With so many in the pipelines, it’s hard to keep track of them all
Since there’s tonnes of events, hackathons, conferences, meetups and workshops happening, I thought I’d sift out the hackathons and put them in one easy to read post.
These are just the ones in Melbourne at this stage (there’s far too many to do all of Australia right now).
Global Hunger Hack, 26-28th February
Combining STEM and entrepreneurship, the Hunger Hack (not to be confused with the Hunger Games) is an opportunity to generate ideas and reshape them into real solutions.
Grand Prize – Enrolment to BlueChilli’s online accelerator program
Location – Monash University, Clayton Campus
Details – #GlobalHungerHack
Science Hackfest, 4-6th March
Ever wanted to play with some of the biggest data sets? MedTech, FinTech, sports, you name it. If there’s a data set they don’t have bring your own. With a beautiful combination of pure Science mixed with modern computing, this is one not to be missed.
Grand Prize – $2K
Location – LAB-14, Carlton Connect (The University of Melbourne)
Details – Melbourne Science Hackfest
CodeBrew, 18-20th March
Get together with a bunch of mates and create something awesome for the weekend. It’s right in the middle of the city and easy as to get to… no excuses now with all night weekend public transport.
Grand Prize – $2K + goodies
Location – York Butter Factory
Details – CodeBrew
Digital City Hack, 18-19th March
As part of the Future Melbourne 2026 series, come together with a bunch of innovative people and shape the city you love. Think about emerging technologies and how people play, learn and interact with each other.
Grand Prize – $6K + plenty of spot prizes!
Location – The Cube, ACMI
Details – Future Melbourne 2026
Telstra Hackathon, 15-17th April
A cloud based hackathon with main themes around FinTech, MedTech and wearables. Run by HackDays, this is sure to be an awesome event.
Grand Prize – TBA
Location – Telstra’s Gurrowa Innovation Lab
Details – The Telstra Hackathon
Techfugees Hackathon, 15-17th April
Make a difference! Get together with devs, designers, refugees and entrepreneurs to help and welcome refugees to Australia.
Location – LaunchPad3
Details – Techfugees Melbourne
Space Apps Challenge, 22nd-24th April
Want to solve some of the biggest challenges in the realm of Space? Then come along. There are six major themes and challenges will be posted soon.
Grand Prize – TBA on Sunday night!
Location – LAB-14
Details – Space Apps Challenge
Startup Weekend, 6-8th May
This years’ themes are action, innovaton and education with the overall scope of sustainability. Come together over a weekend, work on a crazy (or generally awesome) idea, and build it into a profitable business.
Grand Prize – TBA
Location – York Butter Factory
Details – Startup Weekend
UX Design Hackathon, 7th May
The theme for knowledge week this year is innovation, collaboration and creativity. What better way to show this than with a hackathon. Keep your eyes out for when this exciting hack with take place. Official dates for MKW are 2nd-8th May so the hackathon will be sometime here. The challenge you have is to redesign a online experience for the homeless community.
Grand Prize – Tickets to UX conference
Location – General Assembly
Details – General Assembly
Random Hacks of Kindness, 4-5th June
It’s a hack for humanity! Get stuck into the real issues surrounding communities and strive towards solid social impact. Feel like you’re really part of the team as RHoK happens all over Australia at the same time.
Location – AMDC Building, Swinburne University
Details – RHoK
Space Hack, 1st-2nd July
Will be run as part of the Final Frontier Space Festival. Space is rapdily becoming a hot topic in the world and Melbourne needs to jump on the bandwagon. Get this in your diaries and get excited, it’s going to be awesome.
Grand Prize – TBA
Location – The University of Melbourne
Details – Space Hack
#SheHacks, 22-24th July
The all girl hackathon is back. Running in both Melbourne and Sydney, and calling all girl hackers, hipsters, and hustlers.
Grand Prize – TBA
Location – General Assembly
Details – Girl Geek Academy
Robot Hackathon, 23rd July
Build new things, explore technology, and have tonnes of fun. Play with JavaScript, Ardunios, Node.js, LEDs, and heaps of other hardware. You can purchase your own bot kit with your ticket too!
Location – Swinburne University
Details – International NodeBots Day
Hacking Health, 25-27th July
Improve health care, solve real problems, and drive real change. Be you a doctor, nurse, hacker, designer, engineer, clinical, patient, investor, entrepreneur, or just generally interested in making a difference, this hackathon is for you.
Grand Prize – TBA
Location – Melbourne
Details – HIC Conference
UNIHACK, 30th-31st July
Imagine what you can do in one weekend? The Imagination Hackathon that’s what! No challenges, no limits, build whatever you want, however you want (open source only of course). All you have to do is make your thing work.
Grant Prize – TBA
Location – LAB-14, The Carlton Connect Initiative
Details – UNIHACK
GovHack, 30th-31st July
It’s on the same weekend as UNIHACK so choose your weapon… I mean… hackathon. GovHack is all about the data. Lots of big government organisations give up their data for the weekend for you to play with. How will you visualise it?
Grand Prize – TBA
Location – TBA
Details – GovHack
Law Hackathon, 5-7th August
Break the law… in a good way! Hack some of the big corporate law firms and see what you can come up with.
Grant Prize – $5K
Location – LAB-14, The Carlton Connect Initiative
Details – #breakingLaw
Researcher@Library Hack Day, 26 August
One day hack for social good. Join in the cause!
Grant Prize – $300
Location – LAB-14, The Carlton Connect Initiative
Details – Researcher@Library
VR Hackathon, 12-14th August
A Virtual Reality Hackathon for Sustainable Urban Development. This hackathon seeks to create immersive experiences that help us better connect with the places we live.
Location – General Assembly
Details – The Anthronaut Experience
MEDevice Hackathon, starts 13th September
Interested in medical device innovation and MedTech? Then this is the hackathon for you! This one is run four Tuesday sessions – no weekend required!
Location – ResBaz
Details – MEDevical Device Innovation Hackathon
Smart Cities Hackathon, 8-9th October
Team up with devs, designers, and entrepreneurs and create a new wave of smart city services and solutions. This is all part of the 23rd World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems.
Prizes – more than 20K in prizes!
Location – Melbourne Convention Exhibition Centre
Details – ITS Smart Cities Hack
Unearthed, 14-16th October <<POSTPONED>>
A bunch of industry challenges, experts in the field and some great minds. Come together over a weekend to solve real problems and make a difference.
Grand Prize – TBA
Location – General Assembly
Details – Unearthed Solutions
HealthHack, 14-16th October
Another MedTech hackathon focusing on health. This one is run all over Australia at the same time! Get involved in the Melbourne one, otherwise check out the other locations.
Location – ThoughtWorks
Details – HealthHack Melbourne
TADHack, 14-16th October <<CANCELLED>>
Run by Telstra and centred around telecommunications, its applications, services, and businesses. It’s Global!
Grand Prize – TBA
Location – Gurrowa Innovation Lab
Details – TADHack
Energy Hack, 21st-23rdth October
Join up with Melbourne Uni and Powershop to harness the consumer and technology revolution surrounding energy.
Grand Prize – TBA, see website for sneak preview
Location – LAB-14, The Carlton Connect Initiative
Details – Energy Hack 2016
Climathon, 28-29th October
This is a traditional 24 hour hackathon! Running in tandem with every other climate centre around the world, you’ll have the chance to team up with like-minded people and transform Melbourne into a more resilient and sustainable city.
Grand Prize – Chance to be on the global stage during COP22
Location – LAB-14, The Carlton Connect Initiative
Details – Melbourne CLIMATHON Challenge
Startup BootCamp IoT Hackathon, 21st-22nd November
Focus on four key themes, food/catering, security, maintenance, and waste management in this awesome hackathon at the G. It’s not just for techies, this hackathon is for everyone!
Grand Prize -$10,000
Location – MCG
Details – Spotless Hackathon
InnovAGE, 25-27th November
<<POSTPONED>>
MedTech, MedTech, MedTech! It’s all about the health… although this one is focused on aged care. With an aging population, we have a tonne of challenges. Come along and solve some of these.
Grand Prize – TBA
Location – Gurrowa Innovation Lab
Details – InnovAGE
Startup Weekend, 25-27th November
Startup Weekend is back again! This time the focus is Retail technology. Create a business in one weekend and see how far you can take it.
Grand Prize – TBA
Location – Digital Bunker
Details – Retail Tech 2016
Med Hack, 28-29th November
Yep it’s another MedTech hackathon. You need to apply to be in this one so get in quick. The earlier you apply, the higher your chance.
Grand Prize – Chance to do a hospital pilot.
Location – General Assembly
Details – med_hack
TOM MedTech Makeathon, 28-30th November
Get this one in your diaries, it’s going to be around the medical and health sector and you can make whatever you like.
Grand Prize – TBA
Location – Swinburne University of Technology
Details – TOM:Melbourne
Telstra Cloud Hackathon, 9-11th December
Want to go on a holiday? Come up with your best holiday hack, using digital technology to enhance your holiday activities. There’s a big focus on hardware, with Pis and Arduinos readily available.
Grand Prize – $5000
Location – Gurrowa Innovation Lab
Details – The Telstra Cloud Hackathon
Kingdom Hack, probably later this year!
Be you Developer, Designer, or not even from the world of digital builder, we call upon you faithful internet dweller to accept the challenge. You are tasked to build something the likes of which we have not seen… Not sure about the Melbourne one, but there will be one in Wollongong, so check it out!
Grand Prize – TBA
Location – TBA
Details – Kingdom Hack
There are more to come so keep an eye out for them. Also, just rumours, but word along the grape vine is that there are hackathons around VR, law, and energy coming (just to name a few!) Get excited!!!
