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MIT

SEPTEMBER 17-18 // 2016

SEPTEMBER 17-18

2016

WHAT IS HACKMIT?

HackMIT is MIT’s headline hackathon, with over 1000 undergraduate attendees from around the globe. Over a 24-hour period from September 17th to 18th, hackers collaborate and experiment on software and hardware projects. This is the weekend to meet other enthusiastic hackers, push your boundaries, and realize the projects of your dreams!

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I attend?

IF (you are an MIT undergraduate) OR (you are an MIT M.Eng student) OR ((you are a college undergraduate) AND (you are at least 18 years old)) RETURN “Yes!”

How does registration work?

Registration will be opening on July 1st and closing on July 30th at 11:59 pm EST! Admissions will be based on a random lottery along with selected application reading and will be done in two waves. If you’re accepted, you’ll have a week to confirm your attendance.

Does this cost money?

Nope! Admission is free and includes meals, drinks, snacks, overnight hosting, workshops, swag, and a memorable experience (if we do say so ourselves)!

What will I eat?

We’ll provide food for all meals from Saturday’s breakfast to Sunday’s lunch. If you have dietary restrictions, we’ll try our best to accommodate them. Of course, we’ll also have an abundance of snacks throughout the hacking period.

Where will I sleep?

Hacking all night is fun, but you can also get some rest when you need it! If you indicate in your confirmation form, we can match you with an MIT student who will provide places to sleep and shower. 😴😴😴

How do I get there?

If you’re travelling more than 30 miles to MIT, we’ll reimburse your travel, as long as you upload your travel receipts upon confirming your attendance. We reimburse up to $200 for travel within the U.S. and from Canada and Mexico and up to $500 for other international travel. We also provide buses free of charge to select East Coast cities. See your registration dashboard for the latest details about reimbursements and busing!

What should I bring?

Bring a valid student ID and government-issued ID for admission and a laptop for hacking. We’ll provide pretty much everything else—air mattresses, toiletries, stickers, snacks, sponsor swag, and more! If you like to be comfy, you can bring a blanket, pillow, and towel.

How do teams work?

Teams are at most 4 people. You can select teammates when you register, or you can register individually without specified teammates. We’ll run the lottery by teams, so rest assured you’ll be able to hack with your friends if that’s what you prefer!

What if I don’t have a team?

If you don’t have a team now, that’s okay! We’ll have team formation and ideation events geared towards helping you find people to work with.

What if I’m an MIT student?

If you register by July 30th and confirm by August 12th, you will be guaranteed a spot at HackMIT. Otherwise, you can try for walk-in admission the day of the event.

Did you pad this FAQ so you get a perfect grid?

Yes. And it was worth it. Doesn't it look so pretty this way?

What about hardware hacks?

We’ll provide some hardware such as Arduinos, Pebbles, Myos—the usual hacker essentials and more. Let us know what you’d like to hack on in our registration form.

Where’s the schedule?

We’ll release a more detailed schedule after July. For now, know that we’re planning for check-in to start Saturday at 8 am and for closing ceremony to end Sunday at 4 pm.

Is there an admissions puzzle again?

Yep, but our puzzle slots for the event are filled. Keep an eye out for our puzzle solutions blog post!

What if this FAQ didn’t answer my questions?

Please email us at [email protected] if you’re in any way confused or concerned! We’d love to help you out :)

Register

Unfortunately, registration closed in July. Keep an eye out for next year's HackMIT!

Registration Portal

SPEAKERS

Dina Katabi is the Andrew & Erna Viterbi Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and Director of MIT’s Center for Wireless Networks and Mobile Computing (Wireless@MIT). She received her PhD and MS from MIT in 2003 and 1999, and her Bachelor of Science from Damascus University in 1995. Katabi was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2013. She received the ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award in 2013, and a Faculty Research Innovation Fellowship in 2011. She has received multiple best paper awards from ACM SIGCOMM and Usenix NSDI, and a TR10 award for her work on the sparse Fourier transform. Several start-ups have been spun out of Katabi's lab such as PiCharging and Emerald, which was recently praised by President Obama at the White House.

Sanjit Biswas is CEO and co-founder of Samsara, an Andreessen Horowitz-backed startup that builds industrial sensor systems. Prior to Samsara, he co-founded Meraki with John Bicket; the company was based on their graduate work on the Roofnet project at MIT CSAIL. Meraki was acquired by Cisco Systems in 2012 for $1.2 billion. In 2007, Biswas was named to the MIT Technology Review TR35 as one of the top 35 innovators in the world under the age of 35. Biswas also has a bachelor’s degree from Stanford and a master’s degree from MIT.

John Werner
VP @ Meta
Sam Lessin
Andrew Kortina
Co-founders @ Fin
Peter Boyce II
Founder @ Rough Draft Ventures
Dr. Gene Lee
Senior Software Engineer @ Disney
Josh Weaver
VR Wizard @ Google

Interested in sponsoring? Email us at [email protected]! We'd love to have you.