Everyone is welcome! Attendees from all backgrounds, skills, genders, and geographies are encouraged to join. We accept a wide range of applicants, from beginners to experienced AR/VR hackathon veterans. No prior AR/VR or programming experience is required (provided there is at least one coder in the team).

The goal of the hackathon is to bring together people with different backgrounds such as psychology, neuroscience, or education, along with those with a technical background. While no prior AR/VR programming experience is necessary to participate, we highly recommend that each team includes at least one member with some coding background to facilitate the development process.

No prior experience is required! Any prior experience is always useful; however, exchanging within teams will help those new to VR/AR to learn from more experienced designers and developers to improve their skills. Additionally, we will have matchmaking procedures in place to ensure that teams are balanced, combining diverse backgrounds and expertise to maximize learning and collaboration.

We prefer that you come as an individual and form a team with new people that you meet here! Last year, all the members on the winning team became acquainted at the hackathon. They created memorable experiences together and found lifetime friendships. It’s the spirit of the hackathon this year. All the members also have to register for the event individually. One participant cannot represent a group to register for the hackathon.

We encourage you to join a team. You can find people to work with either on the dedicated Discord channel or during Matchmaking events on October 4 and 5 (see VR Summit Schedule).

While forming teams before the hackathon is completely fine, we want to highlight the unique opportunities that come with meeting and teaming up with new people during the event. Fresh collaborations often lead to unexpected, innovative solutions and foster a rich learning environment.To facilitate this spirit of spontaneity and creativity, our registration process encourages individuals to come ready to form new alliances. Judges will be particularly interested in the innovative outcomes from teams that harness diverse perspectives. So, we invite you to come open to new connections and ready to name your newly-formed team in the application form.

While we allowed remote participation last year, feedback from participants and our observations revealed that remote teamwork posed significant challenges. Therefore, this year we are returning to a fully in-person format to ensure the best collaborative and interactive experience for all participants.

All IP produced during the Hackathon is required to be registered in the public domain under an open source license without residual rights to the IP and available for public use. The spirit of the Hackathon is to encourage innovation and collaboration. We want any developments created during the Hackathon to be openly shared with other participants after the event to foster further development for the benefit of the greater good and to be available to the public to spread awareness and appreciation of the creations made during the Hackathon.

Additionally, we would like to cut out the potential for any conflict resulting from the creations. We want participants to meet new people, form interdisciplinary teams that create original work that deepens our understanding of how XR technology can be applied, and, at the same time avoid any potential for IP disputes. RUB also has IP policies regarding creations by its students. Open source licensing avoids potential conflicts arising from having an RUB student team member. Lastly, IP protection often covers creations which are more fully developed. We expect that most material created over the weekend to be in a preliminary phase which may not be suitable for IP protection. If you object to registering your work made during the Hackathon in the public domain with no residual rights, please do not participate in the event.

Our hackathon stands out due to its unique requirement that all project sources be available for open and free redistribution. This means the use of assets from sources such as the Unity asset store, which cannot be freely shared, is prohibited. A good rule of thumb to ensure compliance is to ask yourself whether anyone, anywhere in the world, could download, run, modify, and redistribute your application without encountering any license or copyright fees.

If you’re unsure where to find assets that comply with these rules, don’t hesitate to reach out. The hackathon team is more than happy to assist you in finding resources that can be used for your projects.

For further clarity and guidance, please refer to the ‘hackathon rules’ section, which outlines the essential regulations all participants must adhere to.

It’s free, there are no fees to attend the event! You just need to cover your own travel and lodging. We will provide you with some food and beverages.

Yes. Each team will be provided with an Oculus Quest 3 and a computer for development purposes. In addition, we will have supplementary hardware related to the challenges available for use. We also have a limited amount of “Meta Quest Pro” HMDs available, though not for each team. Teams are encouraged to bring their own equipment, including desktops, laptops, monitors, and or VR hardware, to enhance their project capabilities. Please email us about any additional equipment you plan to bring. Although we strive to meet all hardware demands, we may ask teams to share certain equipment if necessary, but this has generally not been an issue in the past.

All attendees are required to bring a valid ID (or driver’s license / passport) for admission. Also, bring your laptop, and any hardware you wish to use in your hack. As mentioned we’re loaning out computers and hardware as well!

Yes. The RUB Makerspace will be open overnight. Entrance will be allowed only to Hackathon participants.

As RUB Makerspace is hosting the Hackathon as a guest event, we respect their house rules. Some spaces will be clearly marked as excluded from use. Entering these spaces will result in automatic elimination of the whole team.

We provide a basic Unity environment. You are welcome to build on any hardware and software platform your team prefers, granting you the freedom to fully unleash your creativity. We only ask you that you adhere to the event rules of the event. So, go ahead – we can’t wait to see what you’ll create!

We will have rolling admissions. You will receive an email from us to notify you of your acceptance status shortly after your submission. Applications are open until the time we are near our limit of 50 participants.

The MakerSpace is located inside the O-Werk building.

Please email us your questions to VRSummit@rub.de

 We’d love to help you out 🙂

When your application form goes through you will receive a confirmation of transmission on the website that reads: “Thank you for your submission! We’ll keep you posted.” You should also receive an email.

Do not resubmit your application form. Just email your resume to us as an attachment. We will match it with your application. Please email your resume to VRSummit@rub.de using the same email included with your application. And please include your name in the filename of the resume.