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HackGT 8

Discover your craft

October 22nd - 24th Register

About

Discover your craft this fall at HackGT 8 from October 22nd - 24th! We’re back with the eighth iteration of our flagship event where we bring you to the HackGT marketplace to support you as you hone your hacking skills and explore a weekend filled with community and compassion.

This year, we’ll be welcoming over 1,500 talented hackers from around the world to win amazing prizes, meet new people, and experience a weekend filled with quests and adventure!

Our first-ever hybrid event will redefine the hacker experience by bringing you the best of both worlds. Not only will we be supplying workshops, mentors, and tech talks, but we will also have built-in, cross-platform interactions to bridge the virtual and in-person experiences.

What is HackGT?

HackGT is a free 36-hour hackathon where students from across the world come together for a weekend to create innovative projects that show off their creativity and passion for development. You may choose any platform, programming language, or format to show how you build solutions.

Participating in this event will widen your professional network and allow you to further develop your creativity! With tech talks and workshops, you will have the opportunity to talk to and learn from professionals in various industries. We encourage everyone to be a part of the hacker community at HackGT 8 regardless of location, major, or prior hacking experience.

Tracks

Click on a booth to see more info!

General Track booth

General

Already familiar and comfortable with building a technology project? The General Hacker Track gives the conventional hacker experience with full creative control and exciting supplementary resources as needed. This track is here to provide opportunities to innovate and connect with others; we have exciting speakers, engaging sponsors, and new technologies to help you take your project to the next level.

NEW! We're accepting open source contributions!

Are you an open-source contributor and want to use the resources at HackGT 8 to further develop and existing project? Now you can! New this year to the General Hacker track is an Open Source section! Any contributions to an open-source project, no matter how big or small, are eligible for new and exciting prizes! The project can be a popular, well-maintained one or your own; as long as it's open-source, it counts! Open Source submissions will be evaluated separately from non-open-source submissions and will be considered for separate prizes.

Emerging Track booth

Emerging

New to hackathons and unsure of how to get started building a technology project? The Emerging Hacker Track is here to provide you with guidance into introductory technology and how to ace a hackathon. Back by popular demand, this track will feature mentor matching to help guide you and your team through your first hackathon project. We will also be offering a wide and flexible variety of workshops ranging from web development and data science to design and computing systems designed just for you to learn the fundamentals and get you started on your dream hackathon project!

Our Learning Paths for Emerging hackers this year are:

App Dev:

The App Dev Learning Path covers Android, iOS, and web development; you can choose as many of the options as you’d like! You will be introduced to the basics of Android app development using Android Studio or iOS development to build native mobile apps. We will also step through the entire process of creating a simple full-stack web application using JavaScript. Soon, you will be able to not only show off your technical skills but also publish your accomplishments online, on the Google Play store or your very own website!

Data Science:

Whether you’re interested in machine learning algorithms or data analytics and visualization, the data science learning path will expose students to the process of collecting, cleaning, and analyzing large sets of data!

Design:

The Design Learning Path will teach you the fundamentals of user interface/user experience (UI/UX) design from user research to creating beautiful mockups and prototypes. Gain skills and knowledge vital to the product development process and apply them to create effective user-centered apps and websites! Systems: In the Systems Learning Path, we will be going over the basics of systems development. Specifically, we’ll be exploring robotics and developing embedded systems using Arduinos to create innovative projects that combine software and hardware!

Systems:

In the Systems Learning Path, we will be going over the basics of systems development. Specifically, we’ll be exploring robotics and developing embedded systems using Arduinos to create innovative projects that combine software and hardware!

Schedule

Friday

Check-in —— 5:00 to 6:15 PM
Opening —— 6:00 to 7:00 PM
Sponsor Fair —— 7 to 8:30 PM
Hacking Starts —— 9 PM

Saturday

Hacking all day!

Sunday

Hacking Ends —— 9 AM
Judging Expo —— 10 AM
Closing —— 2:30 to 3:30 PM

FAQ

HackGT 8 will be our first-ever hybrid event! This year, we'll be welcoming Georgia Tech students to the Klaus Advanced Computing Building on Georgia Tech's campus. All other students can join us virtually!
Any student over the age of 18 enrolled in any college or university is allowed to participate. If you are younger than 18, but a Georgia Tech student, you can still participate. For international participants: unfortunately, we will be unable to ship swag outside of the United States; however, if you win a prize, we will make sure you get it no matter where in the world you are!
Anyone can mentor or volunteer. If you are interested in helping participants through their projects, then apply as a mentor. If you are interested in helping us run the event, then apply as a volunteer.
No! Experience is not required. Hackathons are open environments for everyone. If you are new to hackathons, the Emerging Hacker track may be for you!
No, you may only apply to one. We will be limiting the number of Emerging hackers so ensure we have enough resources to offer all participants a great experience. We recommend you apply to the one that suits you the most!
See  HackGT 8 Admissions Process FAQs
No! HackGT 8 is completely free to participants and mentors thanks to our sponsors.
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For our in-person participants, we will provide hardware through our hardware desk! For virtual participants, we will, unfortunately, be unable to provide hardware; instead, we are offering hardware reimbursements! Fill out the Hardware Reimbursement Form (available after your event registration is confirmed) to get up to $75 reimbursed after HackGT 8! You must have a valid submission to devpost and receipts of your purchases to be reimbursed.
If you are virtual, all you'll need is a computer with an Internet connection! For our in-person participants, we recommend bringing a laptop, charger, headphones, and anything else you'll need over the weekend. We'll provide hardware, meals, and snacks.
In general, no — true to the spirit of hackathons, you may not submit your past projects to HackGT. If you are a General Hacker, you can submit an open-source contribution to our Open Source prize; this can be any open-source project, including your own! See the Tracks description above for more information.
No worries! We will help you find your team based on your skills and interests through our team formation tool.
Given the hybrid nature of HackGT 8, we are very flexible with forming teams. You are free to form teams between virtual and in-person participants, and you can also have a mix of Emerging and General participants within a team! Note that a team must be entirely Emerging participants to be eligible for Emerging-specific prizes.
No, you can make anything you want! If you want more direction, we will also have sponsor challenges and HackGT 8 awards, which will be released before the event.
We'll announce more info on prizes soon!
Yes! In addition to digital swag, you will be able to earn points to receive physical swag; in-person participants can get swag during the event, and virtual participants will receive swag after the event. However, we are unable to ship swag internationally. More information coming soon!
Contact us at [email protected]

Sponsors

Regarding COVID-19

Our thoughts are with those who have been affected by the coronavirus pandemic. For HackGT 8, we are actively monitoring and assessing how our organization can best ensure the safety of our participants and our team, given the dangerous nature of the virus. Even with nationwide rollouts of the vaccine, we still want to exercise caution. Currently, the Georgia Institute of Technology is planning to return to normal on-campus operations for the fall semester should guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Georgia Department of Public Health allow it.

Currently, we are planning for a hybrid event format to account for the uncertainty. Over the past year, we have gained an immense amount of experience in coordinating virtual events and are prepared to build on those insights again. We hope to combine our long history of in-person hackathons with our virtual experience to once again throw an incredible event. As the situation progresses we may alter our plan to accommodate more in-person experiences or rely more on virtual mechanisms. In any case, we will work diligently to create the best hacking environment for our participants. Thank you for your support and understanding.

Letter from the Team

Dear Hacker,

You may know that recently, the HackGTeam established an umbrella organization: HexLabs. We're still the same organization you know and love - we want to provide opportunities to create, collaborate, and learn for ourselves. For this reason, HexLabs aims to create spaces to not only provide the resources but also to build a community of creatives, techies, and innovators to support one another.

In order to achieve this, we've decided to host a hybrid event this year. Georgia Tech students will have the opportunity to attend our in-person event, and we are excited to host the event virtually for non-GT students. We hope that this will make our event safer and more accessible.

Our community is not possible without you and your enthusiasm, so thank you for being a part of our journey. Whether you've been here since the beginning or are just getting to know our org, we are looking forward to having you at HackGT 8 to Discover Your Craft.

With love,
HexLabs