Description:

MOSA Education & Learning Committee is hosting a summer hackathon from January 7th–10th. Judges from academia and industry, perks, and scheduled events will be announced over time, so stay tuned! There will be two judging categories:

1. Java console apps, for those with no programming experience other than the Java skills, taught in CIT 591. 
2. All other submissions, for those proficient in (or just experimenting with!) other languages. Participants are welcome to use any language they prefer.

This event is open to all current students of the MCIT Online program and is a great opportunity to work on an open-ended project of your choice with classmates from across the MCIT Online student community.

Participation prizes: The university is sponsoring participation prizes! The first 20 participants to sign up will receive a Udemy course of their choice (after project submission). 

The primary motivation is for you to learn something new, build something cool, and boost your portfolio! Any programming language is permissible.

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Find a team:

Join #mosa-hackathon-event on Slack to introduce yourself, look for a team, meet other participants, ask questions, and create some buzz. The maximum number of students per team is 3. Students may work alone, but we encourage you to work together!

Don’t forget to become a MOSA member to attend our events! All hackathon participants must be registered with MOSA. Register as an official MOSA member at https://mosa.seas.upenn.edu/join-mosa/.

Register for the hackathon here by the dates listed below: https://forms.gle/LRLsfBguhrVaRGvv9

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Timeline:

• Registration deadline:
• December 29th EST if you would like MOSA to partner you with a team
• January 3rd EST if you will form your own team (3 students max)
• Official start: January 7th, 8:00 PM, EST
• Final submission deadline: January 10th, 8:00 PM, EST
• Public voting period: January 11th, 12:00 PM, EST – January 15th, 8:00 PM, EST
• Judges voting period: January 11th, 12:00 PM, EST – January 15th, 8:00 PM, EST
• Winners announced: January 16th, 8:00 PM EsT

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Rewards and recognition:

• Participation prize: The university is sponsoring participation prizes! The first 20 participants to sign up will receive a Udemy course of their choice (after project submission). 
• Public recognition: Winning teams will be publicly congratulated in a workspace-wide Slack announcement and on the MOSA website.
• Resume building: You'll have an awesome project that you can showcase to potential employers on your GitHub and LinkedIn profiles.
• Intrinsic reward: We all love learning for its own sake, don't we?

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Communication and submission platforms:

• Registration form: https://forms.gle/XqoZMc9kqBAFgQRh7
• Devpost: https://mosa-spring-2021-hackathon.devpost.com/
• Slack: #mosa-hackathon-event
• GitHub: You must link to the GitHub repository in your Devpost submission

• Technical Difficulty
  How technically impressive was the project? Was the technical problem the team tackled difficult? Did the technology involved make you go "Wow"? (5 points)
• Creativity
  Is the project creative, new and innovative? Is it something we already know or is the idea disruptive? (5 points)
• Presentation & Usability
  How strong are the design and user experience of the project? Is the project easy to understand and use? Is it intuitive? How thorough and clear is the documentation (README, demo video, etc)? (5 points)
• Usefulness & Relevance
  Is this a product that people will use in their daily lives or in the context it is intended? Will it make lives better? (5 points)