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 contestInspire the world by showing the ways technology can enrich humanity.
100 Finalists will each win $1,000.
Build a solution to any one of five challenges. Show the power technology has to do incredible good and create hope for the future.
Twenty entries from each challenge will win $1,000 dollars and go on the finals where our Celebrity Judges will award the 2018 Hackaday Prize of $50,000 and four other top prizes.
Start your entryParticipate in the Hackaday Prize by entering in one (or more) of five themed challenges. Each challenge is six weeks long, and occur one after the other. The top twenty projects from each challenge will be awarded $1000 and will move on to the finals, where the Celebrity Judges award the top five projects $10k to $50k respectively.
The first prize team members will also be considered for a residency with the Supplyframe Design Lab to further develop their project.
Quick notes:
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR TO WIN. ALL NATIONAL, FEDERAL, STATE, PROVINCIAL, LOCAL, AND MUNICIPAL LAWS AND REGULATIONS APPLY. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED.
Projects that were selected as Semifinalists in previous presentations of The Hackaday Prize are not eligible for entry in this Contest, however, the contestants who developed those projects may enter with a substantially different project, provided they are otherwise eligible under these Official Rules.
Existing projects, or projects that were entered in previous presentations of The Hackaday Prize but did not advance to at least the Semifinal round, are eligible for submission as entries in this Contest with the following restrictions:
Internet access, a YouTube, Vimeo, or Youku account and personal and project profile pages on hackaday.io are required to participate. Employees and contractors of Sponsor and the family members of, and any persons domiciled with, any such employees and contractors, are not eligible to win. The term “family members” includes spouses, parents, grandparents, siblings, children, grandchildren and in-laws, regardless of where they live.
There is a dropdown menu below your project image. Simply start a project and click the dropdown, from there you will see 2018 Hackaday Prize.
Put simply, you need an idea, an image, and documentation. To start, talk about a technology problem facing people today and your idea of what a solution might be. Yes, you can enter the first challenge with just an idea (and be eligible for judging to move on to the final round). This is what the Open Hardware Design Challenge is all about.
The remaining challenges involve building something and documenting the process. From your documentation, others should be able to build what you're working on, and incorporate the best ideas into their own projects. To be eligible for judging in challenges 2 though 5 you need 4 project logs or instructions.
Those who prefer more constraints will excel in any of the last four challenges tackle specific themes. But everyone should enter the Open Hardware Design Challenge too as it encourages you to plan well, working though problems before they become huge prototyping issues.
Choose to enter any of these five challenges. Each are 5 weeks long and will have 20 entries advance to the final round.
You must participate in at least one challenge to be eligible for the final round. We encourage you to participate in more but it is not required.
Yes. The same Project Profile may be entered in any or all of the challenge rounds using the "Submit Project To..." menu found on your project page. Projects should adhere to the theme of the challenge so you may also consider entering several projects in different rounds.
Project likes get you dollars!
We have $6000 we’re giving away to fund the projects our community likes the most, literally. At the end of our first challenge, the Open Hardware Design Challenge, the most liked projects will be paid out $1 per like (maximum $200 per project) until our funding pool runs dry. Promote your project and earn money! Start your entry
Let's face it, recognition of great work is an award in itself. Throughout the Hackaday Prize we'll be awarding achievements to the most impressive, outlandish and otherwise notable projects. Check out the hints below on completing these achievements, and keep an eye out as we award some secret ones which are announced as they are received!
Have you found an entry that you think deserves an achievement? Don't keep that a secret, leave a comment on that project page. Your recommendation could make it happen.
The Ultimate Achievement: Your project makes a meaningful contribution to Open Hardware.
You've designed a module that's the definition of interchangeable. Combined with others the sum becomes greater than the whole.
Your power harvesting module does its job so well it doesn't seem possible to power something so impressive from a source so efficient.
Did you solve something with a paperclip and bubble gum? No you didn't. But your build does amazingly well using commonplace, inexpensive parts.
You've built a musical item so unexpected it blows everyone's mind.
Your musical performance is so futuristic it can be categorized no other way. You are CyberPunk.
We don't know how, but you've built something that does absolutely everything. Spill the beans.
Are you a student? Let us know and unlock this achievement.
Unlocked this achievement by collaborating with multiple people on your project.
Your entry is the most "What!?" -- You've earned this.
Sherry Huss is Co-founder of Maker Faire, and a major advocate of “all things maker” in the global community. A former Vice President of Maker Media, her vision and passion for the maker movement was instrumental in growing the Make: brand within the maker ecosystem.
Mark Rober is an American engineer, inventor and YouTube personality. He is best known for his YouTube videos on popular science, do-it-yourself gadgets and creative ideas.
Lauren McCarthy is an artist based in Los Angeles and Brooklyn whose work explores systems for being a person and interacting with other people. She is an Assistant Professor at UCLA Design Media Arts, a Sundance Institute Fellow and was previously a resident at CMU STUDIO for Creative Inquiry, Eyebeam, Autodesk, and more.
A former plumber, Colin now creates amazing inventions and world record beating vehicles from the un-safety of his shed. His youtube channel has over 5 million subscribers and his videos have been viewed nearly 620 million times.
Kristin "Hacker Princess" Paget works at Lyft designing security systems for self-driving cars. For fun she builds IMSI catchers and RFID cloners, and hacks just about everything.
Kwabena enjoys computer vision and machine learning applications and specializes in FPGA and Chip Design. He currently works at Planet Labs as the Lead FPGA Engineer during the day and President of OpenMV during nights and weekends.
Madison Maxey is a internationally renowned technologist and multidisciplinary creative. Maxey has pioneered work in bringing flexible, robust circuitry to scale as Founder of LOOMIA. Through her work, Maddy is a Forbes 30 under 30 Member, Thiel Fellow, Lord and Taylor Rose Award Recipient, and has been featured in WIRED, Forbes, Fast Company, and more.
Quinn has been making games for 36 years, on platforms ranging from the Apple II to all manner of newfangled things. She currently manages engineering for mobile games at Scopely. She also pursues consulting, independent development, mixed-media engineering projects, and writing.
Ayah Bdeir is the founder and CEO of littleBits, an award-winning platform of easy-to-use electronic building blocks that is empowering kids everywhere to create inventions, large and small. Bdeir is an engineer, interactive artist and one of the cofounders of the open hardware summit. An alumna of the MIT Media Lab, Bdeir was named a TED Senior Fellow in 2013.
CEO of 3DR and founder of DIY Drones and DIY Robocars. From 2001 through 2012 I was the Editor in Chief of Wired Magazine.
Anool is an Electrical Engineer, working in the field of Test & Measurement at Lumetronics. When not working at his day job, he dabbles in Astronomy, Origami, Photography, Tinkering, Hacking, and Cycling.
Danielle Applestone is CEO of Bantam Tools, a Berkeley-based, leading manufacturer of desktop CNC (Computer Numerical Control) milling machines.
Mitch Altman turns off TVs for a living, travels the world giving talks and workshops and promoting open hardware and hackerspaces.
Chris is a YouTube creator who makes things out of metal in his home shop. He is currently building a working replica of the Antikythera Mechanism.
Dr Eben Upton CBE is a founder of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, serves as the CEO of Raspberry Pi (Trading) Ltd, its trading arm. In an earlier life, he founded two successful mobile games and middleware companies.
Kipp Bradford is a biomedical engineer and Research Scientist at the MIT Media Lab. His work focuses on reinventing cool. He is a leader in the maker movement and has founded a variety of start-ups.
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