Hackathon Challenge Document

Opening Hackathon Slides

Slides on Microsoft Azure.

Hackathon Slack. 

Calling all scientists, software engineers, policy makers, designers, and entrepreneurs - join us for the 5th annual BERC Cleanweb Hackathon! Teams have 24 hours to create new solutions to challenges in energy, environment, and climate, with a chance to win $2000 in cash prizes. Free food, beverages, and swag will be provided throughout the weekend.

Given recent political and environmental developments, teams are encouraged to work on our Hackathon Themes:

• Data and Software for Environmental Justice 
• Overcoming the Politics of Climate Change
• Breakthrough Technological Innovation

The Hackathon will be hosted at the Berkeley Institute for Data Science (BIDS), an amazing collaborative working space located in the beautiful Doe Library on UC Berkeley's campus. We will be holding a team formation and ideation session on the Friday evening, so all you need to bring is yourself and your best ideas to build something incredible! We will be at BIDS from Friday 5-9pm, and Saturday 9am-5pm. Saturday evening's pitch session will be held in Chou Hall at the Haas Business School, from 6-8pm. 

We have room for participation from 40 UC Berkeley students or LBL staff, and 20 Bay Area participants.

What makes this hackathon different?

• Software beyond the startup: the goal is to solve problems with ideas that might not fit into a venture capital pitch (and if they do both, all the better!)
• People beyond the programmer: we are looking for technologists, policy experts, designers, and social scientists to join (or also be) software hackers.  

Schedule:  

Friday :     5pm-6pm:  Welcome and networking (food and beverages provided)

                6pm-6:30pm:  Hackathon kickoff presentation (rules, prizes, inspiration)

                6:30-7:30pm:  Ideation and team formation

                7:30-9pm:  Initial hacking until 9pm - You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here  

Saturday:  9am-5pm: Hacking (breakfast and lunch provided)

                6pm-8pm (Chou Hall N540, Haas Business School): Presentations, judging, and awards

$2,000 in prizes

Please sign-up at Eventbrite.

• Mission
  How well does this submission address a theme of the Hackathon? (25%)
• Quality (25%)
  How creative, innovative, interesting, and unique is the submission?
• Implementation (25%)
  How well is the idea executed by the team, and how much has been achieved from a technical standpoint?
• Impact (25%)
  To what extent will the submission make a positive impact in its theme area? How scalable is the submission, and does the team have a plan for next steps if they were to continue the project?
• More Info...
  See the Hackathon Slide Deck on the front page of the Github for more detail