Judges
These are the judges for the 2021 Hesburgh Libraries Hackathon. Judges are selected from across campus to ensure they represent a wide range of skills and perspectives to the judging process.
Brandon Rich
Lead Architecture Specialist
IT Strategy, Planning and Architecture
Ian Alford
Manager, Enterprise Systems Unit
Hesburgh Libraries
Larita Robinson
Senior Programmer
Hesburgh Libraries
Tim Weninger
Associate Professor
Computer Science and Engineering
Presentations
Presentation Format
All presentations must be delivered as a recorded video of no longer than 4 minutes. The final video file is to be uploaded using the Presentation Video Upload Form.
There is no required format for the presentation. However, we recommend that your team consider including the following components when structuring your explainer. This will best help our panel of judges evaluate your contribution according to the 5 criteria of the judging rubric. Nor is it 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 briefly 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?
Creating the Presentation
It will likely save you significant time and make it more likely that you offer a clearer, more impactful presentation, if you write a basic script and run through it a few times before you record your presentation. Our How-to Video Script Template may help.
There are a number of applications which will allow you to record video and perform simple edits. The simplest way to create your presenation may be to use Zoom to record to Panopto. Panopto will also allow you to record directly, using the Panopto for Mac application, or the Panopto Capture to record directly in a browser.
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Presentation Weight
Take the presentation seriously. Not only is the presentation worth a full 10% of the judging criteria but it is your opportunity to help the judges understand how interesting, useful and unique your project is. The order of the presentation videos is randomly assigned. For presentation submission deadlines, see the presentation schedule .
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 on the challenges in using technology to promote community. For example, solutions could change the way users organize, communicate, schedule, or manage our personal, academic, or work lives. |
| 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 to connect with others and build community. |
| 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 the complexity and elegance of the back-end matches the front-end. |
| Presentation | 10% | Through the final presentation, the team should clearly communicate the final value of the project. The final presentation of the product to the judges should be professional, well-structured, and meaningful. Creativity, style, and engagement with the audience are key.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 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 criterion.
Winners Featured
All winning teams and their projects will be featured on the Hesburgh Libraries' website.
Prize Allocation
Without exception, cash prizes are split equally by University Accounting among all team members. Please note that awards may be subject to taxation, depending on student status.