Sponsor Hack the Plains
January 22–24, 2027, Auburn University, Auburn, AL
Sixty Auburn engineering students spend Friday evening through Sunday noon designing, soldering, and debugging hardware, then demo what they built. Sponsors fund the parts and spend the weekend working next to the students.
- Format
- Student-built hardware hackathon, Friday 5 PM to Sunday noon
- Venue
- Brown-Kopel Engineering Student Achievement Center, in partnership with the Auburn Makerspace
- Audience
- 60 students across engineering, mostly computer and electrical engineering, computer science, and software engineering
- Hosts
- AU Mesh Club with the Auburn IEEE chapter
What you get
| Benefit | Bronze$250 | Silver$750 | Gold$2,000 | Title$4,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Logo on the event website and venue signage | Included | Included | Included | Included |
| Named in the opening and closing ceremonies | Included | Included | Included | Included |
| Logo on the event t-shirt | Not included | Included | Included | Included |
| Recruiting table on site all day Sunday | Not included | Included | Included | Included |
| Resume book from participating students | Not included | Included | Included | Included |
| Swag or literature in every hacker bag | Not included | Included | Included | Included |
| Named award for a technical goal you set | Not included | Not included | Included | Included |
| 30-minute workshop or technical talk | Not included | Not included | Included | Included |
| Seat on the judging panel | Not included | Not included | Included | Included |
| Named in the event title and all press | Not included | Not included | Not included | Included |
| Opening keynote slot | Not included | Not included | Not included | Included |
| Top billing on every surface, one sponsor only | Not included | Not included | Not included | Included |
Bronze $250
- Logo on the event website and venue signage
- Named in the opening and closing ceremonies
Silver $750
Everything in Bronze, plus
- Logo on the event t-shirt
- Recruiting table on site all day Sunday
- Resume book from participating students
- Swag or literature in every hacker bag
Gold $2,000
Everything in Silver, plus
- Named award for a technical goal you set
- 30-minute workshop or technical talk
- Seat on the judging panel
Title $4,000
Everything in Gold, plus
- Named in the event title and all press
- Opening keynote slot
- Top billing on every surface, one sponsor only
The event is student-led. Teams pick their own projects, so sponsor awards are written as goals to hit, such as best use of a given board or radio, rather than as assigned builds.
What we get
Sponsorship goes straight into the event. The club takes no cut and spends nothing on overhead.
- Hardware
- Microcontrollers, sensors, radios, and the consumables sixty students burn through in a weekend.
- Food
- Five meals and overnight coffee, since teams stay in the building overnight.
- Prizes
- The award budget for the general competition and the named sponsor awards.
- Operations
- Makerspace staffing for after-hours access, printing, signage, and shirts.
In-kind sponsorship
In-kind support counts toward a tier at fair market value, and for a hardware event it is often worth more to us than cash.
- Development boards, modules, and sensors
- 3D printing filament
- Cloud credits and API access
- Test equipment on loan for the weekend
- Catering, or engineers willing to mentor for a few hours
Tell us what you have and we will match it to a tier.
Sponsorship is open for the 2027 event.
Pick a tier and we will send a one-page agreement.