Philly Codefest is a software and hardware hackathon with the goal of developing innovative solutions to help solve real world challenges. Open to all college students and professionals, Codefest gives everyone the opportunity to grow and learn — no matter your background or skill level. During Codefest, participants will have the opportunity to interact with technology leaders, mentors and some of the most sought-after companies in the Philadelphia area and tech field at large. Codefest isn’t just a chance for you to build hacks; it’s also an opportunity for you build relationships within a community. Philly Codefest’s collaborative environment allows teams of all kinds push the boundaries of innovation and take creative risks for a chance to win big prizes.

Schedule

Time	What
February 20	Saturday
8:30am - 10:00am	Doors open, participant check-in
10:00am - 11:00am	Codefest Kick-Off Keynote Speaker - Karen Griffith Gryga, Chief Investment Officer, Dreamit Ventures API Demos Codefest Rules and Prizes
12:00pm	Lunch
1:00pm	Deadline for teams to register on Devpost
5:30pm - 7:00pm	Dinner
11:00pm	Late Night Snack
February 21	Sunday
12:00am - 12:00pm	Coding Continues
7;30am	Breakfast
12:00pm	Coding Ends!
12:00pm	Lunch & Demo Fair Setup
12:30pm - 3:30pm	Philly Codefest Demo Fair & Judging
3:00pm - 3:30pm	Judging - Final Presentation Setup
3:30pm - 5:30pm	Final Presentations & Awards Ceremony

Eligibility

Everyone is welcome to participate!

We can only guarantee admission to participants that have registered through Eventbrite. Registration is currently closed. We will do our best to admit participants from the waitlist on Satuday morning around 11am.

Requirements

All teams are required to register their team and project idea on Devpost by Saturday, February 20 at 1pm. Each team must:

Have EVERY person on the team create their own Devpost account and register for Philly Codefest (http://philly-codefest-2016.devpost.com/) if they have not already done so before.
One person from each team will Enter a Submission (which is a button you'll see after you Register). Where it asks you to add your teammates' email addresses, make sure to use the same ones they used to create their Devpost accounts. Submissions must be created in Devpost no later than 1pm on Saturday Feb 20th.
Submit early and include as much information as you can, so you won't be rushed toward the end. And remember, you can keep updating your project until the deadline.

Hackathon Sponsors

Prizes

$7,400 in prizes

Grand Prize

Grand prize for best overall hack, grand prize winners will be selected from the top 10 finalists.
$2,500

Codefest Student Grand Prize

This prize will go to the majority student team with the best overall hack. Your team must have at least 50% student team members to be eligible for this prize.
$2,500

Dean's Innovation Award

This prize will go to the team with the most innovative hack.
$500

Best Hardware Hack

This prize will go to the team with the best hardware hack.
$500

Best User Interface

This prize is awarded to the most well-designed, most intuitive, and unique mobile interface that focuses on the user experience. The winning interface should be inclusive - considering all users, such as those with perceptual, motor, and/or cognitive disabilities, as well as age, education/literacy and socio-economic status.
$500

#BestMicrosoftHack - Sponsored by Microsoft

$100 Visa Gift Cards for each member of the winning team (up to 4 team members)

Best solution founded on customer empathy leveraging open source- Sponsored by Capital One

Each team member will recieve a Hero RC XQ-5 UFO Drone with Camera

How to enter

Registration is now closed. Please only sign up for this event if you have already registered on Eventbrite and your actual registration was confirmed. We will do our best on the day of the event to accomadate as many participants as possible but if you have not registered already there is a chance you will not be able to participate.

You must register in person on Saturday February 20th no later than 10:30am. At 10:30 we will begin admitting people from the waitlist if possible.

Judges

Dr. Gabriela Marcu
Drexel CCI, Assistant Professor

Chuck Sacco
Drexel Close School of Entrepreneurship, Assistant Dean

Dave Voyles
Microsoft, Tech Evangelist

Dr. Spiros Mancoridis
Drexel CCI, Interim Dean

Ethan Keiser
Founder, Study Tree

Angela Harris
Portfolio Analyst, Independence Blue Cross

Srini Uppalapati
Senior Director, Capital One

Sam Binder
Senior Director, Capital One

Geoff Langos
Senior Director, Capital One

Brendan McCorkle
CEO, Co-Founder, CloudMine

Christopher Vasko
Application Services Senior Project Manager, Vencore, Inc.

Miguel Guerrerio
Manager, Software Development, Integrichain

Tom Mount
Software Engineer, Integrichain

Tim Smith
Software Engineer, Integrichain

Tiffanie Stanard
CEO, Prestige Concepts, LLC

Moe Rinkunas
Platform Director, Dreamit Ventures

EJ Dougherty
Adjunct Instructor, Villanova University

Roger Doherty
Principal Program Manager, Azure Customer Advisory Team

Mahest Chand
Founder, C# Corner

Matt Schmoyer
Software Engineer, 50onRed

Jeff Segal
Software Engineer, 50onRed

Anath Bevinahally
Data Analyst, 50onRed

Peter Grillo
Drexel CCI, Associate Teaching Professor

Gaurav Naik
Drexel CCI, Assistant Research Professor

Judging Criteria

How well does your solution meet well-defined user needs?
-How well have you integrated subject matter knowledge and available data sets in creating your solution?
How innovative is your idea?
-How much did you get developed during the event? (We encourage you to use legacy codebases, libraries, APIs, and databases; using an honor system tell us what you produced during the event).
How readily might your solution be implemented?
-Litmus test: will someone pay you to use it, or use it even if you gave it away for free! Why?
How good was your presentation?
-You need to convince the judges not only how cool your technology is, but how well it addresses the problem, how likely it is to be used and how viable it is as a product int he market place - If possible the judges would love to see a live demo!