A high school hackathon for the Greater Pittsburgh Area
HackNA is a high school hackathon taking place at North Allegheny Senior High School on Saturday, December 16, 2017. During the competition, you will have 12 hours to create a software or hardware project from scratch based on a central theme revealed on site. No prior experience is required – we welcome anyone interested and will be providing workshops and mentor expertise to help you get started! At the end of the day, teams will pitch their project to a panel of judges in a chance to win sponsored prizes and rewards.
The event will be taking place on Saturday, December 16, 2017 from 8:00am to 8:00pm. We will start the day off with an opening presenter, give about 10 hours of hacking time with optional workshops throughout the day — food and snacks will be provided — and end with an awards ceremony.
HackNA will take place at North Allegheny Senior High School.
10375 Perry Hwy, Wexford, PA 15090
In the context of HackNA, a hackathon is best described as an “invention marathon.” Throughout the course of the day, you and your team will collaborate together to build a fun and creative project centered around a theme revealed on site. Absolutely no experience is needed to participate either! We’ll be providing workshops and mentor expertise to help you get started!
That's not a problem! Your experience doesn't matter for you to be successful at a hackathon. We're passionate about making our hackathons very welcoming and beginner-friendly, which is why we're also going to be providing optional workshops throughout the day to help you get started if you need it.
You can sign up by clicking the sign up button on the home page or the one below. Remember to share the link with friends to get them involved as well!
SIGN UPWe ask that all registrations be in by December 13 at 11:59pm. This gives us enough time to prepare accordingly and ensure that enough food is ordered.
Anyone in middle or high school. We’re open to anyone and everyone around the Pittsburgh area! (You’re still welcome to join us even if you’re not in Pittsburgh!)
Unfortunately, the hackathon is exclusively for middle and high school students, so you’ll be unable to participate. If you would like to help out, you’re more than welcome to help mentor teams or judge!
MENTOR / JUDGEFeel free to email us at anytime with questions at contact@hackna.org!
CONTACTGaining unauthorized access to a server or network is extremely illegal… and you definitely shouldn’t do it. But in the context of HackNA, “hacking” is efficiently making a software or hardware project in the span of 12 hours.
That’s normal. Most people don’t have an idea before they get to the event. But once you start talking to other people, you might come up with something. You can also work with somebody else on their idea if you like it. And there will be prizes at the event which might help give you some ideas. Don’t worry about it, you’ll find something to work on!
Anything! You can build whatever you want: websites, programs, mobile apps, anything! We’ll be revealing a theme on site that your project must be centered around, but it's going to be completely open to your interpretation!
Nope, working in a group is by no means required. However, completing a project in 12 hours can be daunting alone, so it might be easier to work with a partner or in a small group of up to 5 members.
That’s ok. If you’re interested in participating and don’t have a team, you can still sign up. We will have dedicated team building time allocated at the beginning of the competition to help you find other participants to work with.
Teams can have at most 5 people, but they definitely can have less people. If you prefer flying solo or working in a pair, that’s cool too!
No, to keep true to the spirit of a hackathon, you may not submit past projects. All projects must be fully developed on site at HackNA. This ensures a level playing field and keeps the competition fair.
All of the work done by you and your team will be completely yours. We hope that you will continue to work on the project after HackNA!
Absolutely! We will be providing lunch and dinner at absolutely no cost to you! There’ll also be plenty of snacks and drinks to keep you energized. If you’ve got specific dietary requirements, you should let us know when you sign up, and we will be more than happy to make arrangements.
If you have one that you can bring, we recommend that you do. However, if you're unable to, we will have some for you to borrow. Please indicate whether you need to borrow a laptop when you sign up so we can prepare accordingly.
We will have a limited supply of Arduinos, breadboards, wires, and other electrical components. If you have your own equipment, we recommend that you bring it. Please exercise caution and refrain from bringing dangerous equipment (soldering setups, high voltage batteries, etc).
While prizes are TBD at the moment, we will be giving out awards to the top 3 high school teams, top 3 middle school teams, top high school beginner team, and top middle school beginner team.
Nothing for you! Thanks to the generous help from our sponsors, all costs for HackNA are covered. This includes meals, snacks, drinks, and everything else that makes a hackathon fun and exciting!
Time |
Event |
Description |
---|---|---|
8:00am to 8:15am |
Registration | Enter through the front doors of NASH (parking available in the front and side of the school) |
8:15am to 8:45am |
Opening Ceremony and Kickoff | We'll be going over all the basics of HackNA and revealing our theme! Our opening speaker is Bryan Nagy, an Engineering Manager at Uber Advanced Technologies Group. He's going to be showcasing how Uber's self-driving lydar technology works! |
8:45am | Hacking Begins! | |
8:45am | Uber Self-Driving Car Expo! | Take a tour around one of Uber's Self Driving Cars! Located in the front parking lot. The car will be leaving at 11:00am: we highly recommend that you try to see it! |
8:45am to 9:00am |
Team Building | Don't have a team? Find people to work with! |
9:00am to 10:00am |
Workshop: Introduction to Programming | (Optional) We'll cover all the basics of programming to help you get started! |
10:00am to 11:00am |
Workshop: Introduction to Electronics and Robotics | (Optional) We'll be going over everything you need to build a robot! |
11:00am | Uber Self-Driving Car Leaves | |
11:00am to 12:00pm |
Workshop: Web Development | (Optional) Interested in building and hosting a website for free? Join us as we go over all the basics! |
12:00pm to 1:00pm |
Lunch! | Subs catered by Jimmy John's of Wexford. Vegetarian options available. |
1:30pm to 2:30pm |
Workshop: Introduction to Android Development | (Optional) Make your first Android app! No experience necessary! |
5:30pm to 6:00pm |
Dinner! | Pasta and salad catered by Monte Cello's. |
6:00pm | Hacking Ends! | |
6:15pm to 6:45pm |
Judging | |
7:00pm to 8:00pm |
Finalist Presentations and Awards | The top 5 high school teams will present their projects to a final panel of judges. Awards will be given to the top 3 high school teams, top 3 middle school teams, best high school beginner team, and best middle school beginner team. |
Help foster a high school tech community by partnering with us.
SPONSORSHIP INFORMATION
Feel free to contact us at anytime.
Email: contact@hackna.org
NA Phone Number: (724) 934-7200