Bison Hacks is open to Howard University students and anyone who is 18 years or older (we will be checking ID) and is currently enrolled in a 4 year college or university (undergraduate program) with a valid student ID.

Due to the location we are only allowed to have attendees who have registered for the hackathon. Therefore, if you are interested attending this event please register at this link.

There can be a maximum of 5 students for a team.

That is fine, you have the option to work alone but we highly recommend that you work in a team.

Teams are encouraged to have a mix of business, engineering, and design oriented students. Diversity is encouraged. However, teams are required to choose a name.

Team projects can be brainstormed beforehand, but code MUST be written at the event only. Code cannot be brought in from outside the event . Cheating of any kind will not be tolerated. The project must contain a README within the repository that describes the project.

You can use any tool, API, service or language for your team project.

A 3 min presentation is required during judging, explaining and demonstrating the team’s application. In addition 1 minute will be allowed for questions.

All projects must be submitted into our Bison Hacks DevPost by March 19, 2022 at 1:30PM.

Your project can be a mobile application, web application or IoT project. The project must fit into the theme set for the event.

Projects must not contain any advertisement or solicitation. Projects must not contain anything that is or may be construed as:

• Threatening, harassing, degrading or hateful.
• Defamatory.
• Fraudulent or tortious.
• Obscene, indecent or otherwise objectionable; or (v) protected by copyright, trademark or other proprietary right without the express prior consent of the owner of such right

Projects must not contain any material that would give rise to criminal or civil liability or that encourages conduct that constitutes a criminal offense; and Projects must otherwise comply in all respects with these Rules and the Policies.

We will have 4-5 judges for this hackathon. Our judges will be key members within the DC Tech Industry. Their backgrounds will cover technology, design, marketing and entrepreneurship. To learn more about the judges check them out here.

• Business Model. Outside of technical impressiveness in the project, during this hackathon judges will be looking for how teams communicate customer validation (Who are your users?) and acquisition strategy (How will you attract your users?). Those two pillars will help validate the idea.
• Impact. Our theme this year is to create a solution that will help improve the betterment of the DMV community. In this category we are looking for key factors that shows how the team's idea is scalable and give a clear measure as to how thier solution makes an impact on the user's life.
• Technical. In the midst of the given 24 hours the judges will be looking for an established minimum viable product and a working prototype . This can range from a web application, mobile application or an IoT.
• Design and User Experience. The teams final minimum viable product and prototype should achieve an engaging and memorable user experience. This means having a clear interface that is intuitive for users that come from different backgrounds.
• Presentation. Teams will be rated base off presentation layout and articulation of their solution. This means how well was the team able to communicate their target audience, problems they are solving and how their product is the solution to that problem.

Since the hackathon is a virtual event, you do not have to be on the conference platform for the entire time. We encourage students to use their own methods of communicating wtih their team. However, to receive help from mentors and get updates from organizers you would have to be on the conference platform or Slack.

That is great! We welcome any help! To sign up as a mentor you can simply select "Mentor" on the form within the registration link here.

Although, it is ideal but it is not a requirement. We welcome anyone who have experience in entrepreneurship, marketing, finance and technology.

The role of a "Tech" or "Business" mentor is to be floating resources for the duration of the hackathon. This means helping teams define workflow, brainstorm ideas, problem solve and develop the final presentation. Mentors are free to communicate amongst themselves on questions of observations that occur. As organizers, we would be glad to gain some insight on technical issues, hackathon dynamics, or other Bison Hacks materials. Here are a few pointers to keep in mind as a Bison Hacks mentor:

• Be available for participants. Participants will contact mentors that they believe will be able to address their questions. Responding to teams questions is not a 24/7 responsibility, but please do check the communication channels and get back to the participants in a reasonable time frame. Within the Eventbrite link, there are 4-hour time slots, that mentors can choose.
• Offer what you know. It is best to acknowledge that you are not well-versed in the subject than to point teams down a sub-optimal path. If you are unable to answer the question it is fine giving the team some online resources or refer them to another mentor that may specialize in the area of interest.
• You are a mentor. It may be tempting but mentors are not allowed to join or contribute to a team. That includes writing a few lines of code or writing a couple bullets on their pitch decks. Providing pointers, references to examples and advice about design concepts are all in-bounds of the role of a mentor.
• Share questions and answers. Bison Hacks is a learning hackathon and we feel that every team can benefit from questions asked and answered on team-to-mentor interactions. We strongly encourage to summarize questions/answers for posting to the whole group of participants. As we approach the kick-off date, the Bison Hacks Team will announce how information can be shared amongst participants and how mentors should publish to the communication channels.

First! Thank you for wishing to sponsor our hackathon! To sponsor our event you can view our sponsorship package here and send an email to bisonhacks@gmail.com.

The funds goes towards food, prizes and the swag for the hackathon. We go into more detail within our sponsorship package here.