Hack Western is one of Canada’s largest annual student run hackathons and will be hosted virtually from Western University. Hack Western 9 will welcome more than 400 students from November 18th - 20th, 2022. Participants will collaborate in teams of up to four to build web, mobile, and hardware projects, while participating in workshops, learning from mentors and competing for prizes. Our sponsors are central to Hack Western’s success, and allows the event to be free of charge for all students.

This year, we're helping you turn imagination into reality. Whether that's through our public pre-week (Zero to Hero) filled with workshops and panels, to real conversations with your fellow peers about the questions you've always wondered; Hack Western 9 is here to support you in your journey into the field of tech, no matter your experience level!

hackwestern.com

Requirements

Any student who has been ACCEPTED to participate and hack at Hack Western is eligible to submit a project. Your project must follow the Rules outlined for this event - see the Rules tab for more details. Additionally:

  • Please add each member of your team to your project
  • Provide a short write up of your project, what it does, why you built it - tell us the story behind it!
  • (Optional) Attach images, videos, GIFs of your projects

Hackathon Sponsors

Prizes

$CAD164,180 in prizes

First Place Overall

Second Place Overall

Third Place Overall

Best Health Hack, Presented by Sun Life

Ideate the future of healthcare with a health-themed project. Each member of the winning team will receive a $100 Amazon Gift Card!

Most Novel Hack, Presented by 1517

One winning project will receive a $1K grant from 1517 and mentorship from the team. At least one member of the team must be an undergrad or high school student. The team must be interested in continuing to work on their project post-hackathon.

Best Pitch, Presented by Accenture

Accenture will be offering 4 Temblor Speakers/Wireless Chargers for the team with the best pitch.

Best Hack using Graph Analytics, Presented by Manulife

Are you interested in building an analytics application using Graph Analytics and Machine learning (ML) to tackle real business problems for a global financial institution? Manulife offers the opportunity for you to learn from our Data Scientists on Advanced Analytics with cutting-edge technologies in Graph Analytics and Machine Learning, and apply the learnings to build your own analytic application. You have an option to work on a public dataset for solving a real-life business problem or an anonymized P2P dataset that we provide for fraud detection. The application should be an analytics solution applying Graph Analytics and ML algorithms. The application will have front-end app for business users to consume the analytics results. For example, you can use community detection algorithms to find fraud rings, build a case management application to visualize and alert on those fraud rings to assist fraud investigation. In our virtual workshop, we'll give you an overview of Graph Analytics and its applications.

First place team: Apple Watch for each member.
Second place team: Soundcore Sunglass frames for each member.
Additional prize: All members from winning teams are guaranteed for an interview opportunity for co-op or full-time positions in Group Advanced Analytics at Manulife.

Best Use of Prompt Engineering, Presented by Cohere

Cohere helps developers generate or analyse text to do things like write and summarise copy, moderate content, classify data, all at a massive scale. No matter your level of experience, Cohere's API makes it easy to build machine learning into your application. Prompt engineering is a method of using human language task descriptions to communicate with our API. Build a hack that showcases the best use of prompt engineering with Cohere's generative API for a chance to win some incredible prizes.

Prizes:
- $5000 Cohere credits for the winning team
- $500 cash prize per team member
- Cohere-branded swag kit per team member

Best Hack to Support Working from Home, Presented by CRA (Meilleur piratage pour soutenir le travail à domicile, présenté par l’ARC)

English: Winners are guaranteed an interview for a student position at CRA and the opportunity for a mentorship session with a Director General at the Information Technology Branch.

French: Les gagnants bénéficieront d’une entrevue pour un poste d’étudiant à l’Agence et auront la possibilité de participer à une séance de mentorat avec un directeur général de la Direction générale de l’informatique

Best Gaming Hack, Presented by Big Blue Bubble

Show us how YOU inspire worlds of creativity!

We cannot think of a better prize for the Best Gaming Hack than each member of the winning team getting a Nintendo Switch Lite plus a visit to our studio in downtown London for a pizza lunch with our Technical Director.

Best 3D/VR/VR Project Using echo3D, Presented by echo3D

CHALLENGE: Build the best 3D/AR/VR project using the echo3D platform!

PRIZES: By creating a project with echo3D you will enter to win: (1) A $50 Amazon.com gift card (per team), and (2) 3-month free Business Tier access (per team member)

Participants MUST use the echo3D platform as part of their project to be eligible for a reward.

Best Use of CockroachDB, Presented by MLH

Build your hackathon project on CockroachDB's open source and indestructible SQL database. Utilize CockroachDB in your hack for a chance to win a 3D printing pen for you and each of your team members.

Best Domain Name from Domain.com, Presented by MLH

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!

Best use of Google Cloud, Presented by MLH

Build your hackathon project with a suite of secure storage, powerful compute, and integrated data analytics products provided by Google Cloud. See full list of products here: g.co/cloud.

Winners will receive a Google Cloud branded backpack!

Best Use of Velo by Wix, Presented by MLH

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.

Most Creative Use of Github, Presented by MLH

GitHub is one of the best ways to collaborate, push code, get feedback, and show the world what you’ve built during a hackathon. To take it a step further, GitHub is now offering you access to industry tools, events & learning resources through something called GitHub Global Campus. Win this weekend’s Most Creative Use of GitHub prize category, first by signing up for GitHub Global Campus and second by using a GitHub repository to host your hackathon project’s code! Make sure your use of GitHub stands out with a detailed ReadMe page, meaningful pull requests and collaboration history, and even a GitHub pages deployment!

Winners will receive a GitHub Octocat Puzzle & Sticker bundle.

Organizer's Choice Awards (10) (10)

One year of Wolfram|One Personal Edition plus a one-year subscription to Wolfram|Alpha Pro for each team member on the top ten teams chosen by the Hack Western organizers. Worth $375 per individual.

There are no pre-requisites, all projects are eligible for this prize.

Finalist (5)

Finalists of Hack Western 9.

Devpost Achievements

Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:

Judges

To be Announced!

To be Announced!

Judging Criteria

  • Creativity
    How creative is this project?
  • Technical Difficulty
    Simpler and less technical projects (no-code tools and mockups allowed!) will not be penalized
  • Demonstrates Learning
    Has your team demonstrated growth or a journey to learn a new skill?
  • Usefulness
    Would this be something that could be used in the real world? Does this solve the problem its trying to solve?
  • (Bonus Points) Polish
    How is the presentation of the project? Does the team present the project well?

Questions? Email the hackathon manager

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Hackathon sponsors

Diamond Sponsor
Gold Sponsors
Silver Sponsors
Bronze Sponsors
In-Kind Sponsors
Partners

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