Our fourth annual Opportunity Hack will open at 8:00 a.m. on July 9th. An optional innovation and training session starts on Friday July 8th. At Opportunity Hack you can network, share ideas and build solutions that enable impact and social innovation! Come with an idea or join a team that will hack solutions for any of the problem statements listed by our partnering non-profits!
Check in will be from 8:00 until 9:00 and breakfast will be served. Please note that ONLY THE FIRST 150 will be allowed to enter the door.
At 9:00 we'll have our opening keynote speaker.
Then the fun begins! Our non-profits will all have an opportunity to pitch their ideas to all the participants. We'll be moving this along quickly so that we can move into team building. You can bring a whole team, but if you don't we're pretty good at facilitating team formation. This is the part of the program that people tend to be the most nervous about, but it all works out. We've done it successfully a bunch of times and we'll make sure you get hooked up.
Please note that the pitch session scheduled to take place at 9:30 am is for only non-profits pitching ideas.. If you have an idea that you have would like to hack at the event for please see the rules around participant submitted ideas.
11:00 a.m. It's time to get your Hack On! You have from now until 3:00 p.m. on Sunday! We're providing meals and snacks and support around the clock.
3:00 p.m. on Sunday it's time to let the keyboard rest. You'll want to have your prototype and presentation ready for a three minute presentation to the judges with some Q&A. There will be a brief intermission for scoring and then the top teams will be chosen and accolades will flow! This will mark the end of the event and the beginning of the celebration, where we will also provide appropriate supplies.
Detailed Agenda
Friday (07/08) - Optional for those who can make it. Limit to first 50.
- 12.00PM: Project Initial pitches
- 01.00PM: Human Centered Design Training that would help participants innovate for the customers
- 04.00 PM: Brainstorm with your nonprofit partner to finalize the solution
Saturday (07/09)
- 08:00AM: Doors open for check-in
- 09:00AM: Opening ceremony & Keynote
- 09:30AM: Project pitches
- 10:30AM: Team formation
- 11:00AM: The Hackathon begins!
- Noon: Lunch is served
- 02:00PM: Submit team details
- 06:00PM: Dinner is served
- 09.00PM: Ice cream & Giant Jenga games
HACK THROUGH THE NIGHT
Sunday (07/10)
- Midnight: Pizza served
- 08:00AM:Breakfast is served & Subject matter experts available (3 hours)
- Noon: Lunch is served / I can’t think straight but this tastes awesome!
- 02:00PM: Code checked into GitHub
- 02:45PM: Presentations submitted on DevPost
- 03:00PM: Judging starts in Expo style
- 04:00PM: Top 10 teams present to everybody
- 05:30PM: Winners are announced / Prizathon!
Find out more about Opportunity Hack 2015 here and our overall story here
Eligibility
See official rules.
Requirements
- All members of team have registered on DevPost and are added to the project submission.
- Links to GitHub, and video or presentation must be included in project submission.
- At least two members of team will be present in person for demo to judges.
Prizes
$6,000 in prizes
1st Place
A Cash prize to the 1st place team in the amount of $3000; to be split evenly among all team members. Must have a PayPal account to receive transfer of funds. 1/2 will be paid within 5 business days of the Hackathon. The remaining half will be paid upon the winning team installing the solution accessible to the non-profit and the local non-profit going live with the solution [ within 30 days of the completion of the Hackathon ]
* For students in winning team, we guarantee an interview with College Recruiting teams at PayPal on or after 1/1/2017. Interviews would be for internship or full time positions based on student's graduation date.
2nd Place
A Cash prize to the 1st place team in the amount of $2000; to be split evenly among all team members. Must have a PayPal account to receive transfer of funds. 1/2 will be paid within 5 business days of the Hackathon. The remaining half will be paid upon the winning team installing the solution accessible to the non-profit and the local non-profit going live with the solution. [ within 30 days of the completion of the Hackathon ]
* For students in winning team, we guarantee an interview with College Recruiting teams at PayPal on or after 1/1/2017. Interviews would be for internship or full time positions based on student's graduation date.
3rd Place
A Cash prize to the 1st place team in the amount of $1000; to be split evenly among all team members. Must have a PayPal account to receive transfer of funds. 1/2 will be paid within 5 business days of the Hackathon. The remaining half will be paid upon the winning team installing the solution accessible to the non-profit and the local non-profit going live with the solution. [ within 30 days of the completion of the Hackathon ]
* For students in winning team, we guarantee an interview with College Recruiting teams at PayPal on or after 1/1/2017. Interviews would be for internship or full time positions based on student's graduation date.
Devpost Achievements
Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:
How to enter
- Join Opportunity Hack San Jose on DevPost
- Come to the event with a team or we will help you build a team of like minded folks.
Judges

Edwin Aoki
Chief Architect, PayPal

Theresa Pasinosky
Senior Director, Global Brand Marketing at Xoom

Isha Bhatt
Director Consumer Acquisition and Onboarding at PayPal

Patrick Tse
Director, Global Head of University Programs at PayPal
Judging Criteria
-
Scope
How big an impact will your solution have on the community? Key things that are important are * Scale of the problem being solved * Potential reach * Productivity gains - 10 points -
Presentation/Demo
In order to be successful you need to be able to demonstrate and market your solution so that it can succeed long term– 10 points -
Innovation
Displaying innovative solutions to the problems. Do you solve the problem in a novel way? Can you create a solution that is cohesive across different areas or technologies? - 10 points -
Accessible by the Target User Base
It’s crucial that the target user base actually has access to the technology in question. Can you articulate the capabilities and limitations of your userbase? Does your product fit within those capabilities or work around them? - 10 points -
Implementable
The projects need to be able to move from "proof-of-concept" to working project. Is your architecture and technology extendable by others? Can the project be tuned to meet different or changing needs?– 10 points -
Open Source Software
Open source solutions allow for a wider variety of contributors to be able to improve, extend and build upon. Does your project leverage open source software or libraries? Is your project in github? – 10 points -
Cover all categories
All teams must get atleast 1 point in all the above categories. Getting a 0 in any one category will mean they are not eligible to win
Questions? Email the hackathon manager
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