Hack Western is Western University's annual student-run hackathon. Hack Western 3, presented by the Scotiabank Digital Banking Lab at Ivey Business School, will bring together over 500 students for 36 hours of creation and innovation on the weekend of October 14-16.

Hack Western provides a welcoming atmosphere for students to create and learn about all kinds of incredible technologies. Whether it's a mobile app, a hardware project, a web application or some combination of all three, there's a good chance you'll see it at Hack Western.

This year, we're focusing on learning. You don’t need to be a coding expert or a robot-building genius. Even if you’ve never coded before, but can’t wait to learn, we want to see you at Hack Western! We welcome people from all backgrounds -- from the arts, social sciences, science, engineering, business, you name it. We welcome the diversity of thought and we're confident that you have something valuable to contribute. Come discover how technology, code, but most importantly, teamwork can mobilize your great ideas.

Eligibility

Any student who has been accepted to participate and hacked at Hack Western is eligible to submit a project.

Hackathon Sponsors

Prizes

$10,505 in prizes

1st Place

1st Place at Hack Western 3!
Prize to be announced...

2nd Place

2nd Place at Hack Western 3!
Prize to be announced...

3rd Place

3rd Place at Hack Western 3!
Prize to be announced...

Best FinTech Hack presented by the Scotiabank Digital Banking Lab

- Opportunity to demo your project at the Scotiabank Digital Factory in Toronto
- Scotiabank Scene Cards with 12 free movies each
- 1 Pebble Time smartwatch for each team member

Best Use of Blockchain presented by the Scotiabank Digital Factory

Bitcoin for each team member ($100 CAD equivalent)

Best Design presented by the Scotiabank Digital Factory

1 Wacom Intuous Draw Graphics Tablet for each winning team member

Most Secure Implementation of a Project presented by Digital Boundary Group

Raspberry Pi

Best Domain Name presented by Namecheap

$150 Namecheap credits

Perfect Pitch presented by Deloitte Digital (2)

3D Printer

Best Hack for Social Impact presented by Magnet Forensics

$175 Amazon Gift Card

Most Swell Hack presented by the Ivey MSc Program

Ivey Swell water bottle

Best Hack for Financial Literacy presented by London Life Insurance

$100 Amex Card

Best Use of Public API Data presented by Media Sonar

Parrot Airborne Cargo Mini Drones with VGA Mini Camera

Best Hack to Take Care of Yourself presented by Wealthsimple

Toronto Helicopter Tour

Best Use of Amazon Web Services

1TB Hard Drives

Most Complicated Hack

1 winner - Maple and MapleSim Licenses (12 months)

Best Domain Name presented by Domain.com

Domain.com Swag Bags

Watch Dogs® 2 Best Device Privacy Hack

Watch Dogs 2 Collector's Edition

Best Hack Against Online Harassment

Use your tech skills for good and hack online harassment

Best Newcomers presented by Hack Western Organizing Team

Hack to Improve Patient Wait Times by RL Solutions

Fitbits

Hack Western Organizing Team's Top Choice

Fun surprise!

Best #Fail presented by Hack Western Organizing Team

We want you to learn. If you learn something but your project fails, that's still a success to us. You're awesome.

Best Devpost with 10 hours to go!

Don't leave it until the last minute. We'll pick our favourite Devpost submission that is online by midnight on Saturday night, and award you with a fun prize. So make it early and keep updating as you go!

Devpost Achievements

Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:

Judges

JP Vergne

JP Vergne
Co-Director, Digital Banking Lab

Karel Vuong

Karel Vuong
Director of Community, Diagram

Rachel Sugar

Rachel Sugar
iOS Specialist, Google

Adam Hartfiel

Adam Hartfiel
Data Scientist, Media Sonar

Jessica Asuncion

Jessica Asuncion
Test Automation Engineer, RL Solutions

Pei Li

Pei Li
Software Engineer, Wealthsimple

Ryan Wilson

Ryan Wilson
Software Engineer, Google

Marina Mekhall

Marina Mekhall
GDLS

Luke Farnell

Luke Farnell
Automation Engineer, RL Solutions

Adam Preston

Adam Preston
Vetronics Systems Specialist, GDLS

Jared Windover

Jared Windover
Software Developer, Magnet Forensics

Daniel Kish

Daniel Kish
Vetronics Specialist, GDLS

Andrew Neves

Andrew Neves
GDLS

Jenna Le

Jenna Le
London Life Insurance Co.

Patrick Cookson

Patrick Cookson
London Life Insurance Co.

Ryan Primeau

Ryan Primeau
Digital Boundary Group

David Strucke

David Strucke
Media Sonar

Blake Zwikler

Blake Zwikler
Ambitions.co

Judging Criteria

  • Creativity
  • Technical Difficulty
  • Polish
  • Usefulness
  • Demonstrates Learning

Questions? Email the hackathon manager

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Hackathon sponsors

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