Hi y’all, I’m Chi! I’m the new Commissioner at Major League Hacking and I’m super excited to join this community.
In my previous life, I developed new internal products within the insurance world, managed product communications for a loyalty startup, and most recently taught adults how to enter the startup world and launch their own products. I joined MLH a few months ago to be part of a fast-growing movement: to empower a younger and more diverse generation to build technology and change the world. Last season, we helped empower 65,000 hackers that attended MLH events around the world. I’m working with our team on new diversity and inclusion initiatives as well as ways to grow the overall MLH hacker community. I’d love to hear from you about what you’d like to see from MLH – just e-mail me at chi@mlh.io.
I’m looking forward to meeting as many of you as possible at hackathons this Fall and learning more about what brought you to this community. Please don’t hesitate to reach out anytime if you would like to chat.
What’s New for the 2018 Season
The official MLH 2018 Hackathon Season launched on Friday, July 14th, 2017. It will run from August 2017 to June 1, 2018 and will include 250 hackathons to choose from! We can’t wait to return to our favorites and we’re excited to showcase even more new hackathons this season. Check our official MLH Member Events Page regularly to see any newly launched events.
This season we’re thrilled to empower hackers with tons of great tech, swag, and other awesome benefits made possible by our amazing sponsors.
Last year Capital One, one of the fastest-growing tech companies out there, provided t-shirts to hackers with Ada, our official 2017 Hackathon Season mascot.
We loved seeing hackers wearing these shirts at hackathons, on campus, and beyond. They are an amazing way to easily find fellow hackers and showcase your passions to the world.
The 2018 Hackathon Season mascot is Bit the Bot. When you go to hackathons you’ll be able to take home stickers and shirts with Bit on them to show off your hacker swag beyond the weekend.
On the software side, as in previous seasons we’ll be providing hackers with $100 in Amazon Web Services credits, software from the GitHub Student Developer Pack, and free Domain.com .com, .net, and .org domain names. We’ve also welcomed a new sponsor, Softheon, to the MLH family to provide hackers their payments API to use in projects.
In the MLH Hardware Lab, hackers will be able to check out returning favorites like Amazon Echo devices, Oculus Rift headsets, and Samsung Gear VRs, along with many others. We also have some new devices from Qualcomm to build IoT projects, drones from Teal Drones coming later this fall, as well as some other surprises across the season – stay tuned.
On the snack front, we’re excited to help hackers “fight tired with delicious” with new caffeinated chocolates from Awake Chocolate! We’ll also be bringing Soylent meals back to our events and this season will have all of the new flavors available for hackers to sample to fuel late-night hacking.
Last year, we delivered over $300 worth of benefits and technologies to each hacker who attended an MLH hackathon. That’s nearly $20,000,000 in value that we were able to bring to hackers in our community. We can’t wait to top that this year, so stay tuned for our finalized list of season sponsors.
Register now for our first North American Member Events
The moment you’ve been waiting for all summer is here. We’ve added the first Member Events into our newly minted 2018 Hackathon Season, so start signing up and keep your eyes peeled for many more in the coming weeks.
HackMTY
Monterrey, MX – August 26th – 27th, 2017
HackMTY is the largest student hackathon in Latin America and has resulted in its fair share of awesome hacks. From data visualizations to medical and therapeutic applications, hackers at HackMTY know that anything is possible.
Concerned about having their favorite TV shows spoiled, Enrique, Luis, Alfredo, and Emilio built Spoiler Defense, one of the coolest hacks from HackMTY. Using facial recognition, Spoiler Defense scans your Facebook wall looking for characters from your favorite TV shows, so that you can avoid discovering who was the latest casualty from last night’s Game of Thrones.
We’re thrilled to be going back to Monterrey for HackMTY on August 26th to see many more hacks like this.
BigRed//Hacks
Ithaca, NY – September 15th – 17th, 2017
BigRed//Hacks is the oldest student-run, large scale hackathon at Cornell University. Across 3 days students have a chance to work on innovative projects, meet amazing people, and win some cool prizes along the way. Their focus this year is to seek innovation in education.
MHacks X
Ann Arbor, MI – September 22nd – 24th, 2017
For its tenth anniversary, MHacks is taking a look back at its past and what is yet to come. It’s been almost five years since MHacks when 4 friends from the University of Michigan kicked off during the first MLH season in Fall of 2013 and we’re ecstatic to be celebrating a huge milestone this September in Ann Arbor. Apply by August 14th to be considered for a travel reimbursement.
HackRice
Houston, TX – September 22nd – 24th, 2017
Rice University has one of the best computer science programs in the nation and wants to engage more with new hackers! As a result, they will be presenting a special “first-time hacker only” prize for first-time attendees or teams totally comprised of first-timers. They want to make hacking more inclusive and will be hosting a meetup prior to the event help students form teams and “tracks” to get hackers unstuck from the idea phase.
HackISU
Ames, IA – October 6th – 8th, 2017
HackISU has been around since Fall 2013 and is the premiere hackathon at Iowa State University, and the third largest hackathon in the midwest. Students from around the midwest can spend the weekend here building everything from their first website to drones you can fly with your wrist. Join this hackathon today!
HackUMBC
Baltimore, MD – October 7th – 8th, 2017
Last year, a team of hackers made an Alexa powered Keurig all on wheels. The device had a tube loaded with K-cups and was shot into the Keurig using compressed air. It then launched a Lazy Susan to rotate your coffee around and put milk and sugar in it, all while an alarm bell and light would get you up in the morning. Check out their event if you want to build more hacks like this.
HackGT
Atlanta, GA – October 13th – 15th, 2017
HackGT is Georgia Tech’s first official national hackathon and brings in 1000 students over a course of a weekend. Last year’s winner created a free-form 3D DJ System that let you control the way you play music with just your hands. This event brings in a variety of different projects in all different areas and is great if you want to explore everything.
TigerHacks
Columbia, MO – October 13th – 15th, 2017
TigerHacks (formerly HackMizzou) is a 36 hour hackathon hosted at the University of Missouri – Columbia. From October 13th-15th, hundreds of passionate students from around the midwest will gather together to use technology to rethink journalism and media. Whether you are a budding programmer cub or an experienced panther, we will see you at TigerHacks!
This year TigerHacks is partnering with the University of Missouri Reynolds Journalism Institute to focus on new approaches to communicating, connecting, and influencing people. Teams will be awarded prizes for innovative projects in the field of media and journalism.
VandyHacks
Nashville, TN – October 20th – 22nd, 2017
The first national hackathon put on by Vanderbilt University students. Last year’s event brought Jeff Rothschild, Facebook’s founding Vice President of Infrastructure Software, to deliver the keynote address at their opening ceremony. This 48-hour event continues to encourage beginners by hosting three tracks of introductory workshops in Web Development, Python, and the Unity Game Engine. Step out of your comfort zone, think outside the box, and join them in changing the world.
HackUMass
Amherst, MA – November 3rd – 5th, 2017
HackUMass will be hosting it’s 5th annual hackathon at UMass Amherst on November 3rd-5th. Applications open on Thursday, July 20th. The 37-hour event will include making, building connections, and bringing ideas to life. Come if you are interested to play with 3D printers, virtual reality, wearable tech. Follow HackUMass on Twitter for the latest scoop.
Electric City Hacks
Ontario, CAN – November 3rd – 5th, 2017
Trent University is proud to host its second annual hackathon in Canada’s Electric City: Peterborough, Ontario. Electric City Hacks will include 350 brilliant students from across North America where they will design, build, demo and make their dreams a reality this November. Here’s some ‘snow’ from the ice skating rink the students used as ice to keep their ice cream cold.
HackRiddle
Daytona Beach, FL – November 4th – 5th, 2017
HackRiddle is the only aviation themed 24 hour collegiate hackathon hosted at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. One of last year’s winners made a game in random life-or-death situations that depend on wise decisions the user opts to make.
Check them out if you are interested to work on more projects around aviation focused this year!
HackFSU
Tallahassee, FL – March 2nd – 4th, 2018
HackFSU, hosted this time with Florida State University and Florida A&M University, is a great event that brings students from all over the Southeast together. Students here have a great culture of collaboration on very different things. Gloria, one of last year’s winners, came up with an app for students to share notes for free. Sign up for this event to learn design, programming, and development with a bunch of cool friends.
Hacklahoma
Norman, OK – March 3rd – 4th, 2018
We’re pretty excited to help launch Hacklahoma for the first time at University of Oklahoma. Last season, these students were determined to organize a hackathon of their own after having such a great time at other MLH Member events like HackUTD and have already spun up their own event that is sure to help encourage more diverse students like themselves to continue learning and building technology!
Register now for our first EU Member Events
AstonHack
Birmingham, UK – November 11th – 12th, 2017
AstonHack, held at Aston University in the centre of Birmingham, is a new student hackathon, launched by the Aston Computer Science Society in 2015, to form part of the annual Major League Hacking league. MLH events are free for student hackers aged 18+ participating in teams from 1 to 4 on innovative solutions to real-world problems.
Whether this is your first hackathon or your 20th, you can join them in building fun projects and see why they’re known for their food, cake and geese-related shenanigans. Check out this past winner that built a geese hunting game in VR! You’ll have a quacking time.
HackSussex
Brighton, UK – November 11th – 12th, 2017
Hosted by the University of Sussex, HackSussex’s goal is to build a community of like-minded code builders from all over the UK, who want to put creativity into computing. One of last year’s winners creatively used an Arduino and Leap-Motion to successfully fly a drone. Novices and experts are both welcomed at this event.
More Events Coming Soon
We’ll be announcing a LOT more events soon, so keep an eye on our 2018 North America Hackathon Season Calendar and 2018 EU Hackathon Season Calendar, follow us on Twitter or Facebook, or join our Mailing List to hear about new Member Events as they join!
Organize a Hackathon at your School
If you had an amazing time at a hackathon last year and are interested in organizing your own in the next academic year, submit your applications now so that you don’t miss out on being an MLH Member Event. We’d love for you to be part of our global movement.
Check out our Organizer’s Guide on how to get started or attend MLH Hackcon V near New York City on August 4-6, 2017. Brand new MLH Member Events will also be eligible for a special grant from GitHub. We can’t wait for you to be a part of the season.