Hack Together: The Great .NET 8 Hack

Introduction

🛠️Build, innovate, and #HackTogether!🛠️ It's time to get started building apps with .NET 8. 🔥

Hack Together is your playground for coding and experimenting with .NET. With mentorship from Microsoft experts and access to the latest tech, you will learn how to build apps based on some of the most exciting .NET scenarios today - AI and cloud-native! The possibilities are endless for what you can create... plus you can submit your hack for a chance to win exciting prizes! 🥳

The hackathon starts on November 20th right after .NET Conf and ends on December 4th. It is recommended for participants to follow the Hack Together Roadmap for a successful hackathon.

Hack Together Roadmap 🗺️

Follow the steps below to successfully complete the hackathon.

#00 - Pre-requisites

Register to Hack Together: https://aka.ms/hacktogether/dotnet/register

Introduce yourself, we'd like to get to know you! 🥳 GitHub Discussions | Let's get to know each other 🎉

Planning on hacking with Azure OpenAI? Make sure to request access to the API.

#01 - Start hacking on November 20th

Either team up (max 3 team members) or fly solo to join the hacking! Make sure to register for Hack Together before starting to build your project.

#02 - Join live sessions for learning and inspiration

November 20th @ 2 PM Pacific - Join live: Welcome and what's new in .NET 8 with Aaron Powell, Matt Soucoup and Gaurav Seth
November 27th @ 11 AM Pacific - Join live: Generative AI for the .NET developer with Matt Soucoup and Diego Colombo
November 28th @ 4 PM Pacific - Join live: .NET 8 - Your stack for building Cloud Native apps with Justin Yoo, Jorge Arterio and Paul Yu
December 4th @ 3 PM Pacific - Join live: Wrap up with special guest stars

#03 - Submit your project until December 4th 23:59 PM PST

You may submit your project here when it's ready: 🚀 Project Submission

Check out this video for step by step project submission guidance: Project Submission Video

There will be a grand prize winner out of all projects as well as a 'Best Intelligent Apps solution' and 'Best Cloud Native solution,' so it is worthwhile to align your hack to one of these categories.

We'd love to hear about your project, tell us what you are working on!

Samples to get inspired ✨

If you are looking for scenarios or project ideas to get inspired, we have many samples available for you to explore! Check out below repositories to discover what you can build and get some inspiration for your hack!

AI

ConsoleGPT - .NET Console demos for a chat experience using Azure OpenAI
Image Generation sample - Generate images with DALL-E, it also supports non-English language prompts through translations
Chat with your own data - An application using the RAG (Retrival Augmented Generation) pattern to allow you to ask questions of your own data

Cloud Native

Recommended Learning Materials 📚

AI

Cloud Native

Judging and Prizes 🏆

Projects will be evaluated by a panel of judges, including Microsoft executives, product managers, and developer advocates. Judging criteria will include innovation, impact, technical usability, and alignment with corresponding hackathon category.

The winning teams will receive the following exciting prizes (up to 3 individuals if submitting as a team, prizes distributed per team). Winning solutions and/or product feedback may also be considered for integration into the .NET roadmap. Winners will also have the opportunity to showcase their projects to experts and leaders on the .NET YouTube channel.

🏆 Grand Prize winner: The best of the best! This category rewards the solution that meets all judging criteria, wows judges, and has potential real-world value.

$500 cash prize per individual (up to 3 if entering as a team) 💸

🥇 Best Intelligent Apps solution:

$500 cash prize 💸

🥇 Best Cloud Native solution:

$500 cash prize 💸

🏅 All hackathon participants who submit an app will receive a digital badge.

ℹ️ Hack Together winners will be selected as per the following judging criteria:

Innovation

Impact

Technical Usability/User Experience

Alignment with hackathon category (either Intelligent Apps or Cloud Native)

ℹ️ Additional cash prize info

One (1) Grand Prize winner (up to 3 individuals if submitting as a team). The individuals on the Grand Prize winning team will each receive a $500 cash prize and a digital Credly badge. Approximate Retail Value (ARV) $500 per individual, up to $1500 total for a team of three

One (1) Best Cloud-Native winner (up to 3 individuals if submitting as a team). The Best Cloud-Native winning team will receive a $500 cash prize to evenly split amongst team members and a digital Credly badge. Approximate Retail Value (ARV) $500 per team

One (1) Best Intelligent App winner (up to 3 individuals if submitting as a team). The Best Intelligent App winning team will receive a $500 cash prize to evenly split amongst team members and a digital Credly badge. Approximate Retail Value (ARV) $500 per team