Hackathon Rules
Think of hackathons as marathons. While some attend to compete, many participate to improve and enjoy the experience. No matter your reason for joining a hackathon, embrace the hacker ethos: work with others, assist newcomers, and most importantly, have a good time.
- Teams can have a maximum of five people.
- Organizers, volunteers, judges, or sponsors cannot join teams.
- Teams can request advice and support from organizers, volunteers, sponsors, and others.
- All work on the project must be done during the hackathon.
- Teams can use an idea they had before the event.
- Teams can use templates, libraries, frameworks, or open-source code in their projects. Working on a project before the event and open-sourcing it for the sole purpose of using the code during the event is against the spirit of the rules and is not allowed.
- Teams can use AI to help with their project but cannot solely use AI for their project. (Be warned: blocks of AI generated code are very easy to spot!)
- Teams cannot outsource their work to individuals outside of their team.
- Teams must stop hacking once the time is up.
- Teams that violate the Code of Conduct will be ejected and their project disqualified. Projects that violate the Code of Conduct are also prohibited.
- Teams can be disqualified from the competition at the organizers' discretion. Reasons might include but are not limited to breaking the law, breaking the hackathon Rules, breaking the Code of Conduct, or other unsporting behaviour.
- Under-19s must vacate the venue before 10pm and can return at 6am. Under-14s must be accompanied by a parent or guardian.
- Team names and project names must be appropriate and not offensive. The team and project names should not knowingly use existing trademarks, company names, or copyrights.
Hardware Specific Rules
- Participants are allowed to prepare and assemble basic hardware components before the hackathon begins to maximize productivity during the event. However, any hardware used primarily as a platform for software development must not be fully operational at the start of the hackathon.
- All significant software development, including coding and programming of hardware, must occur during the designated hackathon hours to ensure fairness and adherence to the spirit of the event.
- Pre-assembled hardware should only include essential components that facilitate the development of the hackathon project. Detailed documentation of any pre-assembled hardware must be submitted at the start of the hackathon, including a list of components and assembly stages completed prior to the event.
- Participants must declare all hardware they intend to use during the registration process, and any non-declared hardware introduced during the hackathon may lead to disqualification.
- The final presentation must clearly differentiate between pre-assembled hardware components and the software developed during the hackathon, highlighting the innovation and work done during the event hours.
Code of Conduct
Anti-Harassment Policy and Guidelines
Seoul Tech Impact supports inclusivity. We believe that every single person has the right to learn, code, and network in a safe and welcoming environment.
Harassment can be words or actions that target someone's gender, age, looks, race, beliefs, or background. This includes sharing inappropriate images, threats, stalking, unwanted photos or recordings, causing event disruptions, or any unwanted touch or advances. If someone feels uncomfortable because of what you're doing, it's harassment. If you're asked to stop, do so immediately.
Everyone involved in the event, including sponsors, judges, volunteers, and organizers, must follow the anti-harassment policy. Attendees should avoid using any content that's sexually suggestive, whether in their projects or during the event itself.
Seoul Tech Impact reserves the right to remove any individual who breaks the Code of Conduct or hackathon rules from the event without warning, and to prohibit their attendance at future events.
Reporting Procedures
If something makes you uneasy or seems like it might break the code of conduct, please let us know right away using any of the methods listed. You can choose to stay anonymous when reporting.
- Contact us via the Contact page.
- Speak to an organizer directly.
- Send a message on the Discord channel (#report)