Desert Hack 2012: Idea-->Team-->Success in 18 Hours!

As ardent believers in student power and that of entrepreneurship, StudentStory is one of the sponsors of Desert Hack 2012!Facebook's 'chat', 'like' button and 'timeline' were all products of their hackathon. Hackathons are fun. They're where glory can be achieved over night. Literally. Believers in this fact are students of BITS, Pilani, who are organizing what they call, Desert Hack 2012.

Desert Hack is an endeavor to bring entrepreneurs, coders and designers under one umbrella and let them work their magic. It's a win-win event where startups in need of developers will get access to some of the smartest young minds in the country and said minds can leverage this opportunity to be part of some of the fastest growing and most promising startups in India.

Participating startups as of now are Ola cabs, GharPay, Exotel, CitrusPay, and Twimo, and the list is bound to grow.

What you need to know to participate

Participants have to individually register for the event and have to be current students at an Indian university with valid ID cards.

You don't have to know how to code to participate. All you need is an idea that can inspire your peers and get them in your team. The Desert Hack team will be keeping workshops in the week prior to the event where you can stimulate your grey matter!

Participants can form teams of up to 3 during the pre-hackathon networking session. This will also help the participants identify other participants with complementary skills. During the networking session participants will have 3 minutes to pitch an idea and can seek a team. For this participants will have to state it in prior during registration. Others can also present ideas during the networking session but those who inform in prior will get priority.

Each team has to demo their app/solution at the end of the coding session. Powerpoint or any such kind of presentations are strongly discouraged. The judges would want to see a working solution with however minimal features.

The Agenda

1. The Hangout (Day1, 14th August- 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM): Around 75 Coders, Designers and Entrepreneurs from BITS Pilani and other leading institutes of technology will get together to exchange ideas, coding paradigms and their views on technology etc. By the end of the session based on their skills and ideas they form teams of (up to) 3.

2. Dinner Break (8:00 PM to 9:00 PM): Participants will be served dinner in the mess, this also gives them some time to plan their application and connect with their team.

3. The Chaos (9:00 PM to Day2, 8:00 AM): 18 hours of coding begins with a blast. The teams can work on their own idea and bring it to life or they can use one of the problem statements/ideas that will be provided to them. These ideas will be obtained both from start ups as well as from experienced technopreneurs. This will ensure that teams concentrate more on the code itself and not on deciding the idea they want to work upon. Refreshments will be provided throughout the coding session.

4. iDay celebration (8:00 AM to 9:15 AM): The coding session will break for independence day celebrations and breakfast.

5. The Chaos (Day 2, 9:30 AM to 4:30 PM): The remainder of the coding session resumes.

6. The Presentation (Day2, 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM): Teams will present their apps sans any other presentation. This will be video recorded and uploaded on YouTube or a similar site. The judges will be present over video-conferencing and will have access to the recorded videos and an archive of all the code for the app. The judgement will be based solely on the basis of the app developed during the course of the hackathon. The apps will be judged based on the following criteria

a. The completeness of the app.

b. How well the app solves the chosen problem.

c. The complexity of the code.

More on Desert Hack 2012, here.