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April 25 - 27, 2025


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About Hacktech 2025

Our mission is to create "Realistic Impact," which entails encouraging participants to create projects that could be feasibly implemented in real-world scenarios to make tangible change.

2024 Stats:

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Hacktech is Caltech's 11th premier annual intercollegiate hackathon. During the 36-hour event, participants will collaborate in teams of 1 to 4 members to develop projects that align with our themes. Whether you're a seasoned coder or a curious beginner, Hacktech invites you to join a vibrant community of problem solvers, dreamers, and builders on Caltech's campus this year.

This year, hackers will have the option to choose from these three tracks for their projects: Healthcare, Finance/Data Analytics, and Sustainability.
What's New for 2025? A lot. We revamped the entire event from the ground up, featuring a new format, new venues, and improved dining options!
Event format: We're fully in-person this year! Scroll down to the FAQ for location details!
Venues and Food: We have double the space as previous years. This year will feature dedicated eating, sleeping, and working areas.

About Image

A Round of Applause for our

Hacktech Speakers

Hacktech would not be the same without the contributions of our speakers, whose insights, expertise, and passion drive the innovation and creativity that define us. Note: Speaker list is currently tentative.

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    Intro Speaker (Virtual)

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    Kip Thorne

    Dr. Kip Thorne is a Nobel laureate in Physics, the Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics, Emeritus, at Caltech, renowned for his pioneering contributions to gravitational physics and astrophysics, and co-founded LIGO project.

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    Adam D'Angelo

    Adam D'Angelo is the co-founder and CEO of Quora, and recieved his Bachelors from Caltech. Before establishing Quora in 2009, he served as Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of Engineering at Facebook.

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    Anima Anandkumar

    Dr. Animashree (Anima) Anandkumar is NVIDIA's former Director of AI Research and the current Bren Professor at Caltech. She specializes in large-scale machine learning, non-convex optimization and high-dimensional statistics.

General FAQ

If you can't find your answer here, feel free to contact us via our email or social media! FAQ last updated March 14th, 2025.

To participate, you can register on our website! NOTE: Applications for 2025 have closed for non-Caltech participants.
Hacktech is held at Caltech's campus. This year we will be utilizing Avery House and the Annenberg Center for Information Science and Technology as our main venues. Please refer to our website and the map below for detailed directions and accommodation options when the time comes.
Yes, Hacktech is now a fully in-person event instead of the hybrid format as before. Hackers must check in and be present throughout the hackathon to participate.
Hacktech is free to attend! We will provide food, swag, lessons, and amazing memories! Travel reimbursement this year is limited, and we will not be able to provide reimbursement to all participants. Refer to your acceptance email for details. Unfortunately, partial reimbursements will not be offered.
All enrolled college/university students (undergraduate, masters, PhD, certificate, community college, part-time) are welcome! Note that you must be 18 or older as per institute requirements. No exceptions can be made.
Between 1 and 4 people can be on a single team.
Our applications are now closed for non-Caltech participants. Decisions will be released in batches starting in late February and will continue into early March.


Updated 2025 FAQ

If you have confirmed your participation in Hacktech 2025, please review all of these questions as they contain critical information. Last updated 3/28/2025.


The last batch of acceptances were sent out on March 21st. All applications have been reviewed, and top applicants who were not accepted were added to a waitlist. If you have not recieved a rejection email, you are on the waitlist as of now.
Yes! If you have not received a rejection email, you are on the waitlist. Some participants who had confirmed previously notified us that they cannot attend, which frees up spots to those on the waitlist. We will be sending out two more batches of acceptances on April 4th, and April 11th. Please be patient as we work through this process!
Team selection will take place once all acceptances have been sent out in mid March. All participants attending Hacktech will be invited to a Discord server where they will be able to form teams.
Tentatively, the opening ceremony for Hacktech will begin at 7PM PST, on April 25th, 2025. You should aim to arrive and check in before this time.
Please be patient as we are still in the process of finalizing participants. After all participants are confirmed, we will send out all the details! If you have filled out the confirmation already, please do not fill it out again as it will only cause more problems in the processing of your acceptance.
Check-in for Hacktech 2025 will happen from roughly 4:30-6:30PM PST on April 25th, 2025. We recommend booking flights to arrive at LAX or Burbank Airport no later than 4PM PST. The closing ceremony is planned for 3-4PM on April 27th, 2025. We recommend booking flights to depart no earlier than 5:30PM PST.
We expect most participants to stay up through the night to work on projects. A sleeping space will be provided, however expect capacity to be limited. You should bring your own sleeping bag, pillows, etc.


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