About the challenge
Emory Hacks, presented by PROJECT Emory, is a hackathon hosted at Emory University. We are committed to bringing hundreds of students together for an intensive 36-hour hackathon where innovation comes to life. Participants build cutting-edge applications, websites, and digital tools while learning from industry professionals through hands-on workshops and mentorship. Whether you're a first-time coder or a seasoned developer, join us to push your creative and technical boundaries in this dynamic weekend of building and collaboration.
Requirements
What to Build
Your goal is to work on building an application for one of four tracks listed. You can build anything that fits the theme of the track you choose!
What to Submit
You will be submitting a short 2-minute demo of your application, as well as presenting your project in person to judges! Indicate the main track that you will be competing in, along with any side tracks that you meet the requirements for.
Prizes
Amazon Gift Card
One Amazon Gift Card will be awarded to each member of a given winning team.
Soundcore Headphones
The Soundcore by Anker Q20i Hybrid Active Noise Cancelling Headphones (white/black) will be awarded to each member of the winning team of the Rogue Track.
Coder Side-Challenge 1st Place Winners Opt in
1st Place: Nintendo Switch, Coder Education License, Dono to Non-Profit
Coder Side-Challenge 2nd Place Winners
2nd Place: Keyboard + Mouse set, Coder Education License
TypeSense Side-Challenge Winners
$1,500 joint-TypeSense Credit
Chert Side-Challenge Winners
$400 for 1st place and guranteed interviews for the Chert Fellowship (work at a YC company).
[MLH] Build Your Hackathon A-Team with SpaceXSI
Mechanical Keyboard ||
Your hackathon A-team just got two new members. Build your hackathon project with Cursor and Grok Bot this weekend to qualify for the SpaceXSI raffle. Every member on the winning team walks away with a custom-branded Cursor mechanical keyboard.
Here’s how you qualify:
Use Cursor as your core AI coding agent
Integrate a Grok Bot automation into your workflow
In your project description, describe how you use both Cursor and Grok Bot.
Submit your project and be sure to opt-in to the Make it Legendary with SpaceXSI raffle.
[MLH] Best Use of Gemini API
MLH Swag Kits ||
It’s time to push the boundaries of what’s possible with AI using Google Gemini. Check out the Gemini API to build AI-powered apps that make your friends say WHOA. So, what can Gemini do for your hackathon project?
Understand language like a human and build a chatbot that gives personalized advice
Analyze info like a supercomputer and create an app that summarizes complex research papers
Generate creative content like code, scripts, music, and more
Think of the possibilities… what will you build with the Google Gemini API this weekend?
[MLH] Best Use of Entire
Mini Portable Projector ||
Entire is the Git forge for agent-human collaboration. From syncing your sessions and prompts to your Git history, to hosting code and replacing the Pull Request with Trails, Entire are reimagining code hosting and collaboration for the agent era.
Ready to build faster with AI without burning through tokens or losing context? This challenge is all about building smarter AI workflows. To qualify, your project should leverage as many of Entire’s core capabilities (Sessions, Graph, and/or Brain) as possible.
Your project should lean on Sessions for context and memory and entire-graph for codebase mapping:
Sessions (Shared Memory): Save your AI agent sessions as instant checkpoints and push them to your team. Teammates or other agents can jump in instantly and pick up right where you left off with zero context loss.
Graph (Codebase Mapping): Generate a visual map of how your codebase fits together. Using entire graph search instead of letting agents blindly search files to cut token usage by up to 71%!
Brain (Persistent Reasoning): Combine your session data and Graph insights into persistent project knowledge. Agents can query past decisions and architectural lessons through the CLI or MCP so they don’t repeat mistakes or undo working code.
Trails (Code review): Assign you or a teammate’s agent a task via Trail (Entire’s issue/PR combo primitive), the agent works on it, and then let your agent review the code change: does the code change match the intent? Should it merge? Let Entire Trails help you decide!
[MLH] Best Use of Solana
Unruggable Hardware Wallets ||
The world of development is evolving fast and Solana is leading the charge with a network built to handle all of your infrastructure needs. Forget high fees and slow confirmations, it’s time to build applications that are fast, efficient, and scalable.
Harness Solana’s core advantages like blazing fast execution and near-zero transaction costs to make your hackathon ideas become real world projects. With Solana, the possibilities are endless.
Create a game, social app, or consumer product that relies on instant, high-frequency transactions.
Design a sophisticated trading, lending, or decentralized exchange (DEX).
Build a prototype for supply chain, identity, or payments that can handle massive, real-world volume.
Show us how you can innovate with Solana for a chance to win Unruggable Hardware Wallets for you and each member of your team!
[MLH] Best Use of Vultr
Assorted Prizes ||
Vultr empowers hackers to bring their high-performance projects to life instantly; providing everything from the speed of one-click deployment and scalable cloud compute, to specialized Vultr Cloud GPUs that can power AI-driven applications. We want you to push the limits of what can be built when infrastructure is no longer the bottleneck!
Sign up for a Vultr account today and claim your free cloud credits! Take your next hack to the cloud with Vultr for a chance to win some awesome prizes for you and your team!
[MLH] DEV Writing Challenge
$100 ||
Give your project another chance to shine!
Your hackathon may end after the weekend, but your project story is just getting started. Publish what you built on DEV and help other developers learn from your process.
Each month, the DEV editorial team will select at least one favorite project. Additional projects may be selected depending on submission volume.
Selections consider technical substance, originality, clear storytelling, and community popularity. Great work deserves an audience, so make your post useful, memorable, and easy to share.
[MLH] Best Domain Name from GoDaddy Registry
Digital Gift Card ||
GoDaddy Registry is giving you everything you need to be the best hacker no matter where you are. Register your domain name with GoDaddy Registry for a chance to win some amazing prizes!
Judges
Angela Guevarra
Project Leader, Decision Science, Delta Air Lines
Rose Espiritu
Engineering Leader @ Microsoft
DeRonne Floyd
SWE @ Google
Akil Word-Daniels
Technical Program Manager @ Microsoft
Nandu Shah
Atlanta CTO Club President
Vishal Seelam
Founding Eng @ Zeph Technologies
Sindhura Gade
SWE @ Onetrust
Elijah Chou
SWE @ JPMorganChase
Steffi Gnanaprakasa
Senior Software Engineer @ OMP
Noah Sturgill
PHD, Emory University Laney Graduate School
Shahenshah Ali Syed
Senior Data Engineer @CVS Health
Judging Criteria
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Presentation & Overall Impact (1-5)
How effectively is the project communicated? Does the presentation clearly convey the value and potential impact of the solution? -
User Experience & Accessibility (1-5)
How intuitive and user-friendly is the solution? Is it accessible to the intended audience and considerate of diverse user needs? -
Technical Implementation & Complexity (1-5)
How well-executed is the technical solution? Does the implementation demonstrate technical skill and appropriate complexity for the problem? -
Innovation & Creativity (1-5)
How original is the approach? Does the project demonstrate creative thinking or a novel application of technology? -
Relevance & Problem Fit (1-5)
How well does the project address a real need or problem? Does it provide a meaningful solution to the identified challenge?
Questions? Email the hackathon manager









