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Hesburgh Libraries Hackathon 2022

Judges

These are the judges for the 2022 Hesburgh Libraries Hackathon. Judges are selected from across campus to ensure they bring a wide range of skills and perspectives to the judging process.

Ben Tovar

Lead Research Software Engineer
Computer Science and Engineering

Dan Johnson

Subject Librarian, English, Digital Humanities, and Film, Television, and Theatre
Navari Family Center for Digital Scholarship
Hesburgh Libraries

Greg Koehler

Program Manager for Sustainable Operations
Office of Sustainability

Helen Hockx-Yu

Enterprise Architect
Office of Information Technology

Joanna Cecilia da Silva Santos

Assistant Professor
Computer Science & Engineering

Presentations

Presentation Format

Unless approved by the event administrators (typically for medical reasons), all presentations must be delivered in person.

There is no required format for the presentation. However, we recommend that your team consider including the following components, which will best help our panel of judges evaluate your contribution according to the 5 criteria of the judging rubric. Is it not required to add these components lock-step, but they may help ensure you're adequately describing your work and your product.

  • Team Name — Have you introduced yourselves?
  • Project Title — Have you clearly stated the project name? If the name has a special significance, have you unpacked that for the audience?
  • Project Description — Have you given a succinct but clear description of the project and its value to users? What users, communities and/or markets are you targeting?
  • Innovation & Impact — What is the value proposition of your hack? How is better than other similar products, for example? How will your hack positively change / improve the delivery of information, the acquisition of services, etc., for users?
  • Technical Merit — Have you described the technical aspects of your hack? What does it do and how does it work? What languages, frameworks, libraries, have you used in building it?
  • Demo — Have you demonstrated how your hack works? Have you recorded direct interactions or, at a minimum, used screen shots?
  • Challenges — Have you described any interesting challenges you faced or may face if you were to take the project forward?
  • Opportunities — What opportunities exist for, say, taking the hack to market, or marketing it at scale? What are next steps, if any, for your hack?

Judging Criteria

Each category has a weighted percentage that will be used to calculate the final score for each team.

Category Weight Description
Innovation 30% The project should take a unique, interesting, and creative approach to solving the problem(s) identified by this year's theme. This criterion looks at novel or cutting edge methods for user interaction, data manipulation and presentation, and use of new technology.
Impact 30% The proposed solution should have a significant impact in solving technological challenges posed by the theme of that year's hackathon. For example, solutions might aim to improve the way users organize, communicate, schedule, or perhaps manage information, resources, or people, with regard to that theme.
Usability 15% Usability represents ease-of-use in engaging with content and services. The project should exemplify the highest standards of intuitive and elegant User Experience Design (UX). The project should easily, pleasantly, safely, and elegantly help users.
Technical Merit 15% The application was technically challenging to construct, requiring strong programming skills from the team. The team made wise choices in selecting conventional but creative components and libraries to construct the app. The complexity and elegance of the back-end matches the front-end.
Presentation 10% Through the final presentation, the team should clearly communicate the value of the project. The final presentation of the product to the judges should be professional, well-structured, and meaningful. The team may also wish to describe their process and developmental hurdles and how they overcame them.

Prizes

Prizes

The three main prizes for the Hesburgh Hackathon are awarded to teams who excel in all of the criteria on the judging rubric. 

Prize Award
First Prize $3,000
Second Prize $2,000
Third Prize $1,000
Honorable Mention * $500
Honorable Mention * $500

* Judges may use their discretion in awarding up to 2 additional prizes under the category of Honorable Mention. Winners of the first, second and third-place prizes are not eligible for these prizes. These prizes are awarded to teams who may not have excelled in all of the criteria of the judging rubric but who may have shown exceptional skill in one or more area.