Name: Hack@Brown2025
Password: h@barcade
9:00 AM - 10:00 AM
Friedman Hall
Check-In & Swag Claim
10:00 AM
Friedman Hall
Waitlist and Walk-Ins Welcome
11:00 AM
Salomon DECI
Opening Ceremony
12:00 PM
Hacking Begins
11:59 PM
Intention to Submit Form Due
11:30 AM
Project Submissions DUE
12:00 PM
Judging
3:30 PM
Salomon DECI
Closing Ceremony




Cliff Weitzman grew Speechify to 45 million users from his dorm room at Brown. Cliff learned how to code from YouTube and how to speak English from Harry Potter audiobooks. He was one of the youngest people to win Forbes 30 Under 30 list in the US. Speechify outranks Perplexity, Claud, NYT, WSJ on the app store and helps people with dyslexia, ADHD, low vision, and who enjoy being productive & learning to turn anything into an audiobook so they can read 3x faster and remember more. Speechify is hiring for student ambassadors, software engineers, & designers. Cliff did 42 hackathons when he was a student and built 36 products before focusing on Speechify. Learn how to pick which ideas to work on, how to build MVPs, how to scale, how to make decisions, and how to never take no for an answer.

Claire Hughes Johnson currently serves as a corporate officer and advisor for Stripe, a global technology company that builds economic infrastructure for the internet. Claire previously served as Stripe’s Chief Operating Officer from 2014 to 2021, where she helped the company grow from less than 200 employees to more than 6,000. At various times, she led business operations, sales, marketing, customer support, risk, real estate and all of the people functions. She is the author of The Wall Street Journal best-seller, Scaling People: Tactics for Management and Company Building, published in March 2023.
Prior to Stripe, Claire spent ten years at Google leading a number of business teams including overseeing Consumer Operations and serving as a Vice President for Adwords Online Sales & Operations, Google Offers and Google's self-driving car project. Claire has a bachelor's degree from Brown University and an MBA from Yale University. Claire currently serves on the boards of Hubspot, The Atlantic, Aurora Innovation, and Ameresco. She is also President of the Board of Trustees at Milton Academy and a member of the Brown University Corporation. Claire currently lives outside of Boston, MA with her family and two neurotic dachshunds.
Criteria
Awarded To The Best Overall Project Submitted To The Hackathon
Prize
Hisense 55" Class - QD6 Series - 4K UHD QLED LCD TV
Criteria
Awarded to the best arcade-centric project
Prize
Nintendo Switch OLED Console with White Joycons, 64GB (Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Bundle)
Criteria
Awarded to the best no-code project prototyped in Figma or another design software
Prize
Fujifilm Instax Mini 12 Bundle
Criteria
Awarded to the project with the highest overall ranking, where at least 2/3 of team members are attending their first hackathon.
Prize
Amazon Echo Pop
Criteria
This track is designed to equip participants with the knowledge and skills needed to maximize the potential of AWS for building, deploying, and managing scalable, secure, and cost-effective cloud solutions.
Prize
$1,000 in Amazon Gift Cards
Criteria
Build a hack that focuses on improving the developer experience in some meaningful way - this could be tackling any part of the development lifecycle (creating, modifying or testing software)!
Prize
Keychron Mechanical Keyboard
Criteria
We're in search of bold new thinking. This is an invitation to solve the problem of medical error that harms millions of U.S. patients, kills approximately 250,000 patients, and costs billions of dollars every year. We're calling on Hack@Brown teams to envision the best consumer-driven patient safety tech solution that has the potential to avert patient harm and save lives. One team member from each team must attend the workshop to be eligible for the prize. The best team will be awarded a prize worth $1,000. In order to be eligible to win your innovation must be consumer-driven (versus designed for clinical staff use) and address with one of the following five leading patient safety challenges facing health care across the continuum of care: Medication errors, procedural/surgical errors, errors during routine patient care (e.g. pressure ulcers, blood clots, falls), infections and diagnostic safety. The winning team will represent the most aligned, innovative, impactful idea that clearly understands the problem identified. Learn more about the problem and get access to resources to help your hack here.
Prize
$1000
Criteria
MongoDB Atlas takes the leading modern database and makes it accessible in the cloud! Get started with a $50 credit for students or sign up for the Atlas free forever tier (no credit card required). Along with a suite of services and functionalities, you'll have everything you need to manage all of your data, and you can get a headstart with free resources from MongoDB University! Build a hack using MongoDB Atlas for a chance to win a M5GO IoT Starter Kit for you and each member of your team.
Prize
M5GO IoT Starter Kit
Criteria
HashiCorp Terraform is a source available infrastructure as code (IaC) tool that makes building, deploying, and managing your projects even easier! Whether you’re working in the cloud or using local resources, Terraform can make managing and configuring your application simple and organized. From deploying Machine Learning models to spinning up virtual containers for your web applications, Terraform supports a wide array of cloud providers and services, taking the guesswork out of your next hackathon project. Dive into the documentation and discover all the ways Terraform can take the way you hack to the next level! Terraform’s community edition is free to use with no credit card required! Utilize Terraform in your hackathon project this weekend for a chance to win some awesome Hashicorp prizes for you and each of your teammates!
Prize
Keychron K8 Wireless Keyboard
Criteria
AI has upended what we can accomplish with technology. Reach Capital invests in the next generation of founders and technical talent, and they want you to use AI to transform the future of learning, health, and work. Build a project that impacts one (or all!) of these areas for a chance to win a Logitech webcam for each member of your team and the exclusive opportunity to discuss your creation with Reach Capital’s team of expert investors.
Prize
Logitech Webcam & Meeting with Co-Founding Partner at Reach Capital
Criteria
Generative AI is rapidly changing the landscape of software development. This category challenges you to build novel applications that leverage the power of Generative AI APIs. Think outside the box and integrate cutting-edge AI models to create innovative solutions with real-world impact. To participate, utilize publicly available Generative AI APIs (like those from OpenAI, Anthropic, Hugging Face, Llama, IBM Watson, or Google Gemini) to develop a unique and functional application. This could include: AI-powered creative tools: Design an app that allows users to generate unique marketing copy, translate languages in real-time, or create personalized learning experiences. Intelligent assistants and automation: Build a chatbot that can provide insightful customer support, or a system that automates complex tasks using natural language processing. Next-generation content creation platforms: Develop a platform that empowers users to generate high-quality images, write different kinds of creative text formats, or compose original music with AI assistance. This is your chance to get hands on with cutting edge tech, put your skills on display, and of course, win some awesome prizes!
Prize
Mechanical Keyboard & Fitbit
Criteria
GoDaddy Registry is giving you everything you need to be the best hacker no matter where you are. Register your domain name with GoDaddy Registry for a chance to win some amazing prizes!
Prize
Stay Tuned!