Obserc Safety Hackathon
Hosted on DevpostFetched 2 months ago
Friday, March 27, 2026
to Saturday, April 11, 2026
•
2 weeks long
Data ScienceMobile DevelopmentWeb Development
Student only
This hackathons is only open to students. Double check the event page for more information as this may mean only those from a particular university/country are eligible.
Event Type
online
46
Participants
4
Est. Projects
Obserc Safety Hackathon
Build the future of personal safety. Win a spot on the Obserc team.
What is this hackathon?
Obserc is a personal safety app for iPhone that keeps you quietly connected to the people who matter most — Circles, Night Out Mode, SOS Beacon, Drive monitoring, and a real-time Circle Map. We launched on the App Store in 2026 and we are building the next layer of safety infrastructure for everyday life.
For two weeks, we are opening the doors to builders, developers, and designers who want to work on something that genuinely matters. This is not a corporate hackathon with a buzzword theme. It is a focused, founder-led event where the best work gets real recognition — and where winners do not just take home a prize, they join the team.
Two tracks. One goal.
Track 1 — Build for Obserc
Design and build a new feature, improvement, or integration for the Obserc iOS app. This track is for SwiftUI and iOS developers who want their work to ship in a real product used by real people.
Ideas to get you started:
- A home screen widget or Live Activity for glanceable circle status
- An Apple Watch companion with one-tap SOS
- An App Clip for frictionless circle onboarding
- A richer Drive dashboard with event visualisation
- A smarter Night Out check-in flow
- Anything else that makes Obserc better
Before building, read the full Obserc user manual — it covers every feature in detail:
https://github.com/ElishaSeruma/obserc-manual
Download the app and spend time inside it:
https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/obserc/id6759740570
Track 2 — Build a safety app or tool
Build any app, tool, or service focused on personal safety. Platform and stack are fully open — iOS, Android, web, hardware, AI. If it makes people safer, it belongs here.
Prizes
Track 1 — 1st place
Invitation to join the Obserc team + Lifetime Obserc Pro access + featured in the App Store release notes and across all Obserc social channels
Track 1 — 2nd place
Lifetime Obserc Pro access + shoutout across Obserc's App Store page and social channels
Track 2 — 1st place
Invitation to join Obserc as an advisor or collaborator + Lifetime Obserc Pro access + featured across Obserc's social channels and build-in-public community
Track 2 — 2nd place
Lifetime Obserc Pro access + shoutout across Obserc's social channels
Schedule
Day 1 — Hackathon opens
Registration closes and submissions open. Read the brief, download the app, explore the user manual, and start building.
Day 3 — Check-in
Optional progress update on the Devpost discussion board. Share what you are working on, ask questions, get feedback from the Obserc team.
Day 7 — Halfway point
One week in. Post a work-in-progress update if you have one. We will highlight standout projects on X.
Day 12 — Submissions close
All projects must be submitted on Devpost before midnight on Day 12. Late submissions will not be accepted.
Day 14 — Winners announced
Winners are announced on Devpost and across Obserc's social channels. Track 1 winners are contacted directly about joining the team.
Judging criteria
| Criteria | Weight |
|----------|--------|
| Impact — does it genuinely improve safety? | 35% |
| Technical execution | 30% |
| Design and usability | 20% |
| Originality | 15% |
Track 1 submissions are additionally evaluated on product fit — how naturally the feature sits within Obserc and how close it is to being shippable.
Who should enter?
- iOS and SwiftUI developers who want to build something with real-world impact
- Developers, designers, and makers who care about personal safety
- Solo builders and small teams of up to 4 people
- Students, indie developers, and professionals — all are welcome
- Anyone who has ever worried about getting home safely, or worried about someone else getting home safely
About Obserc
Obserc is a solo founder project. Every design decision, every line of code, and every product choice has been made with one goal: make safety infrastructure that people actually use, because it is so low-friction they barely notice it until they need it.
The app is live on the App Store. The manual is on GitHub. The team is small and the product is real.
We are running this hackathon because the best ideas for keeping people safer are not all going to come from one person — and because we want to find the builders who care enough to prove it.
Links
User manual: https://github.com/ElishaSeruma/obserc-manual
App Store: https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/obserc/id6759740570
Website: https://obserc.com