Ivory Innovations 2025 Hack-A-House Competition Challenges College Students to Solve Housing Affordability Crisis and Win $5,000

24-hour virtual hackathon designed to introduce innovative, practical solutions that spark innovation

SALT LAKE CITY, Aug. 28, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Ivory Innovations, a nonprofit academic center based at the University of Utah David Eccles School of Business, today announced registration for the 2025 Hack-A-House competition is open through Sept. 26. Hack-A-House is an annual virtual competition taking place Sept. 26 -27 that gives college and university students across the country a chance to win $5,000 while tackling America's housing crisis. 

"Hack-A-House is part of our mission to empower students to participate in addressing the housing affordability challenge while rewarding the brightest college students from around the country," said Ian Cahoon, Director of Innovations, Ivory Innovations. "This year students and teams will be directed to address housing affordability challenges in the areas of finance, policy and construction & design. It is amazing to see the innovative and creative solutions that students can generate within such a short period of time."

The Ivory Innovations 2025 Hack-A-House competition runs virtually from noon MT on Sept. 26 through noon on Sept. 27 challenging college and graduate students nationwide to develop innovative solutions in just 24 hours. Students compete against other teams from leading universities such as Harvard University, the University of California at Berkeley, Columbia University, the University of Arizona, the University of North Carolina and the University of Utah. The competition is open to active undergraduate and graduate students from any college or university across all disciplines.

Participants will receive prompts in three areas (finance, policy and construction & design). Each topic focuses on a specific challenge impacting housing affordability. After selecting a topic, participants conduct research, meet with industry experts and ultimately prepare a short slide deck to present live via Zoom to judges and other competitors. Judging takes place on the afternoon of Saturday, Sept. 27. Winners for each topic are announced the same day.

Last year's contest winners introduced ideas for improving housing supply issues, creating innovative financing solutions to help prevent predatory lending, and new ways to offer affordable and sustainable homeownership without requiring additional subsidies. Previous Hack-A-House contest winners who have experienced commercial success include the co-founders of Kit Switch , Candice Delamarre and Armelle Coutant. After winning Hack-A-House, the two created Kit Switch, an innovative construction company that designs ready-to-install kits for kitchens, bathrooms, and storage spaces for multi-family buildings.  

2025 Hack-A-House details:

• Format: Fully virtual with live pitches via Zoom
• Eligibility: Open to all college and graduate students
• Teams: Students may compete individually or in teams of up to five members
• Prizes: Over $12,000 in prizes across multiple focus areas
• Duration: 24-hour competition starting at noon MT on Friday, Sept. 26
• Judges: Panels include startup founders, academics and leaders of major companies

Students can register for the competition at hackahouse.org.

About Ivory Innovations
Ivory Innovations is both an academic center based at the University of Utah focused on research and innovation and an operating foundation that implements solutions in the field. The nonprofit is dedicated to catalyzing innovative solutions in housing affordability by working with students, entrepreneurs and experts to source, support and scale the most compelling housing solutions across the country. They put innovation into practice through their development of hundreds of affordable housing units each year. To learn more, visit ivoryinnovations.org.

SOURCE Ivory Innovations