The Boston Stupid Shit No One Needs & Terrible Ideas Hackathon

Project presentation videos from 2024 are up!

The Boston Stupid Hackathon is a fun, free one-day event where people bring bad ideas to life. Please join us!

When: Saturday April 13, 2024 – 11:00am - 5pm ET

Where: MIT Museum, Cambridge, MA

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A "hackathon" is a social event where people come together for a short period of time to make a project, like an app or hardware device. A "stupid shit hackathon" is an event where people come together to make projects that are terrible, useless, horrifying, and probably should have never been made. There are no prizes and definitely no winners. It's really fun.

Come alone or with friends, with ideas or without — we'll make sure your experience is as stupid as possible. And while you don't need to know how to code to participate, coding can help when making software projects.

New this year! The MIT Museum has generously offered free use of their 3D printers, laser cutter, vinyl cutter, and soldering and electronics equipment! So start brainstorming ideas for stupid hardware projects now!

Here are some things that participants made in previous years:

"I AM BECOME ANIME" by Nicky Case

"Screamy Bird" by Glen

"Tuned a Fish" by Mac and Ted

"The Vape Boy" by Ada and Seth

(No vaping in the venue)

Previous years

2024 projects

2023 projects

2020 projects

2019 projects

2018 projects

2017 projects

or view NY Stupid Hackathon / SF Stupid Hackathon projects

Schedule

Saturday April 13, 2024

10:45am - doors open

11:00am - kickoff

11:15am-4pm - "hacking"

12:30pm - lunch served

4pm-5pm - project presentations

Location

MIT Museum Logo
MIT Museum
2nd floor event space

(follow signs up the stairs on the left or use the elevator)

Note that parking near the museum is extremely limited or expensive so plan accordingly.

"Inspirational" Project Categories

Software as a Disservice (SaaD)

Buttcoin

Internet of Terrible Things

Anti-social Media

"Government 2.0"

Psychological projection mapping

Witch apps

Fin-dom technology

Machine learning and machine forgetting

Dogmented reality

Decentralized spider web apps

Covert dev ops

Fireside chat bots

Robots that definitely aren't evil

See the event's Code of Conduct

We recommend taking a rapid COVID test before you arrive at the event. If you are sick, please stay home in respect of others' health and safety.

Contact the organizers: bostonstupidhackathon@gmail.com

Inspired by the SF Stupid Hackathon and the original NY Stupid Hackathon.

Thanks to Alison Malouf for the amazing cyber kale woman drinking juice in space image.

Organized by Glen Chiacchieri and Jeainny Kim