Official Rules for KeanUHackThis 2026

By participating in KeanUHackThis 2026, all participants agree to follow these rules, the event Code of Conduct, all venue policies, and all organizer instructions.

1. Eligibility

- KeanUHackThis 2026 is intended for college student participants.

- Participants must complete registration and comply with all event requirements to be eligible to participate and win prizes.

- Organizers reserve the right to verify eligibility and registration information.

2. Teams

- Teams must be 3 members.

- Each participant may only be a member of one team.

- Teams may not add or swap members after the submission deadline.

3. Project Requirements

- Projects must be built during the official hackathon period.

- You may brainstorm, research ideas, and prepare in advance, but you may not submit a project that was previously built, previously submitted to another competition in the same form, or largely completed before the event.

- Teams may use publicly available libraries, frameworks, SDKs, APIs, and open-source tools.

- Teams may also use AI tools, including coding assistants, LLMs, image generation tools, and related systems, as long as their use is clearly disclosed in the submission and during judging if asked.

- All work submitted must be original or properly attributed, and must not infringe on any third party’s intellectual property rights.

4. Cross-Submission Policy

- Projects created for KeanUHackThis 2026 may not be submitted to another hackathon taking place during the same weekend or overlapping competition period.

- A project submitted to KeanUHackThis 2026 must be submitted exclusively to this event during its official competition window.

5. Submission Requirements

To be eligible for judging, each team must submit its project on Devpost before the official submission deadline.

Each submission must include:

- Project name

- Project description

- Team member information

- Built with / technologies used

- Repository link or source link, if applicable

- Demo materials, such as a live demo, screenshots, or short video

- Clear disclosure of any major third-party frameworks, APIs, datasets, or AI tools used

6. Demos and Judging

- Judges will evaluate projects based on the published judging criteria.

- Judges’ decisions are final.

- Incomplete, non-functional, misleading, plagiarized, or duplicate submissions may be disqualified at the organizers’ discretion.

7. Fair Play

- Organizers, judges, sponsors, mentors, volunteers, and staff may not compete for prizes unless explicitly stated otherwise in writing by the organizing team.

- Any attempt to cheat, misrepresent authorship, hide prior work, falsify progress, or otherwise gain an unfair advantage may result in disqualification.

- Participants must be truthful about what was built during the event and what tools or pre-existing components were used.

8. Code of Conduct

KeanUHackThis 2026 is committed to providing a safe, welcoming, and inclusive environment for all participants, organizers, volunteers, mentors, sponsors, judges, and guests.

Harassment, discrimination, intimidation, stalking, doxxing, sustained disruption, inappropriate physical contact, unwelcome sexual attention, hate speech, and other abusive behavior will not be tolerated.

Participants asked to stop any harassing or inappropriate behavior are expected to comply immediately.

9. Reporting and Enforcement

- If you experience or witness behavior that violates these rules or the Code of Conduct, please report it immediately to the organizing team.

- Organizers reserve the right to investigate incidents and take appropriate action, including warnings, removal from the event, disqualification, or escalation to campus/public safety if necessary.

10. Venue and Safety

- All participants must follow university rules, venue rules, safety procedures, and organizer instructions at all times.

- Participants are responsible for their own belongings, devices, and equipment.

- Unsafe, illegal, destructive, or disruptive behavior is prohibited.

11. Media Release

- By attending the event, participants understand that photos, video, and recordings may be captured during the event and may be used for promotional, recap, and community purposes.

12. Organizer Rights

- Organizers reserve the right to modify these rules, eligibility requirements, judging logistics, scheduling details, and prize structures if necessary.

- Any updates or clarifications communicated by the organizers during the event will be considered official.