The Health Hackathon is an interdisciplinary event that brings together students from diverse backgrounds including medicine, engineering, and business to solve health challenges in a fun and competitive learning environment. A hackathon celebrates the use of minimal resources and maximum brain power to create outside-the-box solutions ("hacks") in a constrained time frame. Students work in teams throughout the weekend to create holistic, viable solutions. Mentors provide feedback and guidance to teams, providing real-world context that enriches the student learning experience. The weekend culminates in a final competition where teams showcase their innovation to industry representatives, participants, and other members of the community. A panel of judges will select winners of monetary prizes. 

It is an honor and privilege to participate in the hackathon. Participation means following all the rules for engagement. Participation means your entire team actively participates and is present for the Fast Start Workshop on Friday night, that your team has a minimum of 4 members and a maximum of 6 members, that you attend the Team Check-ins 2x on Saturday. Everyone participating in the hackathon must sign up in advance and be accepted to participate. Behavior at all times must be respectful: for the other participants, for the staff, mentors, sponsors, and the space. Violators will be disqualified and removed from the event. Not showing up and not cancelling after being admitted to the event will result in being ineligible to participate in any of our hackathons in the future.

No! Students with ideas present their ideas during the team formation sessions to recruit other students to join their team. Students without ideas of their own are free to join any of the other Hackathon teams. Challenges are also posted on the Hackathon website to help spark ideas.

No! The vast majority (90%) of participants sign up without having a team. Team formation occurs leading up to the event (via 2  team formation sessions held over zoom). Everyone must be on a team to participate in the hackathon. Teams must have a minimum of 4 members and no more than 6 members. Participants are strongly encouraged to form multi-disciplinary teams. 

Everyone has skills, and a perspective that is valuable.  The highest scoring teams have everyone from PhDs to undergrads from a variety of disciplines and fields of study. This weekend is about deep diving into a subject and coming up with innovative solutions that are sustainable, viable, and impactful.  Psychological safety is a priority. We foster an environment of respect, curiosity, collaboration, and fun. The majority of participants have never participated in a hackathon.

Students who participate in the Hackathon build valuable professional competencies applicable to a wide variety of career pathways. Idea generation, problem-solving, forming and working within diverse multi-disciplinary teams, project management, customer discovery, user journeys, public speaking, and developing a pitch are just some of the many skills practiced in this experiential learning setting.

Participants also have the opportunity to meet dozens of individuals from a variety of companies. Attendees can learn more about career paths, requirements and skills sought, and open positions for full time and internship positions. 

Every team has an opportunity to present their hackathon project to a panel of judges during Sunday's Demos.  Each team has 4 minutes to present their project (aka demo/pitch/etc).  An additional 4 minutes is allotted to the judges to ask questions. The pitch order for teams is determined on Sunday morning after all the teams have submitted their projects. Judging Rubric Here 

The 2024 Health Hackathon will be held in-person in NYC in Chelsea, the exact address will be provided to attendees after applying to participate. 

The Hackathon starts Friday, March 8th at 5pm, and concludes Sunday, March 10th by 4pm. 

Transportation: A bus has been arranged for Cornell students travelling from Ithaca NY, the bus is available on a first come first serve basis for students.  

Housing: housing is not provided. Reach out with any questions about the venue location to secure accommodations near by. Students are absolutely NOT expected to work through the night, and must leave the venue on Friday night.

We strongly encourage taking breaks and getting sleep. 

No, Cornell does not have ownership rights to ideas at the hackathon. It should be stressed that the focus of the hackathon is to provide an experiential learning opportunity.  Ideas generated are generally in their very early stages, for which limited, if any, intellectual property is developed.  In rare occasions when an idea brought into the hackathon is more fully developed, the idea could be the property of the originator, and possibly members of the team which further significantly develop the idea.  In these instances, a team would need to reach an understanding of the appropriate approach.