching with the next phase of the workshop, but in general, you should be extensively prepared to talk about your project. The purpose, the problem it’s solving, the tech stack, unexpected road blocks you ran into, etc.

Alan Roybal's Hackathon Project Almanac​

Here is the link to the document. In groups of 3-4, study the document and list your 3 favorite hackathon projects. And this is the link to the jamboard to insert your list.

Final remarks​

Thanks for making it to the end! If you have any questions, shoot us an email at [email protected] or better yet, come out to our other workshops. More details can be found here.

Hope to see you there - HackUTD 2025

External Resources​

This is a great article, written by a seasoned hackathon participant, over what it truly takes to win a hackathon.

https://medium.com/garyyauchan/ultimate-8-step-guide-to-winning-hackathons-84c9dacbe8e