About the challenge

At Hack the Student Life, teams of four will come together to tackle a pressing issue at the University of Toronto. Your mission? Identify a problem faced by students or faculty and devise an innovative solution that leverages the power of AWS services.

But that's not all! Your solution will be evaluated by a panel of esteemed judges, and the winning team will have the unique opportunity to collaborate with UofT IT Services to bring their solution to life on campus as a proof of concept.

Throughout this journey, participants will also immerse themselves in Amazon's renowned working backwards strategy, ensuring that solutions are not only inventive but deeply rooted in understanding user needs and experiences.

Get ready to unleash your creativity, problem-solving skills, and AWS expertise to make a real impact on student life at the University of Toronto!

Get started

Check out https://hackstudentlife.ca/ for more details!

Requirements

What to Build

Participants are tasked with identifying a pressing issue faced by students or faculty at the University of Toronto and devising an innovative solution that leverages the power of AWS services. The solution should aim to improve student life or enhance faculty experiences within the university setting.

What to Submit

  • Functioning Solution. While a fully functioning solution is not mandatory, submissions must include a tangible demonstration of the proposed solution. This could be in the form of a design, clickable prototype, or a video showcasing the solution's features and functionality.
  • Specific Tools. Projects are encouraged to utilize AWS services.
  • Platform. The project can run on any platform or operating system, but compatibility with common devices used by students and faculty should be considered.
  • New vs. Existing. Projects submitted must be new. Existing projects are not eligible for this hackathon. 

Hackathon Sponsors

Prizes

6 non-cash prizes
1st Place Overall
1 winner

Best Project for Housing Harmony Through Data Category
1 winner

Best Project for Smart Exam Scheduling Category
1 winner

Best Project for Your Campus, Your Events Category
1 winner

Best Project for Attendance Reimagined Category
1 winner

Best Project for Transforming Campus Service Efficiency Category
1 winner

Devpost Achievements

Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:

Judges

Donna Kidwell

Donna Kidwell
Chief Information Officer, Office of the CIO, UofT

Rahul Pisal

Rahul Pisal
Solution Architect, AWS (Amazon Web Services)

Clifton Forlines

Clifton Forlines
Associate Director of Office of Strategic Partnerships, Dept of Comp Sci

Marden Dov Paul

Marden Dov Paul
Director Planning Governance Assessment, Office of the CIO

Deyves Fonseca

Deyves Fonseca
CISO of UofT

Kate Baggott

Kate Baggott
Communications Officer, Dept of Economics, UofT

Judging Criteria

  • Innovation and Relevance
    The proposed solution is innovative and presents a suitable and effective approach to solve one of the challenge prompts.
  • Technical Complexity
    The proposed solution uses a cloud-based approach and leverages sophisticated and intricate methods, demonstrating a high level of technical complexity.
  • Working Demo
    The demo is executed flawlessly and is easily reproducible, showing a strong understanding of design principles and technical concepts. It matches the expected output described in the presentation.
  • Presentation
    The presentation clearly explains the main idea, solution design, and additional insights from the design process. The team demonstrates collaboration, preparedness and a convincing understanding of the subject matter.
  • Feasibility and Effectiveness
    The proposed solution uses AWS products to effectively address the identified problem. It improves student life at UofT while being readily implementable.

Questions? Email the hackathon manager

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