I have been to few hacks to India, I found similar drama held by judges here. Well, I don't go for winning a price, nowadays, hackathan is mainly conducted for hireathon, you need to work on specific domain that company is experienced in.
You wrote next best google algorithm for page ranking, accurate search results, you will be probably get ignored.
You will be asked what is the business value? Why people should buy from you. The funny thing is, hackathan is just a coding stuffs, not a VC pitch club.
After few hackathans, I decided to not to compete on the crowd on a similar idea, then I pick my own idea or some algorithm to try, get to the extend of it make it work.
You wrote next best google algorithm for page ranking, accurate search results, you will be probably get ignored. You will be asked what is the business value? Why people should buy from you. The funny thing is, hackathan is just a coding stuffs, not a VC pitch club.
After few hackathans, I decided to not to compete on the crowd on a similar idea, then I pick my own idea or some algorithm to try, get to the extend of it make it work.