Dates

  • Event: September 26–27, 2026

  • Location: Waterloo, ON (University of Waterloo campus)

  • Kickoff: Saturday, Sept 26 — brunch + career panel

  • Building continues through Sunday midday

  • Final submissions due: Sunday, Sept 27 (before pitch/demo session)

  • Pitches, judging, and awards: Sunday afternoon, followed by closing dinner

  • Backup date (if needed): November 2026

 

 

Eligibility

  • Open to current university students (undergraduate or graduate) at partner institutions

  • Two paths to entry:

  1. Partner club invite — attend via ticket allocation from a partnering club (UW Venture Club)

  2. Open application — no club affiliation required; submit a video application via the Fellows email

  • Teams may include a mix of technical and non-technical members; no prior hackathon experience necessary

  • Capacity is limited to ~50 hackathon participants (event capacity <100 people total)

  • Team size: 2 members

 

 

Project and Submission Requirements

  • Projects must be built during the 24-hour hackathon window

  • Submissions must align with the "Growing Canada" theme: ideas that drive economic growth, national competitiveness, government efficiency, or that help people build, produce, or do more

  • Teams must pitch their project as if founding a real company. Treat the judging panel as investors, not just hackathon judges

  • First pass submitted onto the DevPost: demo video + slide show + GitHub repo link. 

  • Second pass invited to pitch in person (around 12 teams) to the panel. 

Prizes

  • $2,000 cash prize to the winning team

  • Fellowship/internship interviews offered to the top 3 teams

  • Closing dinner included for all participants

 

 

Judging Criteria and Winner Selection 

Each team is scored 0–4 across three criteria. Judged by a panel of industry sponsors and Fellows acting as VCs. Decided not to include technical judging. 

1. Relevance to Theme

Does the project meaningfully address national competitiveness, government efficiency, or productivity?

Score

Description

0

No connection to the "Growing Canada" theme

1

Loosely tied to the theme; connection feels forced or superficial

2

Addresses the theme but in a narrow or low-impact way

3

Clearly targets national competitiveness, government efficiency, or productivity with a credible use case

4

Directly and ambitiously tackles a real national-scale problem; the "why this matters for Canada" case is obvious and compelling

 

2. Viability of the Project  Judged on real-world potential and next steps. Not every project needs to be a company, but it should have a plausible path to impact.

Score

Description

0

No sense of real-world application. Presented purely as a tech demo with no user, use case, or path forward

1

Vague framing; unclear who this helps, what problem it solves, or why it matters beyond the demo

2

Basic case for impact present but underdeveloped (e.g., no real understanding of who'd adopt it, what it would take to implement, or what already exists)

3

Solid case: clear intended user or beneficiary, clear value delivered, and a plausible next step (pilot, partnership, further development, adoption by an organization)

4

Credible, well-reasoned plan: strong understanding of the problem space, realistic path to real-world adoption or impact, and clear thinking on what happens after the hackathon
 

 

3. Presentation/Pitch Quality

Clarity and persuasiveness in front of the VC-style judging panel.

Score

Description

0

Disorganized, hard to follow, or ran out of time without covering key points

1

Basic structure but weak delivery; struggled to answer panel questions

2

Clear pitch but lacked persuasive framing or confidence under panel questioning

3

Well-structured, confident pitch; handled panel questions credibly

4

Compelling, tight, investor-ready pitch; anticipated tough questions and answered them with poise

 

Total possible score: 12 points (4 per criterion × 3 criteria)