What is PitchIllinois?

PitchIllinois is a hackathon created by high school students for high school students across Illinois and the Midwest. For 5 hours, participants collaborate to build projects from scratch and gain valuable experience in a startup-like environment. Afterwards, participants pitch their ideas to the audience and are given feedback from a panel of judges. We hope to build a welcoming community with PitchIllinois, and to help students to bridge the gap between learning computer science and using it to make a difference.

PitchIllinois 2024 -- Thank you for joining us!

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Details

PitchIllinois 2025 will be held on April 13, 2025 from 1pm-6pm at the Champaign Public Library in Urbana, Illinois. More details to come.

Who?

Any high schooler!

When?

April 13, 2025
PitchIllinois will take place from 1pm-6pm.

Where?

Champaign Public Library

PitchIllinois 2025 Schedule

12:30-1 Event Set-up + Check-in
1:00 Event Starts!
1:00-1:15 Opening Ceremony
1:15 Form Teams (4 per team)
1:30 Start Hacking!
3:30 Snack Break!
5:15 Deadline for Submission
5:15-5:45 Team Pitch Presentations
5:45 Judging Begins
6:00 Winners Announced, Prizes Given
6:30 Clean-up

FAQ

Nothing; thanks to the generosity of our sponsors, it's completely free!
That's okay! PitchIllinois's goal to promote a startup-like experience contributes to a welcoming environment for all skill levels, including complete beginners!
A hackathon is an event where people collaborate to create cool projects based on the foundation/goal to solve real world problems; it's also a great way to learn new skills, through workshops and discussions with sponsors. In our case, we will have participants develop their own ideas, create visual representations of those ideas, and pitch them to the judges (hence the name "PitchIllinois")!
Teams will be formed during the opening hours of the event and will likely consist of 3-4 people per group, so you don't have to come with a pre-formed group.
It's a surprise! We'll announce the prizes during the actual event, so stay tuned...
Food will be available in the vicinity, so all you'll basically need is your laptop!
You and your team can make anything you want, as long as it's tech-related and it follows the hackathon's theme of helping the local Champaign-Urbana community! Additionally, judges will be giving you feedback on your ideas in case you want to further develop them in the future!
If you have any other questions, feel free to reach out at wepitchillinois@gmail.com.

Sponsors

Interested in Sponsoring? Reach out to us by emailing wepitchillinois@gmail.com!

Or consider donating to help support our event!

Donate!

Judges, Supervisors, Mentors

Interested in Judging, Supervising, or Mentoring? Reach out to us by emailing wepitchillinois@gmail.com!

The Team

Bruce Tang - Founder, Executive Director

Noor Elbanna - Co-Founder, Design Team Lead

Felix Lee - Co-Founder, Systems Team Lead

Henry Wang - Co-Founder, Experience Team Lead