Hackathons are challenging and fun experiences where people learn how to design, build, and pitch an app in a weekend. These apps may change the world or maybe just change Carroll County.
Learning is at the heart of the MAGIC Hackathon. Teams are invited to take risks and step outside of their comfort zones. It’s okay if you don’t finish or have a working app by the end. We consider this Hackathon to be a beginner-level experience. Come ready to learn!
Hackathon teams have people with diverse interests and experiences. All students with an interest in app development, graphic design, business, and/or marketing are encouraged to participate.
GETTING STARTED
Teams of 2 or more high school and college students will compete to see who can build the best application. Bring your team and get started. Have an idea but no one to work with? No problem.
Live In person event – during the kick off of the live event, our staff of mentors will help facilitate team formation for those participants who registered without a team. By bringing together different skill set, the more rounded the team.
Participation virtually – MAGIC will provide you with a communication channel when you register called Team_Marketplace. This open channel was created to help you find the perfect fit, whether it’s to find a team to work with or a team looking to add additional team members.
Don’t know how to code? That is okay! No experience necessary. PLUS, great hackathon teams need diverse skill sets, including graphic design, business, marketing, and communication. The Hackathon Workshops will provide you a crash course on all aspects of bringing an app to life, including new and innovative tools to help attain your goals.
Participants should come ready to identify a problem, design a solution, and build an app!
NEW FOR 2022
The MAGIC Hackathon had such a successful virtual event we have added the virtual option to our event for 2022. MAGIC has reimagined the whole design process for our Hackathon Workshop and Hackathon Weekend. You can attend the workshop in person, via zoom, or watch the pre-recorded view at a later time. The Hackathon Weekend will start on Friday and teams have until Sunday to produce a great pitch.
Teams will have access to our great professional mentors whether they attend in person or virtually Our Discord server will be available to all participants to collaborate and interact with mentors.
* We can not accept international registrations for this event.
HACKATHON WORKSHOPS
The Hackathon experience begins with our workshops. Our Main Hackathon location will host a series of helpful workshops presented by industry professionals. We will also have pre-recorded workshops for our virtual participants if you prefer to skip the live presentations and watch at your convenience. , These workshops, led by industry leaders, will provide an overview of how to design, build, and pitch an app. Also included are recommendations on what tools are available to get you started. Time will also be scheduled for live Q&A with these professional mentors so you and your team can get the individual attention you may need.
HACKATHON WEEKEND
Using collaboration tools like Discord and Zoom, virtual teams will have their own space to innovate and build the next big app. Industry professionals will be available at various times during sprint week to answer live questions or questions posted on the mentor channels. This is the sprint! Your team will collaborate to create a viable product and bring it to life. If you are attend in person, our volunteer mentors will be roaming the halls, looking in on teams to help with any issues or questions they may have. There will be several milestones team will be required to meet during the build cycle.
HACKATHON PITCH PRESENTATIONS
The entire community is invited to watch the event live stream on Facebook or YouTube to cheer on their favorite team and to celebrate the incredible accomplishments of the students. Industry professionals will judge your team on a variety of goals. Think Shark Tank for Students! Refer to the Hackathon Rubric available on our Resources page for judging criteria. Each team will be given a scheduled presentation time on Sunday, to pitch their apps to the judging committee. Each team will have 10 minutes to present and answer any questions from the judges and winners will be determined after judge deliberation on Sunday.
ARE YOU IN?
All you have to do to participate in the MAGIC Hackathon is submit an online registration form. You and your team must register to participate. All registrations must be submitted by 10pm on the Wednesday before the scheduled event. MAGIC will be hosting this event live and virtually. We will be using the Discord environment for collaboration and communication. You must have or create a Discord account to have access to our Hackathon collaboration environment.
For people participating in person, our staff of volunteer mentors will help facilitate the formation of teams from individuals that registered without a team after the Friday night workshops. Only individuals present will be placed on a team.
If you are participating in person, then we can help place you on a team. Online participants are responsible for their own teams. Teams must have a minimum of 2 team members to participate. Use our Discord invite link to join our Hackathon server. This will give individuals and teams access to our team_marketplace channel. This open channel is available for individuals looking to a team to join, and for teams to fill member needs.
Don’t have a Discord account? No problem, head over to Discord to register for free.
NEED AN IDEA?
We have you covered. You and your team can elect to work on one of our featured problem statements from our community partners. Find one that speaks to you.
Infinite Love Project: BE KIND signs are posted on utility poles, fences, porches, and businesses. People, kids, and families are already creating their own games based on spotting the signs when walking or riding in vehicles. We need an app that takes that gaming idea to multiple levels and becomes a cool Community Kindness Connector. We are looking for a way to make the BE KIND signs located at specific geo-locations interactively fun, educational, and connect to us and community resources. An app that encourages people to be kind to themselves, their neighbors, and the planet. An app where we can easily add new locations, community resources with their info and links, and perhaps sponsor info and links. An easy way for users to sign up to volunteer, donate, make purchases, provide feedback.
MAGIC: We’re looking for an app that encourages Tourism and Community Engagement in rural communities. Does your rural town or location have great history? Walking trails abound? Do you have top-notch wineries or microbreweries? Tons of great restaurants? How could an app help promote and impart knowledge to a potential visitor to your community?
You could also choose to focus on Elder Engagement. Creating a simple, easy-to-use app that seniors can use to get access to community services, products, ride-sharing, etc. Help the seniors of the community maintain a healthy lifestyle and have access to help with the click of a button.
CARROLL TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION COUNCIL: Now that everyone is more comfortable visiting our local restaurants, it is very time-consuming to visit each individual website to find their hours of operation on a particular day, their happy hour specials, or if they offer any live entertainment. Wouldn’t it be great if there was an app that you could choose a date and location and it would give you a list of restaurants and, with one click, you could find the information you seek?
EVENT KICKOFF
Friday, April 1, 2022 starting at 5pm
Doors open at 4:30 for registration check-in
The weekend event will start out with an introduction and will be live streamed for virtual participants and satellite locations to view. The kickoff event will introduce the process, explain the rules of conduct and give the teams time to ask questions. Then teams can get started.
HACKATHON BUILD
Friday, April 1 thru Sunday, April 3, 2022
This is the time to collaborate, invent, imagine, and build! You and your team can work when you want, where you want! The best part of event, is the flexibility to work onsite or virtually.
We have created a few milestones to help keep your team on track.
Friday, April 1st – All teams should be formed and ready to go. App ideas forms should be submitted no later then 9:00pm
Saturday, April 2nd – All team should have a Product/App name submitted no later then 9:00pm
Sunday, April 3rd, – Final Pitch deck should be submitted no later than 1:00pm
*failure to submit a pitch deck by the deadline will result in disqualification. Once your pitch deck is submitted, your team CANNOT make any changes to the pitch deck for the presentation. The deck you present should be the deck you submitted.
LIVE STREAM JUDGING
Sunday, April 3, 2022 2:00pm
Sunday, April 3rd – Presentations of your teams product/app in front of a live judging panel. Teams will be notified of your scheduled presentation time along with your Zoom link if you are presenting virtually Sunday at 1:00pm. Presentations will start at 2:00pm with each team having a 10 minute time limit for presentation and judges Q&A.
The live presentations will be streamed to our Twitch and/or YouTube channels. More information will follow for friends and family who may be interested in watching the live presentations.
Winners will be announce live directly after Judge deliberation.
HACKATHON RULES
- The primary objective of the event is to meet people while having fun building something new. Don’t do anything that would detract from the fairness or fun of the event.
- The bulk of the construction should happen during the scheduled collaboration time frame. It’s not going to be a fun event if some teams show up on Sunday with super-elaborate projects that they’ve been working on for months. Teams that do this will be automatically disqualified.
- Brainstorming, planning, and mock ups are fine to prepare in advance of the Hackathon Event. You are also allowed to consider what APIs and third party services you plan to use.
- You can use whatever tools and spaces are at your disposal. You’re strongly encouraged to attend the Hackathon Workshops and work at the Hackathon Weekend event location because that’s where the real excitement and energy will be! In order to qualify for the prizes, you and your team must be present meet with the judges to present your project on the last day of the Hackathon event.
- Projects must be submitted to by 10pm on Saturday. Instructions for submitting these projects will be provided during the Hackathon Event.
- Each participant may compete on one team only- not on multiple teams/projects. Teams will be limited to 2-5 people per team to keep competition fair and healthy. Please list all team members that contributed to your project on your presentation in the “Team Members” slide, even if they did not officially sign up for the hackathon. It is not fair to receive extra outside help without disclosing that information so the judges can take that into consideration (don’t try to make it look like 2 people did the work of 4).
- Inappriorate content or languarge will not be tolerated. Curtisey and respect is expected of all participants.
- Anyone in violation of these rules (at the organizer’s discretion) will be asked to leave and their project will be deemed ineligible compete.
Hackathon FAQs
Below are some Frequently asked questions. If you have more questions, please contact us at info@magicinc.org
WHAT IS THE AGE REQUIREMENTS FOR THIS EVENT?
This event is for high school and college aged students. Nontraditional college students are also encouraged to participate.
DO I HAVE TO HAVE A TEAM TO PARTICIPATE?
We encourage our participants to gather classmates and friends to form a team before registration. That being said, you can register without a team and we can give you access to our Team_marketplace. Have a great idea but need a team, want to get more experience in a particular discipline? Post in the marketplace. List your interests and connect with teams that may need your expertise. We will do our best to make sure that everyone finds a team. When you register you will be added to our Discord competition server. Please make sure you have a valid Discord username before registering.
ARE HACKATHONS JUST FOR TECHIES?
No! In order to design, build, and pitch an app you’ll need more than just technical skills on a team. Each team will have to identify who is covering the following skill sets: Software Development, Marketing, Business, and Graphic Design/Creative.
WHAT IF I’VE NEVER BUILT AN APP?
That’s okay! The MAGIC Hackathon is a beginner-level experience. It’s a safe place for you to learn. The workshop will give you a crash course in the basics like app development, graphic design, business plans, marketing concepts, etc.
DO I HAVE TO STAY AND WORK THROUGH THE NIGHT DURING THE HACKATHON?
That’s a great question. Because this is a virtual online event, you can set your schedule from start to finish. You and your teams will be required to meet some simple milestone along the way, but how and when you work is totally up to you and your team. We expect some teams will be night owls, or have other committments and others won’t so it’s okay to work as your own pace. This is a total independent process.
DO I HAVE TO ATTEND THE KICKOFF LIVE STREAM AT THE START OF THE HACKATHON?
We strongly suggest that you and your team attend and watch the live kickoff. We will be providing a lot of information you and your team will need to know to make th most of your Hackathon experience.
TO COMPETE IN THE HACKATHON, DOES EVERY MEMBER OF MY TEAM HAVE TO BE PRESENT FOR ALL WORK HOURS?
No. We understand that students have a lot going on. If a team member(s) has to spend some time away from the collaborative effort, that won’t disqualify them your team from competition. The good part of a virtual event is that your teams private work channels allow you and teams member to start current on what everyone is doing and to post your progress for missing members to catch up.
WILL THERE BE PEOPLE TO HELP US THROUGHOUT THE HACKATHON?
Yes. Mentors and coaches will be available during scheduled portions of each work day. If a mentor or coach is not available you can post your questions and ask for help in our #mentors channel and we will get a professional to contact you for consultation. We will also have various mentors availabe in our voice/video channel for in depth discussions about various topics.
Hackathon Resources
We have put together some resource to help you.
Educational Resources
General coding and design resource –w3school.com
Mobile app builders
- Buildfire (free 30 day version) – Buildfire.com
- Thunkable app builder (free trial) – Thunkable.com
Team Resources
Team Rubric: This is the form that the judges will use to score your final project. This will give your team an idea of what the judges are looking for, and what aspects of the process hold more weight.
Pitch Deck: This is the pitch deck format required for final project submission
Hackathon 2021 Winners
Best Overall
Orbbit
Best Tech
StudySmarter
Best Design
NeuroItch
Best Pitch
Ambrosia
Best Idea
InforMobile
