HackUPC

HackUPC
700 Hackers | 2-4 May 2025 | 36h

Play as

Hacker

Volunteer

HACKUPC: CODING TO THE NEXT LEVEL

What is a hackathon?

The word hackathon is a combination of the words "HACK", standing for creative problem-solving, and "MARATHON". These are awesome events full of creativity, technology, and passionate tech-related students of different skill ranges collaborating and creating. During a certain period of time, attendees work in TEAMS to develop apps, games, robots… literally anything you want to BUILD & LEARN about!

About HackUPC

HackUPC is the first student hackathon in Spain and the biggest one in Europe. Once a year, we aim to provide participants of all experience levels from all around the world with a space where they can improve and learn new skills, meet amazing people, and have an overall great experience!

How to
Participate

Mentor

Help and motivate hackers with your knowledge! If you are passionate about helping, and you can no longer apply as a hacker, we invite you to live the hackathon experience from the other side: Apply as a mentor!

Apply Now

Volunteer

Volunteers make HackUPC possible by assisting the hackers and preparing the event. By joining our team of volunteers, you will get to know how this incredible event works from the inside, meet amazing people and live a great experience!

Apply now

Partner

Boost your brand’s visibility and connect with future talent. Showcase your products and leave a lasting impression on our hackathon participants. Join us today!

Sponsor

Don't just put your brand on another wall. Discover a unique chance to shape the tech scene of tomorrow by adding real value and connecting with the best engineers of the future.

Teaser

Aftermovie '24

DURING THE EVENT

Coding is the main part of HackUPC, but we have many more activities!

Talks & Workshops

SlideShare Show

Dodgeball

Nerf Gun Battle

Sticker Exchange

THE MISSION:

HACKUPC

Get ready for your weekend mission! This year, we aim for HackUPC to be like a loaded arcade with lots to play with. Have fun, complete the objectives, and get fantastic surprises. Will you be able to unlock them all?

Live

When and where will all of this happen?

In our live page you will find it out! It will be available before HackUPC so that you can prepare everything you might need! And of course it will be the page you visit to check out all the activities happening during the event. You can also check our last year's live page page and see what happened.

In construction

We Also
Provide...

FOOD

We've got you covered, we even have midnight snacks. Occasionally there will be snacks, drinks or coffee to boost your energy.

SLEEPING

We will provide air mattresses both nights so you can boost your energy levels. Check out the FAQs for more info.

NETWORKING

You can also visit our sponsors’ stands or meet them remotely! They'll be available during the day and would love to talk to you! (you may even get some swag as well)

FAQs

About HackUPC

What is HackUPC?

HackUPC is the first student hackathon in Spain. This will be our eleventh edition with lots of side activities to learn new technologies, meet interesting people and have fun. Come and make history with us!

When is HackUPC?

The opening ceremony starts at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, May 2nd. We expect to close this year’s edition by 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, May 4th.

Where is HackUPC?

HackUPC will take place in UPC’s North Campus FIB and ETSETB buildings (A3, A4, A5 and A6) in sunny Barcelona. Expect temperatures from 15ºC to 25ºC!

What does HackUPC provide?

HackUPC is free for all accepted hackers. We will provide you with Wi-Fi, swag, workspaces with power outlets (Type F plug), and meals (including breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks during the night). There will be access to the showers in a specific schedule (they will be in the gym so if you don't like shared showers, bring also a swimming suit). For the nights we will have mattresses to relax in the sleep-enabled classrooms (there will not be one mattress per person).

What can I build?

You can build any tech-related project. We do not have restrictions over the topic. Some examples are web pages, mobile apps, hardware projects, games, an API... Remember that you can also use a variety of hardware components, from Arduino kits and Raspberry Pi's, to Amazon Echo dots and Myo Arm. Once the event starts you will have the catalogue will all the available hardware on my.hackupc.com

What should I bring?

All attendees must bring the following:

Valid government ID for admission
Laptop & charger (Be aware that Spain has Type F plugs, bring an adapter!)

Other common checklist items include:

Sleeping bag
Comfortable clothes
Towel, flip-flops, soap, and if you want also a swimming suit (the showers are shared). We encourage all the hackers to take a shower!

We will send you a more detailed checklist once you’re accepted.

What are the judging criteria?

Projects will mainly be judged based on technical difficulty, innovation, overall learning experience, and also, on their usability and design by a panel of selected judges from the industry. Check our competition rules on our live page.

What if I have any dietary restrictions?

Since beta 1.0, we’ve been able to support a range of dietary preferences, including vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, and any type of allergies. If you have any specific requirements different than allergies, just select vegetarian or reach out to us and we’ll make sure to take care of you!

Do you have a code of conduct?

Yes, here they are: Our Code of conduct and also MLH code of conduct.

TL;DR: Be respectful, harassment and abuse are never tolerated.

Travel Reimbursement

Is travel reimbursement available?

Of course! The quantity varies depending on where you come from. We pay half of the travel costs, with a maximum of €50 for Spaniards outside of Catalonia, up to €120 if you are coming from Europe and up to a range between €120 and €200 if you come from outside Europe. We want to give all of you the opportunity to join us! However, note that not all participants will be eligible to receive travel reimbursement. In the end, we have a limited budget, and we want to help our participants, but we are a student organization and we have limited resources.

When and how do I request it?

All the process will happen through my.hackupc.com. Once you are accepted to the hackathon, you will need to confirm your spot. At that moment, you will be able to ask for travel reimbursement. Select the option if you want to request it. In case the option doesn't show, that means that we have run out of travel reimbursement. After that, you will need to submit the tickets for your travel expenses, note that we only accept tickets from plane, train, or bus with a minimum total amount of €50.

Travel reimbursement conditions and steps

To be able to receive Travel Reimbursement money, you need to match the following criteria:

Upload your tickets before 2nd May to our platform (we only accept flight, bus, or train tickets) alongside your PayPal account (we only pay this way).
The arrival tickets should be after April 25th and the departure tickets should be prior to May 9th.
In the hackathon, it’s mandatory to demo your project to HackUPC judges, presenting only to sponsors will not be considered valid.
The project should follow all the HackUPC rules.
After the hackathon, upload your Devpost link to our platform.

When do I get the money?

If you have followed the steps correctly, you may receive the money in your PayPal account around 2 months after HackUPC. We are sorry for the delay, but it takes time to check everything.

Applications

Who can attend?

Students from all around the world who are at least 14 years old at the time of the event can apply. You can be in the university, vocational training, high school, etc. For participants under 18, we will request a letter of approval signed by parents or a legal guardian to attend.

What if I am not a student?

As long as you graduated a year before the event (May 2nd, 2024), or later, you can still be accepted as a hacker. Nevertheless, if that isn't your case, and you don't want to miss HackUPC, you can apply as a mentor!

What if I don't have coding experience?

It's completely fine! We would love to receive your application! In fact, you come here to learn, so you don't need any previous experience.

How to make a good application?

Try to make a difference amongst other hackers, tell us why you want to come to HackUPC, and avoid generating a default answer with an AI, as that will probably void your application, be creative and don't use AI! However, above all, remember to be humble. On our Medium page, you can find a great post in which are detailed all the steps to make your application even greater. Make sure you check it out!

When will I be accepted?

All your applications are reviewed one by one, by the organizing team. We will do batches of acceptance once a bunch of them are reviewed, stay tuned to our social media to know when this happens and check your email or MyHackUPC dashboard

Why have I not been accepted yet?

As mentioned before, all your applications are reviewed one by one, by the organizing team. Check out your status in MyHackUPC dashboard.

The status can be:

Under review, your application is being reviewed by our team, stay patient and make sure you've done a good application
Action required, there is a problem with your application, please check your email and spam folder, a member of our team may have contacted you
Waitlisted, we are sorry to inform that by now we ran out of spots, but if we have an available spot in the future we will let you know
Expired, email us to see if there is still a spot available for you.

How does applying in teams work?

When you apply, you can create or join a team. Remember that you're able to change your decision up until you, or someone in your team, is accepted. Once the team has one acceptance, you can not change the members.

When more than 50% of the team members are accepted, the remaining ones are automatically accepted.

Note that teams created in the registration are not definitive, so you can change your team during the hackathon.

What if, in the application, I can not join my friends' team?

If someone in your team has already been accepted you will not be able to join their team. But don’t worry! If you cannot join your friends in the application, it doesn't mean that you can not join them during the event. But remember that the maximum size team is 4 people.

Teams

What if I don't have a team?

No need to worry! Part of the fun of a hackathon is meeting new people. We will have a team building activity at the beginning of the event for everyone to meet and form teams.

What is the max team size?

If myTeam.size() <= 4, you're good to go.

Teams up to 4 members are welcome. Keep in mind that if your team is bigger, you won't be able to participate in any HackUPC competition or challenge, so you should split into multiple teams.

Can I change my team during the hackathon? How?

Yes, in fact, we encourage you to team up with hackers you meet there. You'll meet awesome people!

To change your team, you don’t have to notify us, just adjust your team members in the final project submission.

What if I have another question?

DM us on Instagram at @hackupc or, if you want to contact us via email, drop us a line at contact@hackupc.com

If your issue is related to Travel Reimbursement, write us at reimbursements@hackupc.com

Stay tuned, and don't miss a bit

Check our social media networks

HackUPC700 Hackers | 2-4 May 2025 | 36h

HackUPC
700 Hackers | 2-4 May 2025 | 36h