The Vanderbilt Junior App Challenge is a mobile app development competition for high school students in the Nashville area hosted by Vanderbilt University. Student groups are tasked with developing a mobile application to solve an identifiable problem in their school or community. The Challenge operates on three goals:

  1. Providing students with a platform to create their own, tangible product. Students are encouraged to use mobile app development tools they are comfortable with throughout this process. By the end of the Challenge, students will have created an innovative solution to a problem they identified that can be directly attributed to them in order to make a real impact.

  2. Opening avenues for networking and making connections. All teams will be assigned a Vanderbilt undergraduate mentor that provides guidance throughout app development and gives insight into the collegiate STEM experience. The Showcase Event will include programming with STEM professionals to give students the opportunity to build interpersonal and soft skills.

  3. Building presentation and technical communication skills. All students will submit a video demo providing an overview of their finished product as well as a reflection on the app development process. Finalists will have the opportunity to pitch their presentation at the Showcase Event to judges and the attending audience. An important facet of these deliverables will be gauging students’ abilities to communicate technical concepts to non-technical audiences. 

 

Basic Requirements

  1. Student teams must be enrolled as 9-12 grade students in any high school in the Nashville area to be eligible for VJAC.

    1. Students on the same team do not need to be from the same high school.

    2. A student can only compete as part of one team. 

  2. Student teams must consist of 2-5 team members.

  3. Teams must have an advisor for the app development process. 

    1. Advisors may be a teacher, coach, or any other community leader. 

Requirements

COMPETITION DELIVERABLES

After Stage 1, all deliverables will be submitted HERE by March 29, 2024 at 11:59 pm CST. The final submission will include three components:

 

  1. A short pitch/demo video. The video should be no longer than 5 minutes. Students are encouraged to walk through all features of the application and demonstrate the user experience. 

  2. APK file or relevant file format for the application. 

  3. Reflection. The reflection will include a minimum of a paragraph discussing each of the following questions:

    1. What was the inspiration for this project?

    2. What does your application do?

    3. How did you build your application?

    4. What challenges did you run into during the development process?

    5. What are you most proud of having accomplished?

    6. Do similar products exist? If so, why is your product different / what value do you add?

    7. What are your takeaways from this process?

    8. What does the future hold for your project?

Hackathon Sponsors

Prizes

1 non-cash prize
VJAC 1st, 2nd, 3rd Place
3 winners

Podium winners will be announced at the Showcase Event.

Devpost Achievements

Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:

Judges

Udai Virk
President - VJAC

Claire McQuillen
Vice President - VJAC

Xander Stabile

Xander Stabile
Treasurer - VJAC

Judging Criteria

  • Judging Criteria
    Problem Relevance Effectiveness of Solution Application Functionality and Features User Interface and Experience Demo/Pitch Video Reflection

Questions? Email the hackathon manager

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