In April 2015, CatHacks was the first national college hackathon in the state of Kentucky. This year, we're back for round five.

On March 30, 2019, hackers will travel from colleges across the nation to the University of Kentucky in Lexington. You'll have 24 hours to explore new technologies, meet talented students, and network with innovative tech companies. The food is on us, and so is the swag; CatHacks is completely free!

Check-in starts at 10AM on March 30th.

View full rules

Prizes

$1,600 in prizes

1st Place

1st place will have the choice of a Kindle PaperWhite, Echo Plus + Phillips Hue Light, or anything at an equivalent value!

2nd Place

2nd place will have the choice of DJI Trello Drone, a Homall Gaming Chair, or anything at an equivalent value!

3rd Place

3rd place will have the choice of a Cana Kit, iFixIt Kit, a Toshiba 1TB External Hard Drive, or anything at an equivalent $50 value!

Best Solo Hack

The best hack done by a single person team will have the choice of a DJI Trello Drone, Homall Gaming Chair, or anything at an equivalent value!

Best Hardware Hack

The best hardware hack will have the choice of a JBL Bluetooth Speaker, an Anker Portable Battery + charging cables, or anything at an equivalent value!

Best Domain Registered with Domain.com

Register the most interesting domain using your FREE Domain.com credit this weekend to win Raspberry Pis.

Best IoT Hack Using a Qualcomm Device

Use a Qualcomm device, like a Dragonboard 410c, in an Internet of Things project this weekend to win a DragonBoard 410c.

Best Use of Google Cloud Platform

Use a Google Cloud Platform service (like hosting or machine learning) in your project to win Google Home Minis.

Best Use of Snap Kit

Use Snap Kit to integrate Snapchat's best features into your hack to win a Casio Watch or another awesome prize.

Devpost Achievements

Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:

Eligibility

To participate in CatHacks, you must be a student at a college or university.

To submit, you must be present at CatHacks during the competition weekend.

Requirements

As judging will take place in person, you need only submit a brief description of your project. A paragraph or two will suffice.

Please include screenshots or pictures if possible. 

How to enter

To enter this challenge, sign up on cathacks.com before 3/30/2019

You must be able to attend the physical hackathon at the University of Kentucky.

Judges

Irsyad Hanif

Irsyad Hanif
Cyber Software Engineer at Northrop Grumman

Ethan Gill

Ethan Gill
Software Engineer at Accenture

Dr. Jerzy Jaromczyk

Dr. Jerzy Jaromczyk
Director of Undergraduate Studies, University of Kentucky

Dean Crockett

Dean Crockett

Judging Criteria

  • Complexity
    Project is built around a complex algorithm or design, is very intricately constructed, and/or solves a difficult problem in an intelligent way.
  • Usability
    Project is extremely user friendly and appears ‘product-ready’.
  • User Experience / Design
    User Interface is simple and easy to navigate, intuitive, and pleasant to use. Design is polished and uncluttered.
  • Presentation
    All team members are knowledgable and contribute to presentation. Presentation effectively demonstrates project capabilities and explains use cases.
  • Creativity and Utility
    Project is extremely creative and very useful. It is apparent that careful thought went into this project.