CHALLENGING YOURSELF
STEP Challenge
Student Technology Entrepreneur Pitch Challenge
The STEP Challenge(previously Hackathon) is an exciting and fun experience where people learn how to design, build, and pitch an app. These apps may change the world or maybe just change Carroll County.
Learning is at the heart of the MAGIC’s STEP Challenge. 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 event to be a beginner-level experience. Come ready to learn or show your expertise and shine during your pitch to industry judges.
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/or college students will compete to see who can build the best application idea. Bring your team and get started. Have an idea but no one to work with? No problem.
During the kick off of the in person event, our staff of mentors will help facilitate team formation for those participants who registered without a team. By bringing together different skill sets, a well rounded team is created.
Don’t know how to code? That is okay! No experience necessary. PLUS, great teams need diverse skill sets, including graphic design, business, marketing, and business/finance. The STEP Workshops will provide you with a crash course on all aspects of bringing a technology solution 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!
STEP 2024
STEP 2024 will be hosted at Carroll Community College in Westminster, MD. This one day intense event will provide you with “on the job” skills and encourage out of the box thinking to solve a business need using technology. Teams will have access to our great professional mentors during the event. Our Discord server will be available to all participants to collaborate and interact with our mentors and each other.
Host Locations: MAGIC has teamed up with other educational partners to have satellite locations within Maryland to give our rural communities the access to the collaboration. Check our events page for participating locations.
STEP WORKSHOPS
The STEP experience begins with our workshops. We will provide pre-recorded workshops for our participants to 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.
EVENT DAY
Teams will have their own space to innovate and build the next big app. This is the sprint! Your team will collaborate to create a viable product and bring it to life. 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 that teams will be required to meet during the build cycle. It’s intense, it’s thought provoking.
THE PITCH
The entire community is invited to watch the event live streamed 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 STEP Rubric available on our Resources page for judging criteria. Presentations begin at 7pm, and teams will pitch their apps to the judging committee. Each team will have 10 minutes to present and answer any questions from the judges. Winners will be determined after judge deliberation. Bring your best to wow the judges.
ARE YOU IN?
All you have to do to participate in the STEP challenge is submit an online registration form. You and/or your team must register to participate. All registrations must be submitted by 10pm on the Wednesday before the scheduled event date. MAGIC will be hosting this event live at Carroll Community College and select satellite locations. We will be using Discord for collaboration and communication. You must have or create a Discord account to have access to our STEP collaboration environment.
Our staff of volunteer mentors will help facilitate the formation of teams from individuals that registered as individuals after the kickoff presentation. Only individuals present will be placed on a team.
If you already have a team to work with, make sure to register as a team. Teams must have a minimum of 2 team members to participate.
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.
We will post several problem statements as we get closer to the event.
EVENT KICKOFF
Saturday, February 24 , 2024 starting at 10am
Doors open at 9:30 for registration check-in
The day will start out with an introduction and will be live streamed for satellite locations to view. The kickoff event will introduce the process, explain the rules of conduct and give the teams time to ask questions. Teams will be formed and given a space to work in.
STEP BUILD
Saturday, February 24, 2024 10:30am – 6:30pm
This is the time to collaborate, invent, imagine, and build! Kick back and bounce ideas, document your process, and build something awesome! Mentors will be roaming the groups to give advice and be a sounding board for concepts and process.
Don’t worry about brain fuel. We will have food and drink available throughout the day to keep you focused and energized
Don’t worry about a working product at the end, its all about the pitch..
We have created a few milestones required during the day to help keep your team on track.
6:30pm – All pitch decks are due for submission to our judges. You will receive a link to a google drive where you will submit. 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 7:00pm
Teams are called in a random order, so your team must be present to present at the beginning and ready to pitch.
Presentations of your teams product/app in front of a live judging panel. Teams will each team have 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.
STEP 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 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 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 Workshops and work at the 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 6;30pm on Saturday. Instructions for submitting these projects will be provided during the Kick-off 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).
- Inappropriate content or language will not be tolerated. 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.
STEP 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 also register as an individual and we will place you on a team during the event. Be sure to register with your particular interests so we can create well rounded teams with various interests and experience.
IS THIS EVENT 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 STEP challenge 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.
TO COMPETE IN THE STEP, 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.
WILL THERE BE PEOPLE TO HELP US THROUGHOUT THE DAY?
Yes. Mentors and coaches will be available during the day. If a mentor or coach is not available you can post your questions on Discord and ask for help in our #mentors channel and we will send someone your way.
SATURDAY IS A LONG DAY, WILL I HAVE TIME TO GET FOOD?
Yes. We make keeping fueled easy. We supply Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner event day. We will also have snacks and drinks available for that in between time when you need a boost.
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 2023 Winners
Best Overall
RosieRivets
Best Tech
Cupboardly
Best Design
RollOut
Best Pitch
ReDorm
Best Idea
JustMod
