OwlHacks is a 30 - hour hackathon where students from Temple and beyond come together to build a project from scratch, whether that's an app, a website, a hardware hack, or anything in between. No matter your experience level, all majors and all skill levels are welcome. This year's theme is aquatic, and we've got tracks, workshops, guest speakers, food, swag, and prizes lined up for participants.

It's a great opportunity for students to:

 

  • Build a real project for their portfolio/resume
  • Meet other CS students and industry professionals
  • Learn new skills through hands-on workshops
  • Compete for prizes and recognition

Event details:

đź“… Date: Sept 26 - 27

📍 Location: Temple University (Science Education and Research Center)

🔗 Register here: docs.google.com/forms/…/viewformLinks to an external site.

Hackathon Sponsors

Prizes

13 non-cash prizes
[MLH] Best Use of ElevenLabs
1 winner

Wireless Earbuds
Deploy natural, human-sounding audio with ElevenLabs. Create realistic, dynamic, and emotionally expressive voices for any project, from interactive AI companions to narrated stories and voice-enabled apps. ElevenLabs will empower you to build rich, immersive experiences without the need for actors or complex audio production, using simply the power of AI.

Integrate fully autonomous audio experiences into your hack with ElevenLabs and give your project a voice, along with giving your team the chance to win some wireless earbuds!

[MLH] Best Use of Gemini API
1 winner

MLH Swag Kits
It’s time to push the boundaries of what’s possible with AI using Google Gemini. Check out the Gemini API to build AI-powered apps that make your friends say WHOA. So, what can Gemini do for your hackathon project?

Understand language like a human and build a chatbot that gives personalized advice
Analyze info like a supercomputer and create an app that summarizes complex research papers
Generate creative content like code, scripts, music, and more
Think of the possibilities… what will you build with the Google Gemini API this weekend?

[MLH] Best Use of Solana
1 winner

Ledger Nano S Plus
The world of development is evolving fast and Solana is leading the charge with a network built to handle all of your infrastructure needs. Forget high fees and slow confirmations, it’s time to build applications that are fast, efficient, and scalable.

Harness Solana’s core advantages like blazing fast execution and near-zero transaction costs to make your hackathon ideas become real world projects. With Solana, the possibilities are endless.

Create a game, social app, or consumer product that relies on instant, high-frequency transactions.
Design a sophisticated trading, lending, or decentralized exchange (DEX).
Build a prototype for supply chain, identity, or payments that can handle massive, real-world volume.
Show us how you can innovate with Solana for a chance to win some cool prizes for you and each member of your team!

[MLH] Best Use of Tiger Data
1 winner

Stream Deck Mini
Building high-performance apps under hackathon deadlines shouldn't mean spending half your weekend configuring complex databases or learning obscure query languages. Tiger Data extends PostgreSQL to give student developers an ultra-fast foundation for real-time data, time-series metrics, and complex analytics.

Why build with Tiger Data this weekend?

Standard SQL Power: Query massive datasets instantly using the SQL you already know, with no complex NoSQL aggregation pipelines required.

Unified Data Stack: Store relational user profiles and high-frequency metric streams side-by-side in a single database.

Instant Dashboards: Serve lag-free, real-time frontend charts using pre-computed Continuous Aggregates.

90%+ Data Compression: Store millions of events on free-tier cloud instances without running out of disk space.

Whether you’re building real-time IoT monitoring, AI-driven analytics dashboards, or financial prediction engines, show us how Tiger Data powers your project. The team that demonstrates the most innovative, impactful, and performance-driven use of Tiger Data will take home some great prizes!

[MLH] Best Use of Presage
1 winner

Fitbit Inspire & Presage Perks
Presage is pioneering the Human Sensing Layer, enabling any application to understand a person’s real-time physical and emotional state. With Presage, you can leverage clinically-proven vital signs, movement, emotion, and/or focus tracking to build a project that gives the standard camera super powers.

Use any of the Presage SDKs to integrate capabilities like real-time heart rate, breathing rate, engagement levels, and facial expressions into your hack with just a few lines of code.

Immersive Gaming & Entertainment: Dynamically change game difficulty or story elements based on a player's excitement or focus levels.
Contactless Wellness & Fitness: Build a non-invasive app that monitors stress, recovery, or fitness performance.
Accessibility & Security: Utilize vital signs for effortless authentication, or to enhance accessibility.
Productivity: Design a tool that tracks focus or stress.
Build your next hack with Presage and show us the future of human-computer interaction! Win awesome prizes along for with the following perks from the Presage team:
Free refills for Presage Development credits to accelerate you through your next three months of building
30% off all Presage usage charges for your first year after going live

[MLH] Best Use of Vultr
1 winner

Portable Screens
Vultr empowers hackers to bring their high-performance projects to life instantly; providing everything from the speed of one-click deployment and scalable cloud compute, to specialized Vultr Cloud GPUs that can power AI-driven applications. We want you to push the limits of what can be built when infrastructure is no longer the bottleneck!

Sign up for a Vultr account today and claim your free cloud credits! Take your next hack to the cloud with Vultr for a chance to win some awesome portable screens for you and your team!

[MLH] Best Use of Snowflake API
1 winner

Raspberry Pi 4
Play with industry-leading LLMs on a single account using the Snowflake APIs. Adding AI capabilities into your application can be as simple as a single CURL command to Snowflake’s REST API.

Build customized applications, RAG powered chat bots, or embed AI-powered features into your app in half the time with half the hassle. Get started for free with a special, student 120-day Snowflake trial and check out this repository for an example of the Snowflake REST API in action.

[MLH] Best Domain Name from GoDaddy Registry
1 winner

Digital Gift Card
GoDaddy Registry is giving you everything you need to be the best hacker no matter where you are. Register your domain name with GoDaddy Registry for a chance to win some amazing prizes!

[OwlHacks] Health and Wellness
1 winner

Prize: To be announced
Build tech that actually helps people feel better. We are looking for smart designs and practical tools that tackle real-world health challenges, whether that is physical fitness, mental health, or community medical care. Bring your best ideas to improve human lives.

[OwlHacks] Philly Special
1 winner

Prize: To be announced
This wildcard track is for any idea that doesn't fit neatly into a single harbor- maybe it's a water quality tracker for the Schuylkill's riverfront, maybe it's something nobody's thought of yet. However you steer it, make a splash.

[OwlHacks] AI & Agents
1 winner

Prize: To be announced
Some parts of the tech ocean are still filled with mysteries waiting to be explored, and AI & Agents might be the deepest trench of them all. Build agents or intelligent tools that can think and act on their own, and push the boundaries of what's possible.

[OwlHacks] Sustainability
1 winner

Prize: To be announced
Every tide tells a story about the health of our planet. Build solutions that support it, from clean energy to conservation and marine protection - just make it count.

[OwlHacks] Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)
1 winner

Prize: To be announced
This track challenges you to build intuitive interfaces, accessible designs, or novel ways for humans to interact with digital systems. Whether you are rethinking everyday apps or building next-generation hardware interfaces, your goal is to make technology more accessible and seamless to use.

Devpost Achievements

Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:

Judges

Claudia Pine-Simon

Claudia Pine-Simon
Professor

Sheri Stahler

Sheri Stahler
Professor

Cindy Li

Cindy Li
Professor

John Fiore

John Fiore
Professor

Andrew Rosen

Andrew Rosen
Professor

Dominique Kliger

Dominique Kliger
Professor

Judging Criteria

  • TBD

Questions? Email the hackathon manager

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Hackathon sponsors

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