On February 29th, join us at MakeOHI/O—the Ohio State University's largest makeathon—for a weekend of building and creating real projects with awesome people. Over 150 undergraduate and graduate students will design, build, and demonstrate projects to a live audience of students, faculty, and representatives from tech companies. MakeOHI/O is put on by OHI/O, a student-led organization that aims to build and foster the tech community at Ohio State University.
Meet other passionate, fun and creative students from OSU and universities across the nation. Our industry partners are also sending professional developers, designers, marketers, and hustlers to provide mentorship. If you're interested in participating, all attendees must adhere to our Code of Conduct.
Here are some common questions that people ask. If you have any additional questions, please contact us at makeohio@osu.edu.
A makeathon is similar to a hackathon. Both are events where participants build awesome projects from scratch in just a few short hours. The difference between a MAKEathon and a HACKathon is that we are encouraging projects to be maker-oriented, and therefore physically making something!
Anyone who is a student at a university! We encourage all levels of expertise to join. Whether this is your first makeathon, or you've been to other make- or hackathons across the nation, MakeOHI/O provides an opportunity to collaborate and create something amazing. All participants are expected to follow our Code of Conduct.
Registration for MakeOHI/O is now closed. You will be notified if you were accepted and then asked to fill out a confirmation. Acceptances have been sent out. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to registerhackohio@gmail.com.
All sorts of things! Previous projects have included mobile apps, websites, smart mirrors, light-up glasses, pancake printers...the possibilities are endless.
MakeOHI/O is free to participate in! We'll be providing you with great meals, snacks, and drinks throughout the entire event. We've got participants' food restrictions covered, too.
All participants should be in teams of 2 to 4, but don't worry if you're coming in without a team. OHI/O provides opportunities before and during the makeathon to find a team. We'll be posting more information on team formation events in our newsletters and on our social media accounts - be on the lookout!
Nope! Many students come up with an idea while at the makeathon. By talking to fellow students you'll find opportunities to brainstorm ideas that pique your interest. If you get stuck, we'll have a nice list of ideas to help you out.
Yes! We welcome individuals with knowledge and expertise in various topic areas to help mentor students at MakeOHI/O. If you're interested, please contact us to find out more information!
Upon verifying your account, you can pick a team to join in the application portal. Please
note that everyone on the team must join it individually!
This gives us more information about who is coming in with a team and helps us better plan
logistics and judging of the event.
MakeOHI/O is proud to have dozens of judges consisting of academia, industry professionals, and alumni. On Sunday, participants will share their projects with two sets of two judges, who will score the project based on several criteria: technical difficulty, functionality, intuitiveness, usefulness/impact, creativity, teamwork, and overall wow factor. Remember - the competition is only a small part of the event! The most important part is to have fun and build something amazing.
For safety reasons, projects that intend to interface with the 120V AC mains in any way other than direct power are discouraged. Even something as small as a relay controlling a lamp being on could be hazardous with exposed wires. For similar reasons, projects involving high voltage such as Tesla coils, jacob’s ladders, or plasma speakers are discouraged. If you are unsure if your project will be allowed, please ask! We reserve the right to shut down any projects that we deem as unsafe. We want the event to be awesome and electrocution or other physical injury is not so great. Please bring your own fuses if you intend on working with the mains or otherwise high voltage project. Railguns, coil guns or any other projects with weapons are prohibited. Projects such as an induction furnace are similarly prohibited for an obvious fire hazard.
MakeOHI/O is hosted by several Ohio State student organizations united under OHI/O. You can check out our other events at https://hack.osu.edu.
Overall Winner
Second Place
Third Place
Most Creative
Most Impactful
Most Technically Difficult
Most Polished
Best In House Sprint
Build an IoT system to track the movement, arrangement and utilization of 99P Labs
resources. Understand what it takes for your indoor location tracking system to be low cost
and scalable.
1st Prize: M5Stack GREY IoT Development Kit & M5StickC ESP32 Pico,
2nd Prize: $25 Gift Card
Build a small display device to indicate utility usage, abnormal conditions and/or
environmental conditions in the home.
Prize: $100 Amazon Gift Card
As MakeOHI/O grows, we also want to evolve! Although we love all projects made at Make, one
of OHI/O's goal is to be able to provide resources for longer term, business oriented
projects. If you think your project could become business, make a pitch!
For this event, the judging team will be led by Tim Raderstorf of Ohio State's Innovation
Studio. The criteria is based off of Ohio Innovation Fund's Lean
Value Canvas, the team’s pitch, plus points for the attitudes and drive of the team
members. All competing teams will be vying for $3,000 of seed money, generously donated by
the Innovation Studio and OHI/O.
1st Prize: $1500 in Project Funding,
2nd Prize: $1000 in Project Funding,
3rd Prize: $500 in Project Funding
| Time | Event |
| 9:30 AM | Check-in opens |
| 9:30 AM | Breakfast |
| 10:30 AM | Opening Keynote |
| 11:15 AM | Making Begins |
| 12:30 PM | Lunch |
| 3:00 PM | Battelle Tech Talk: Hardware Security |
| 6:00 PM | Dinner |
| Time | Event |
| 1:00 AM | Snacks |
| 7:00 AM | Breakfast |
| 11:00 AM | Lunch |
| 11:15 AM | Making Ends |
| 12:00 PM | Judging Begins |
| 1:30 PM | Showcase Begins |
Made with in Columbus
