Canada's biggest hackathon
Gather with 1,000 students from around the world and industry leaders at the University of Waterloo to collaborate and bring your ideas to life in 36 hours.
Hack the North aims to empower students like you who are eager to learn and create by providing an environment for you to explore and build with workshops, mentorship, and hardware. Let us take care of travel, food, and the details, so that you can grow your ideas beyond a vision.
Watch the recap video
Waterloo Engineering works with us year after year to engineer epic experiences at Hack the North
The University of Waterloo is home to Canada’s largest engineering school — a pipeline for engineering talent for the world’s leading companies. Ranked among the top 50 engineering schools in the world, the school’s reputation for excellence is built on the foundation of co-op education and a bold history of innovation.
Keynote Speaker
Chamath Palihapitiya
Founder and CEO, Social Capital
Chamath Palihapitiya is Founder and CEO of Social Capital, whose mission is to advance humanity by solving the world's hardest problems. Social Capital invests in and starts breakthrough companies in areas including healthcare, education, financial services and enterprise. Before founding Social Capital, Chamath was a member of the senior executive team at Facebook and a key driver behind its rise to become one of the most important and impactful companies in the world. Prior to Facebook, Chamath held leadership roles at Mayfield Fund, AOL and Winamp. He was born in Sri Lanka, grew up in Canada, and graduated with a degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Waterloo. Chamath is also Owner and Director of the NBA's Golden State Warriors.
Judges
Alan Norton
CTO, MealPal
Dylan Field
Co-founder and CEO, Figma
Michael Gibson
General Partner, 1517 Fund
Jay Shah
Director, Velocity
Danielle Strachman
General Partner, 1517 Fund
Patrick Hannigan
Co-founder and CTO, Hive
Deon Nicholas
Founder, Forethought AI
Jen Dewalt
Co-founder, Zube
Vincent Chu
Partner, Initialized
Gregory Koberger
Founder, ReadMe.io
Alroy Almeida
Co-founder and CEO, Voltera
Chris Bryson
Founder and CEO, Unata
Henry Shi
Co-founder and CEO, SnapTravel
Kartik Talwar
Investor, SV Angel
Liam Horne
Co-founder, L4
Mitchell Geere
Head of Design, InstaCart
Connie Yang
Director of Design, Coinbase
Dhananja Jayalath
Co-founder, Athos
Sponsors
Partners
Event Schedule
Frequently Asked Questions
About
What is Hack the North?
Hack the North is Canada’s biggest hackathon, where 1,000 students of different skill levels come together from around the world to experiment and create unique software or hardware projects from scratch. We empower and enable teams to make something great in only 36 hours by providing an abundance of resources like workshops, mentors, sponsors, and hardware components.
Who can participate?
Students of any education level from anywhere in the world are eligible to apply for Hack the North!
How much does it cost to attend Hack the North?
Admission to Hack the North is completely free. We also provide food and accommodation for the entire event and help out as much as we can with your transportation to and from the University of Waterloo!
How do I get to Hack the North?
We will be providing several buses from schools within driving distance of the University of Waterloo, as well as from nearby airports. For students who need to fly to Hack the North, we subsidize as much of your plane ticket as possible.
How many people can be on a team?
You can form teams of up to 4 people. There are no restrictions for team members, so you can team up with hackers of any school, country, or experience level. Teams can be formed before or during the event.
Hacking
What if I've never been to a hackathon before?
Hack the North welcomes students of all skill levels. In previous years, 30% of students have attended Hack the North as their first hackathon. We’ll have talks, mentors and workshops to help you with your project; hackathons can be a great place to learn new skills in a short amount of time. Just be eager to learn, and excited to meet lots of awesome people.
Can I start working on my hack before the event?
No. In the interest of fairness, students should not be working on their projects before Hack the North begins and we do not allow participants to work on pre-existing projects. However, you can familiarize yourself with all the tools and technologies you intend to use beforehand! Hardware will also be provided to hackers who fill out hardware request forms made available after they have been accepted to the event.
What kind of workshops, talks, and activities will there be?
Previously, we’ve held workshops and talks for a range of skill levels from beginner to advanced like Intro to Web Development and Virtual Reality. We’ve also had introductory workshops to various programming tools such as APIs, databases and platforms. Activities like team finding sessions, meetups, and even karaoke happen throughout the weekend. Whether it’s for relaxation or health, novelty or competition, our team has something exciting prepared for you!
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If your question is not listed here, please feel free to reach out to us at hello@hackthenorth.com or on Facebook.
