VCU's 6th Annual Hackathon

RamHacks is a 24-hour programming marathon for innovative developers to design and implement a software or hardware application of their choice. Specific themes and challenges provided by our sponsors will be presented to competitors. This will be the 6th Hackathon organized at the VCU College of Engineering.

SCHEDULE:

Saturday, September 28, 2019

09:00 a.m. - Registration
10:00 a.m. - Opening Ceremony & Keynote Speech
10:30 a.m. - Team Formation
11:00 a.m. - Hacking Begins
12:00 p.m. - Gold Sponsored Lunch
03:00 p.m. - Tech Talk: CoStar
04:30 p.m. - Tech Talk: Newport News Shipbuilding
06:00 p.m. - Platinum Sponsored Dinner
07:00 p.m. - Tech Talk: Altria

Sunday, September 29, 2019

12:00 a.m. - Silver Sponsored Midnight Snack
08:00 a.m. - Silver Sponsored Breakfast
11:00 a.m. - Hacking Ends
12:00 p.m. - Gold Sponsored Lunch
01:00 p.m. - Expo and Judging Begins
03:00 p.m. - Closing Ceremony

View full rules

Prizes

$13,000 in prizes

1st Place Overall Prize: Cash Prize!

Cash Prize of $2,000 to the winning team.

2nd Place Overall Prize: Cash Prize! (2)

Cash Prize of $1,000 to two winning teams!

3rd Place Overall Prize: Cash Prize! (3)

Cash Prize of $500 to three winning teams!

CoStar Challenge Prize

Best use of Data Science in commercial real estate

Newport News Shipbuilding Challenge Prize

Newport News Shipbuilding is going through a digital transformation with a focus on the craftsmen of the future. The Shipyard’s goal is to increase craftsmen safety through the use of digital wearables, augmented reality, IoT, machine learning, and other advanced technologies. Your solution should focus on at least one of the following five areas: - Falls/slips/trips - Exposure to harmful substances or environments i.e. gases - Electrocution - Caught-in/Between (People who may be wedged between two items and can’t escape. Footing gets caught, stuck in a very confined space that doesn’t allow much maneuverability. - Fires Your challenge is to develop a solution to reduce injuries in regards to the categories above. You have full creative authority, however keep in mind that Newport News Shipbuilding has a multitude of different work force individuals. Some are familiar with the newest and fastest technologies while others still use flip phones. Be mindful of your potential audience.

Markel Challenge Prize

The most innovative use of IoT to improve safety

Altria Challenge Prize

Altria’s challenge this year revolves around Virtual Reality and it’s open ended! We have Google cardboard headsets for teams to develop with (1 per team). You can pick any data sets or APIs to work with. You are encouraged to be as innovative as possible. Our goal is not to tie you down. Rather, we want to see what’s possible in the realm of VR using your imagination and creativity. For example, how are we interacting and interpreting data today, how can this be optimized with VR? We have Airpods to give away for the top team of four or fewer members and a variety of Amazon gift cards for the runner ups. Happy hacking and don’t forget to come talk to us about our awesome internship opportunities at well!

Capital One Challenge Prize

Best financial hack

UDig Challenge Prize

Best use of natural language processing

AMC Technology Challenge Prize

Application with the most creative ways to keep the user engaged

CGI Federal Challenge Prize

Best creative visualization of a dataset

CarMax

The Sold Sign Squeeze: The "sold" sign we put on cars doesn't necessarily indicate that it's actually sold (like when it's on hold), and often stays on the car for days after it is off hold, preventing people from test-driving and potentially buying. How can you solve this problem with Technology?

Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond Challenge Prize

We need a reservation system to reserve rooms, parking spaces, etc., so the system itself can take an “object” to reserve and have separate rules for each object type.
In the case of rooms, we use different groups to manage them and that has created clutter.
For parking spaces, we have reserved spots that often are unused due to people being out of the office.
We want to be able to manage these with one flexible solution.

Best Domain Name from Domain.com

Domain.com branded backpack for each team member.

Best use of Google Cloud

Google Home Minis for each team member

Best Automation Hack with UiPath

Build an automation hack using UiPath! Each winning team member will receive a UiPath/MLH Branded Backpack and DROCON Drone!

Best use of MongoDB Atlas

Create a hack using MongoDB Atlas to host a database in the cloud! Automate the provisioning and deployment process with ease, while focusing all your efforts on your hack. Projects built using MongoDB Atlas will be eligible to win an AirCharge Plus per team member.

MLH Prizes

Best domain registered with domain.com
Best automation hack with UiPath
Best use of Google Cloud
Best use of MongoDB Atlas
Best use of Transposit
Best use of Blockstack
Best Web 3.0 hack using Waves platform

Eligibility

Attendees must be enrolled in a college or university, and must agree to the MLH Code of Conduct. Are you a UX enthusiast with design on the brain and art in your heart? Maybe you’ve got mad business skills and an entrepreneurial spirit? This event is about so much more than programming, so register!

Judges

Steven Vondruska
Costar Group

Jeff Tatum
Newport News Shipbuilding

Kevin Harrup
Altria

Michael Souders
Markel Corporation

Thaddeus Madison Jr
Capital One

Josh Bartels
UDig

Ashraf Al Gumaei
Carmax

Reginal Bryant
Federal Reserve of Richmond

Romain Lheritier
IPPON

Lorelea Moore
AMC Technology

Jeff Hughes
CGI Federal

Kuldip Acharya
Captech

James Cecil
UNOS

Judging Criteria

Creativity
We want your idea to be creative and original!
Business Viability
Can this idea be implemented in the real world? How feasible is your product?
Technical Difficulty
Technical complexity of your hack.
Pitch
Are you prepared? How organized and well explained is your pitch?