Bitcamp is a place for exploration. You will have 36 hours to delve into your curiosities, learn something new, and make something awesome. With world-class mentors and 1,200+ fellow campers, you're in for an amazing time. Whether you’re a seasoned hacker or completely new to the world of hacking, we’ll have something for you. If you're ready for an adventure, we'll see you by the campfire!

Our History

The idea of Bitcamp was conceived by a group of UMD students back in 2013. “Camp” represented an event that evoked togetherness, warmth, and adventure. “Bit” was the embodiment of tech. Bit+camp = Bitcamp! The first ever Bitcamp focused on the idea of YOU+TECH, where participants (“Bitcampers”) were encouraged to take something they loved and fuse it with technology. The team focused on collaboration, fun, and a commitment to the Bitcamp experience, which are all values we carry forward today.

Mark Your Trail

Paying homage to Bitcamp’s founding idea of YOU+TECH, our theme this year is “Mark Your Trail.” We want to encourage each of you to apply your interests and passions to technology, and use Bitcamp as a milestone to make a mark on your unique path. To highlight the diverse fields of interest, we’ve launched the Bitcamp Trails program!

Bitcamp Trails Program

One of our aims this year is to expose students to the diverse opportunities available in the expansive world of tech. Whether you're a new or veteran hacker, or whether you want to use your skills in design or entrepreneurship, we want to provide a meaningful way for each of you to Mark Your Trail. Below we’ve included a brief description of each program to give you an idea of the different interests that each is catered toward.

Hacker Trail

The classic hackathon experience! We encourage hackers to build anything cool that comes to mind and to try new technologies. The sky is the limit, and we will have plenty of workshops with topics ranging from Web Development to Machine Learning.

Venture Trail

The bustling world of entrepreneurship can be hard to navigate, so we want to offer the opportunity to hear from key players in the startup space: venture capitalists and student entrepreneurs! Venture Trail workshops are geared towards taking hacks to the next level and working on a venture as a student and beyond.

Design Trail

Designers will will act as mentors and contributors to multiple teams throughout the weekend, while developing and adding to a portfolio of their designs (their “Bitfolio”). Their Bitfolios will be judged at the end of the hackathon as its own type of project.

Scout Trail

First-time hackers will learn how to combine their interests with tech to create something awesome. We will have beginner-oriented workshops to guide first-timers through the world of coding and hacking, covering essentials such as team formation, leveraging mentors, and submitting a project.

Eligibility

Everyone who applied and were admitted to Bitcamp are eligible to submit their projects.

Requirements

Make your project, submit your hack to Devpost and attend the Bitcamp expo to show off what you built. You must demo at the expo and submit on Devpost in order to be eligible for prizes.

Hackathon Sponsors

Prizes

$42,256 in prizes

Best Moonshot Hack - Bitcamp Hacker Trail

The most creative, innovate, and imaginative hack that "shoots for the moon." The awesome prize for this Bitcamp Trails challenge will be announced at the opening ceremony! Prizes are 1 Nintendo Switch, 1 PS4, 1 XBOX One, 1 SNES for the winning team.
You'll be entered for this prize if you select the Hacker Trail when you finalize your submission!

Best Potential Startup - Bitcamp Venture Trail

The hack with the most business potential and practicality. Would people actually use this? Would users value what the project brings enough to pay for it? Is it based off a fad or solving a real problem? The awesome prize for this Bitcamp Trails challenge will be announced at the opening ceremony! 1 Bose® QuietComfort® 25 Acoustic Noise Cancelling® Wired Headphones for each member of the winning team. You'll be entered for this prize if you select the Venture Trail when you finalize your submission!

Best Bitfolio - Bitcamp Design Trail

The Best Bitfolio will be the best overall submitted portfolio from the weekend. Factors considered will be innovation, aesthetics, service to the project/challenge, and the process. The awesome prize for this Bitcamp Trails challenge will be announced at the opening ceremony! Prizes include 1 Bose® QuietComfort® 25 Acoustic Noise Cancelling® Wired Headphones, IDEO Method card and UX Kit Wireframe Decks. You'll be entered for this prize if you select the Design Trail when you finalize your submission!

Best Beginner Hack - Bitcamp Scout Trail

The Best Hack by a First Time Hacker that shows the most individual growth. Were you able to learn a new skill at Bitcamp and apply it to your project? You must have at least one first time hacker in your team to be eligible for this prize. Each member of the winning team will receive an Echo Dot as well as $100 towards any experience! You'll be entered for this prize if you select the Scout Trail when you finalize your submission!

Best Digital Forensic Hack - Cipher Tech Solutions

Cipher Tech is giving away four Smart Robot Car Kits to members of the team who design the best application that pertains in some way to digital forensics. Digital forensics topics include but are not limited to: Data carving\reconstruction\recovery tools, finding specific objects (other than faces) in a large collection of digital images, steganography detection or exploitation, registry or memory artifact analysis, encryption detection, or anything else that could aid investigators who are looking at computers recovered from crime scenes.

Best use of SparkPost API - SparkPost

Create and send something with SparkPost using your own domain! The winning team will receive team's choice of $500 in either amazon or visa gift cards!

Best Philanthropic Hack - Bloomberg

At Bloomberg, we have a longstanding philanthropic and service-focused commitment. We engage our employees from across the company in service activities in local communities and assisting neighbors in need. The Philanthropy & Engagement program at Bloomberg inspires the next generation of leaders through a diverse range of mentoring and education initiatives. For this hack, we will be awarding a prize for the best public health hack that creates better, longer lives for the greatest number of people. The winning team members will get an instant photo printer!

Best Financial Hack - Capital One

We want to see what ideas you come up with to disrupt the financial industry. We'll be judging on Completeness, Creativity, and Complexity. Each member of the winning team will receive a $300 Amazon gift card!

Best Hack (be passionate) - Facebook

Hackers should just build something they’re passionate about! We will be looking at creativity of the ideas and the execution and completion of the project.

Best Use of MongoDB Stitch - MongoDB

Use MongoDB Stitch backend-as-a-service in your project. Winning team will get $500 in Amazon Gift Cards split evenly among the members!

Best Hack with Esri APIs and SDKs - Esri

Develop something cool, something neat and something inspiring that uses our ArcGIS platform and APIs. Our judging criteria will include problem addressed, technical difficulty, design, and presentation. The winning team will receive $1,000 in Amazon gift cards!

Improving Healthcare with Mobile Technologies - Credible Behavioral Health

Develop an “App” for a mobile device that will report back to a central location if someone enters a specific geographic location as determined by GPS. The winning team members will each receive a $150 Amazon gift card!

Best Accessibility Hack - Microsoft

At Microsoft, our mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. And that means EVERY person. There are no limits to what people can achieve when technology reflects the diversity of everyone who uses it. Transparency, accountability, and inclusion aren't just built into our culture. They're reflected in products and services designed for people of all abilities. Find a solution that removes physical, digital, cultural, or psychological barriers in your community, empowering everyone to achieve more. 4 Invoke with Cortana by Microsoft Speakers and 4 copies of Satya Nadella’s “Hit Refresh” for the winning team!

Decentralise Everything: Blockchain challenge - Ark (5)

Any solution using ARK Ecosystem as underlying platform. Winners will be selected by the present team. Contact ARK crew at the location-to start discussing the use of blockchain for you hack. It can be IoT, healthcare, supply chain management, arm, audit log.... wherever you see a place for a new decentralized economy based on trust of ARK Blockchain. The winning team will receive 2000 ARK coins ~ $4320.

Most Unique Hack - 1517 Fund (2)

Must be something weird, creative, and ideally something we’ve never seen at a hackathon before (we like to leave this broad intentionally)! The winning team will get a $1k grant and mentorship post-event from 1517 as well as $5k in AWS credits, and access to 1517 community and events.

Best Hack for Aiding Natural Disaster Recovery Efforts - Booz Allen Hamilton

Our prize is for the hack that best addresses a specific issue that arises in the wake of, or preparation for, a natural disaster or catastrophic incident. Submissions need to tell us what the issue is they’re tackling, and how their hack addresses it. The winning team will each receive a $75 Amazon Gift Card!

Using Virtual Reality Technology Design the Best Manufacturing Facility - Lockheed Martin

We are asking for a minimum viable product that can be tested and displayed. We also suggests the development of additional documentation to support the product. This documentation can include:

1. Value Proposition (What value is the product supplying? How is the product relieving customer pains? How is the product benefiting customer gains?)
2. Storyboard (Detailed representation of application process)
3. Instructions
4. Future Plans

--- Criteria
1. The application must utilize Unity 3D game engine to develop a VR experience.
2. LMCO has supplied a HTC Vive station for development testing and final demonstration
3. The application must support utilize the controllers for user engagement with the virtual world
4. The application must support user teleportation in the virtual world
5. The application must include true to life physics (no random floating objects)
6. Objective requirements and use cases include:
a. Interaction with a simple conveyor belt (push a button and the belt moves)
b. Interaction with hand tools
c. Interaction with heavy machinery
d. Ability to delete, create, and move object
e. Ability to produce data queries from factory sensor data and work in process data
f. Ability to adjust the entire environment to display key work in process areas of interest (HVAC system, EM radiation, hazardous radiation including paint, propellant, and warhead)"

Each member of the winning team will receive an Echo Dot and Lockheed Martin swag!

Best Designed Investor Education Product - Finra (2)

Your challenge is to design an investor education product for a specific audience. To help you get started, we've brought 3 personas to gear your challenge toward - a college student, a 30-something in the midst of a career, and a recently-retired senior citizen. Now go!
Criteria: quality of the user experience, quality of your design approach and methodology, appeal and relevance of the product, aesthetic appeal. The winning team will receive $2000!

Most Futuristic Hack - Paypal

Awarded to a project that is forward-thinking and has a high chance of continued growth into the foreseeable future. Winning team members will each receive an echo!

Housing insights “in-between” Datasets - Fannie Mae

Use the Fannie Mae API’s along with data from other sites to create informative and compelling data visualizations, implement machine learning systems, develop risk analysis engines via neural networks, or build apps to help users navigate the housing market.

First place winners: each participant gets a Google Home Mini, $50 Amazon gift card, and a Fannie Mae steel insulated water bottle

Second place winners: each participant gets a $25 Amazon gift card and a Fannie Mae steel insulated water bottle

Resources:
Fannie Mae data access API’s via “The Exchange”
Sample code and documentation :https://github.com/fitzmurphy/FannieMae-Bitcamp-2018"

Amazon Web Services - Best Use of AWS

$250 AWS Credit

Best Domain Name from Domain.com

Raspberry Pi & PiHut Essentials Kit

Devpost Achievements

Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:

Judges

Bitcamp Judging Team

Bitcamp Judging Team

...and our wonderful sponsors!

...and our wonderful sponsors!

Judging Criteria

  • Technical Difficulty
    Is the hack technically interesting or difficult? Is it just some lipstick on an API, or were there real technical challenges to surmount?
  • Originality
    Is the hack more than just another generic social/mobile/local app? Does it do something entirely novel, or at least take a fresh approach to an old problem?
  • User Experience
    Is the hack usable in its current state? Is the user experience smooth? Does everything appear to work? Is it well designed?

Questions? Email the hackathon manager

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