Hackathon Rules:
Build, Submit, and Win

Key dates

The theme

India generates over 150,000 tonnes of solid waste every day. Much of it ends up on streets, in drains, and open dumps - not because people don't care, but because the systems to support cleaner behaviour are broken or absent. This hackathon asks you to build the missing pieces.

You can work on any of the following tracks, or combine them:

Who can participate

The hackathon is open to everyone - from high-school students to working professionals. Everyone competes in the same event but is judged within their own division, so you are always compared fairly to your peers.

Teams & individuals

You can participate alone or as part of a team. Both formats are welcome - there is no penalty for going solo.

• 1
  Team size: 1 to 2 members

  Maximum 2 members per team. At least one member must register on College.dev, and team details must be provided during submission.
• 2
  All team members must be in the same division

  You cannot mix divisions within a team. A college student and a high schooler cannot be on the same team.
• 3
  Larger teams are held to a higher standard

  Judges scale their expectations with team size. A team of 2 is expected to produce a more complete product than a solo participant. This is by design - it rewards real collaboration.
• 4
  One submission per team

  Only one project may be submitted per registered team. Individual members may not submit separate projects while also being part of a team.

What to build

Your project must be an AI-first product that addresses the hackathon theme. "AI-first" means AI or machine learning is a meaningful, functional part of your solution - not just a label.

• ✓
  Substantially created during the Event window

  The project-specific solution must be substantially created during the Event window. Participants may use pre-existing general-purpose libraries, frameworks, APIs, pretrained models, datasets, templates, boilerplate, development tools and hardware components, provided their use is permitted by the applicable terms and licences and is accurately disclosed.
  
  A project or substantially similar solution that was materially developed before the Event window, previously submitted to another competition, or previously offered as a completed product is not eligible unless the Event Rules expressly permit it.
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  Open source libraries, APIs & tools are allowed

  You may use any publicly available library, framework, API, or pre-trained model (e.g. TensorFlow, OpenAI API, Google Maps, Hugging Face models). Clearly credit what you used in your submission.
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  Hardware builds are welcome

  You may use Raspberry Pi, Arduino, ESP32, or any other microcontroller or sensor hardware. A short demo video showing the hardware working is required alongside the code submission.
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  Generative AI is allowed, with disclosure

  Participants may use generative-AI tools, coding assistants, pretrained models and other AI services. Participants must disclose material AI use, including the tools or models used and the portions of the submission materially generated or modified by them.
  
  Participants remain responsible for the accuracy, legality, originality, safety and licence compliance of AI-assisted material. AI-generated output must not be presented as independently created human work where that representation would be misleading.
  
  Synthetic audio, video or imagery that could reasonably be mistaken for a real person, event or recording must be clearly labelled as AI-generated or materially altered. Impersonation, deceptive deepfakes, non-consensual synthetic media and misleading evidence are prohibited.
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  Datasets and personal data

  Projects must use datasets obtained and processed lawfully. Participants must not scrape, collect, upload or expose personal data, biometric data, children's data, precise location information, private communications, photographs or voice recordings without all required permissions and a legitimate purpose. Synthetic, anonymized or properly licensed data should be used wherever practical.

Project Testing and Physical Safety

Participants are responsible for safely designing, assembling, operating and testing their projects and for obtaining any supervision, permission, permit or insurance that may be required.

Participants must not, without proper authorization:

• enter private or restricted property;
• attach equipment to, modify, block, damage or interfere with drains, roads, waste-management systems, vehicles, utilities or other public or private infrastructure;
• handle hazardous, biomedical, chemical, electrical or mechanical materials or equipment;
• collect images, voices, biometric information, precise locations or other personal data from members of the public;
• conduct surveillance or deploy recording devices in areas where people reasonably expect privacy; or
• represent that a municipality, school, government body or other organization has approved or endorsed the project.

Participants under 18 must have appropriate adult supervision for hardware assembly, physical testing and any off-site activity.

Team Submissions and Participant Responsibilities

Every listed team member must consent to the submission and the permissions granted under these Terms. A team leader represents that they have informed all team members of the submission, but a team leader may not provide parental consent for another minor participant.

College.dev does not determine how ownership is divided among team members and is not responsible for disputes concerning authorship, credit, ownership, prize allocation or continued use of the project between team members. Teams are responsible for resolving these matters among themselves.

Each participant represents that:

• they have the right to submit the materials and grant the permissions described in these Terms;
• the submission does not knowingly infringe another person's intellectual-property, privacy, publicity, confidentiality or contractual rights;
• all third-party libraries, APIs, datasets, models, media and open-source components are used in accordance with their applicable terms and licences;
• all material contributors are accurately identified;
• any material use of generative artificial intelligence is disclosed as required by the Event Rules; and
• the submission does not contain private credentials, malicious code or personal data that the participant is not authorized to process and disclose.

Rules

• 1
  Registration on College.dev is mandatory

  All participants must be registered on College.dev before submitting. Projects from unregistered participants will be disqualified. If you registered as part of a team, all team members must be listed and confirmed before submission.
• 2
  Submit only original work

  Your submission must be your team's original creation. Plagiarism, copying another team's work, or submitting previously published projects will result in immediate disqualification.
• 3
  Your work. Your IP. Your responsibility.

  Everything you build belongs entirely to you. College.dev makes no claim over your code, ideas, designs, or any part of your submission - you are free to commercialise, publish, or continue developing your project after the hackathon without any restriction. In return, you take full responsibility for your submission being original work. It must be built by your team, created during the hackathon window, and free of plagiarism or copying from another participant's project. Submitting work you did not create is a disqualification offence.
• 4
  Judges' decisions are final

  All judging decisions, including finalist selection and winner determination, are final and not subject to appeal. Judges may request a re-review of a submission only in the case of a clear technical error (e.g. broken submission link).
• 5
  Organisers may disqualify at any time

  The organising team reserves the right to disqualify any participant or team that violates these rules, the code of conduct, or the spirit of the event.
• 6
  Event administration

  College.dev may verify eligibility, authorship, originality and compliance with these Rules. College.dev may modify, suspend, extend or cancel the Event, or modify the judging process, where reasonably necessary because of fraud, security concerns, technical failure, circumstances beyond its reasonable control, insufficient eligible submissions, legal requirements or concerns affecting the fairness or integrity of the Event.
  
  Material changes will be posted on the Rules page and communicated to registered participants. College.dev will not retroactively deprive a participant of an earned award except where necessary to address fraud, ineligibility, a material rule violation or a legal requirement.
  
  Participants are responsible for submitting before the deadline. College.dev is not responsible for failures involving a participant's equipment, internet connection or third-party services. If a verified College.dev platform failure materially prevents submissions, College.dev may extend the deadline or provide an alternative submission method.
• 7
  Participants are responsible for their own equipment

  This is a virtual, self-hosted hackathon. You are responsible for your own devices, development environment, and any hardware components you use.

Submission requirements

All submissions must be made through your College.dev dashboard before Oct 10, 2026 · 8:00 PM IST. The submission portal opens on Jul 10, 2026 and closes automatically at Oct 10, 2026 · 8:00 PM IST. You can submit and update your project at any time during this window.

Your submission must include all of the following:

Go to the submission portal →

Judging criteria

Projects are judged within each division. All divisions use the same rubric, but judges calibrate their expectations to the division and team size.

Judges must disclose actual or potential conflicts of interest and may be recused from evaluating an affected submission. In the event of a tie, the submission with the higher Technical Execution score will prevail, followed by Impact Potential, followed by Innovation. College.dev may use another neutral tie-breaking method where necessary.

Judges' scores and internal deliberations are confidential and need not be disclosed except where required by law. College.dev may decline to make an award in a division if no eligible submission reasonably meets the stated criteria.

Prizes & Awards

Awards consist of certificates, recognition and public showcase opportunities as specifically described on the Event page. No cash prize, employment, internship, investment, municipal pilot, commercial contract or other business opportunity is guaranteed.

Code of conduct

This is an open, inclusive event. Everyone - participants, mentors, judges, and organisers - is expected to maintain a respectful environment.

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  Be respectful

  Treat all participants with respect regardless of age, experience level, background, or division. This event includes students as young as 14 years old.
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  No harassment or discrimination

  Harassment, bullying, or discriminatory behaviour of any kind will result in immediate removal from the event. This includes behaviour in Discord, and in any event session.
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  Compete honestly

  Do not share or copy another team's code, design, or ideas during the hackathon. If you find a bug in the platform or an unfair advantage, report it - don't exploit it.
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  Use communication channels appropriately

  Discord will be used only for hackathon-related discussions. Keep conversations constructive. Unsolicited promotion, spam, or off-topic content is not permitted.

FAQ

Get help

If you have a question not answered here, here's how to reach us during the event:

• 💬
  Discord - #help channel

  Join the channel

  Fastest way to get support during the event. Monitored by the organising team and volunteer moderators throughout the contest window.