CU Boulder Sustainability Hackathon
JOIN US for the Sustainability Hackathon Kickoff on Oct. 17! RSVP NOW!
What is the Hackathon?
The 2024 Sustainability Hackathon provides the opportunity to “hack” some of the sustainability issues our society is facing. Your solution to a problem could include technology or have no technology at all. The key is coming together with others who are passionate about solving problems, teaming up on a solution idea, and having fun in the process of building something to have an impact on the world. Students, faculty, and staff will have 168 hours to hack sustainability problems and have a shot at winning a share of $10,000!
2023 Hackathon winner FoodWise won $100,000 in the 2024 New Venture Challenge! Read More
Event Details
Judging Criteria
Teams will be judged on multiple criteria reflecting creativity, execution, design thinking, feasibility and scalability what they developed during the hackathon. Judging will be conducted by a panel of industry and academic leaders.
Registration
- Any actively enrolled CU Boulder student, staff or faculty member can register. In the spirit of collaboration, students from other Colorado universities are also invited to join. When teams are formed, there needs to be at least one CU Boulder student member on each competition team.
- Information about registering teams for the competition will be shared at the kickoff event.
- Industry partners and leaders from the technology industry and startup ecosystem will be involved throughout the event.
Keep up-to-date on the 2024 Sustainability Hackathon details! Sign up for updates
Hackathon Schedule Oct. 17-24
2024 Thursday, Oct. 17, CASE Auditorium – Register NOW
- Kickoff: 6-7 p.m.
- Introduce the hackathon rules, agenda, mentors, etc.
- Have last year’s winners present
- Introduce sponsors
- Introduce industry partners and their projects
- Idea Builder: 7-8 p.m.
- Teams form based on ideas expressed
- Mentors present to help build ideas
- Hackathon officially starts at 8:00 p.m.
Friday, Oct. 18
- Lunch Hack: 11a.m.-1 p.m.
- Networking—Teams looking to connect with other people to flesh out their team
- Kickoff Workshop (presented by Meep): 5-7 p.m.
- Vision/Mission, Assumptions, Metrics, Visionary Mindset and Defining Success
Saturday, Oct. 19
- Breakfast Hack: 9-11 a.m.
- Teams come together and meet mentors to start building their ideas
- Hack Space: 1-5 p.m.
- Provide a space with a few mentors where teams and work and build
Sunday, Oct. 20
- Meep Workshop (w/dinner): 2-7 p.m.
- 2-3:30 p.m. – Customer Journey Mapping, Refining MVP Scope, UX Strategy, and Wireframing
- 4-5 p.m. – Intro to No-Code, Choosing Your Tools, Prototype Development Best Practices
- 5:30-7 p.m. – Building Your Financial Model
- 7 p.m. on... Work Time with mentors from Meep (Finance, Business & Product Strategy, UX, No-Code, etc.)
Monday, Oct. 21
- Workspace—Presentation Prep: 5-8 p.m.
- Mentors available
Tuesday, Oct. 22
- Pitch Practice and Pitch Recording: 4-8 p.m.
- Mentorship
- Provide slide deck template
- 6 p.m. on... Group MVP Testing Session, Work Time & Pitch Practice with Meep mentors
Thursday, Oct. 24 (CASE Auditorium)
- Hack Submissions Due: 7 a.m.
- Video Pitch
- Executive summary
- Final Presentations: 6-8 p.m.
- Finalists' pitches
- Judging
- Awards