It seems like just yesterday that I was standing in the audience at the 2018 Hackaday Superconference. The Los Angeles College of Music was packed, it was standing room only. Mike Szczys, Hackaday’s Editor-in-Chief, stood on the stage and opened the final envelope. The grand prize went to Dexter, an open-source robotic arm. The team won $50,000 to continue their journey.
If you’ve never been to the Hackaday Supercon, you should absolutely attend this year’s event. Similarly, if you’ve never entered your project into The Hackaday Prize, now is the time. The 2019 iteration of this annual event is officially underway!
The Hackaday Prize 2019: Build Great Products
The theme this year is taking your product across the finish line. We want to help the winners go from concepts and ideas, to working prototypes and manufacturing designs. The team that builds the Best Product will take home the grand prize of $125,000.
The winner of each of five sub-categories will also take home $10,000. While the winning announcements are still a ways off, $10,000 in seed funding will be awarded early on. This means that the top 20 entries with the most likes before June 1st will receive up to $500 in seed money each.
As if that’s not enough we are also setting aside $3,000 for each category as a prize for an honorable mention. These are the topics you should focus on as you develop your projects:
- Concept: be creative and original
- Design: work with the user in mind
- Production: ensure it can be manufactured
- Benchmark: develop a viable idea that will have an impact
- Communication: clearly tell the story of your product
Altogether, we’re looking at $200,000 in prize money this year. All it takes is one great idea to change the world. We want to see your ideas, so head on over to the 2019 Hackaday Prize website to submit your project!
