Hack the Burgh is a yearly hackathon hosted by University of Edinburgh students. It's open to all students, and is a great place to learn or practice programming, with a variety of challenges and talks from our sponsors.

How much does it cost?

If accepted to the event, tickets are free.

We also offer travel reimbursements.

Who may attend?

Any student currently enrolled in full-time further education may join. If you graduated less than a year ago, you're also eligible.

Unfortunately, you can't participate if you're under 18.

I can't code, can I join?

Yes! If you're new to programming, a hackathon is the best place for you to go to.

There'll be plenty of mentors ready to assist you with whatever problem you face.
Don't hestitate to ask for help, we don't bite!

What about teams?

You can team up with up to three other people. Teams exceeding four people aren't eligible for prizes.

Don't worry if you haven't got a team — you're not alone. We'll help you form a team at the event, or you can hack solo!

What are the rules?

Our Code of Conduct lives here.

To participate, you need to agree to follow all of the rules listed. This is so we can create a safe and welcoming environment for everyone.

What if I'm not a student?

We'd love to have you as a mentor!

Please get in touch for more information.

What do I bring?

Yourself, and something to hack on.

We'll be providing snacks and drinks throughout the weekend, but you need to bring your own device (and charger).

Do I need a hotel?

You can sleep over if you'd like.

You'll probably want to bring a sleeping bag and some spare clothes. Unfortunately, we don't have showers.

Past Projects

Pixel Economy

PixelEconomy is an online, virtual marketplace for creating, selling and buying pixel art that makes learning the fundamentals of trading fun and accessible.
Best of Show in 2020.
Is it bread?

Have you ever looked at an item and thought, "Is that bread?". Can you really trust yourself to make that judgement? Fear not, we have an intelligent app to decide that for you.
Uses Google Cloud's advanced image recognition technology to determine if an image contains bread.
MinePi

A mod to let you control your Raspberry pi from Minecraft.
Runner-Up for best hardware hack in 2020.
Edna

Writing is hard! Having no one to talk to about it makes it harder. Worry no more, Edna is here to listen to your writing woes.
Runner-Up in 2020.