Build Hope - 2018 Hackaday Prize Overview

Main Website :: Official Rules :: FAQ

The Hackaday Prize is the Academy Awards of Open Hardware, a grand competition where thousands of hardware hackers, makers and artists compete to build a better future.

Enter one (or more) of five themed rounds for a chance to win $$$ and go on to the finals where our Celebrity Judges will decide who will win the 2018 Hackaday Prize of $50,000. 

The prize money is just the icing on the cake. What this is really about is taking the world in our hands and being the makers who make the future we need. Will you build hope?

Open Hardware Design Challenge (ends April 23rd) :: Submissions // Finalists

Your Challenge: Design the best plan possible for the boldest idea you can consider. No prototypes are necessary for this challenge, only pictures, charts and theory. Winners will have the opportunity to enter the finals, whether they fit within the following challenges or not.

Robotics Module Challenge (ends June 4th) :: Submissions // Finalists

Your Challenge: Build a module that can be used in robotics projects across the world, and show your module functioning in a robotics application

Power Harvesting Challenge (ends July 16th) :: Submissions // Finalists

Your Challenge: Build a module that harvests ambient power for various applications and show your module powering a project.

Human - Computer Interface Challenge (ends August 27th) :: Submissions // Finalists

Your Challenge: Build an innovative interface for humans to talk to machines or machines to talk to humans, and show your project in action either controlling something or passing information from somewhere.

Musical Instrument Challenge (ends October 8th) :: Submissions // Finalists

Your Challenge: Build a module, interface, or full instrument that evolves or goes far beyond modern music instrumentation.  Show your project in action by creating at least one song with it, however abstract. (Don’t worry, this is an engineering challenge, not a composition competition.)

2018 Hackaday Prize Winners!

1st Place: Dexter
2nd Place: Hacking Wearables for Mental Health
3rd Place: Portal Point Generator
4th Place: EmotiGlass
5th Place: PR Holonet

The Hackaday Prize is in its 5th Year: Our History

In 2014 we launched The Hackaday Prize to our smart, talented, enthusiastic community of engineers, scientists, designers and creatives everywhere. Over 600 projects were created, and the winner, SatNOGS, now has a foundation where they are continuing the work they started here.

In 2015 we challenged the Hackaday community to use their superpowers again. The results told the story of nearly 900 Hackaday Prize entrants using their unique skills to make big changes in peoples' lives. 2015's Hackaday Prize winner, the Eyedrivomatic, directly impacted the lives of many with limited mobility.

In 2016, we had nearly 1,100 entries, and the Hackaday Prize winner was Dtto, a search and rescue robot, an open source project that will continue to be worked on at the Supplyframe Design Lab.

In 2017, the winner of the Hackaday Prize was Alex Williams, with an underwater explorer robot. Alex continued the work on his project at the Supplyframe Design Lab.

In 2018, we've launched the biggest challenge of all time -  the 5th annual Hackaday Prize!