Best Overall Hack

For the most innovative hack.

Best Beginner Hack (2)

Awarded to the top two beginner hacks.

Best Art and Gaming Hack (2)

Exactly that. One cannot define art. Speak to people. Change minds. The possibilities are endless – surprise us!

Example Prompts:
- Build your own AR game.
- Construct an app that helps its users make new music.
- How can you help people find local art exhibits and events?

Best Health Hack (2)

Take steps to make your community more healthy, or help improve the health industry as a whole!

Example Prompts:
- In what ways can we incentivize an active lifestyle despite a sedentary career?
- How can we encourage healthy eating habits?
- How can we inform people about where to find health-related resources?

Best Finance Hack (2)

Build a creative solution to a problem you see within finance!

Example Prompts:
- Use banking APIs to develop one application that allows tracking of finances between multiple banks.
- Build an intuitive and useful application that helps low-income people keep track of their finances.

Best Education Hack (2)

Technology has changed but schools haven’t. Build something to modernize education and solve the problems education faces today.

Example Prompts:
- Build an application that helps others learn more efficiently.
- How can students better plan out their schedules and homework?
- An application that teachers can use in the classroom to help their students learn specific topics.

Best Accessibility/Empowerment Hack (2)

Sponsored by Leidos

Help improve the lives of the disabled, those in poverty, and members of marginalized or minority groups!

Example Prompts:
- What changes should be made to improve the system of reporting discrimination and harassment in professional environments?
- How can we use wearable technology IT to support people with degenerative cognitive disabilities like dementia?
- Develop a solution to target food distribution issues on a global scale or in your own community.

Best Data Science Hack (2)

Model and predict complex patterns in the real world! Choose your own adventure...

Example Prompts:
- Dive into opioid prescription data to uncover hidden stories about the opioid epidemic.
- Make sense of Wikipedia’s webs of information with beautiful visualizations.
- Apply machine learning techniques to model and predict natural disasters.

Best Sustainability Hack (2)

Materially improve your local neighborhood’s environment, or educate your peers, before we all die!

Example Prompts:
- How can we materially improve sustainability within our local institutions and communities, even marginally, by introducing clean energy?
- What minor lifestyle changes can we promote that can massively reduce our carbon footprint collectively?
- In what ways can we increase awareness and encourage the use of existing eco-friendly options that many people don’t know about (such as plastic alternatives or products made by green companies)?
- How can you make technology more sustainable (i.e. use less power)?

Best use of Google Cloud (2)

Sponsored by Google Cloud and MLH.

Use any Google Cloud product in your project (Firebase and Google Maps Platform count!) See full list of products here: cloud.google.com/products.

First Place: Cloud Patagonia Backpacks, Cloud Pillows, Acrylic Trophies, Cloud Water Bottles, and Google Nest Minis for each team member.

Second Place: Google Nest Minis for each team member.

Best Domain Registered with Domain.com

Domain.com provides all the domain services you need from registration to hosting to SSL certificates and beyond. Each hacker will receive a FREE domain name and year of domain privacy from Domain.com for their project this weekend!

Best UiPath Automation Hack

Build an automation hack using UiPath! Each winning team member will receive a UiPath/MLH Branded Backpack!

Best use of MongoDB Atlas

Create a hack using MongoDB Atlas to host a database in the cloud! Automate the provisioning and deployment process with ease, while focusing all your efforts on your hack. Projects built using MongoDB Atlas will be eligible to win an AirCharge Plus.

Best Use of Twilio API

Sponsored by Twilio

The prize is a quarantine survival kit with noise-canceling headphones and a jigsaw puzzle.

Best User Experience Design

Sponsored by Pariveda