UB Hacking is a 2-day hackathon at the University at Buffalo on November 8th and 9th. We welcome participants of all experience levels and backgrounds to build cool projects, enjoy Red Bull, and connect with fellow hackers.
Attendees can also join workshops led by industry professionals and network with company recruiters throughout the weekend.
Requirements
You will be building a project that you believe in, fueled by your creativity and passion. This should be an idea you've thought up for this hackathon and has not been submitted to another hackathon previously. It can be software, hardware, robotics, and any other applicable category in the CS world. You will need to submit a GitHub repo, and a quick demo of your project.
Prizes
1st Place (Best General Hack)
plus a 1-year Subscription for NordVPN and NordPass
2nd Place (Best General Hack)
plus 1 year subscriptions to NordProtect and Incogni
3rd Place (Best General Hack)
plus 1GB of free data to Saily and 3-month access + $200 credit towards Nexos.ai
Best AI/ML Hack
Nvidia Orion Jetson Nano (for each team member)
Best Hardware Hack
Vilros Raspberry Pi 5 Complete Starter Kit (for each team member)
Best UI/UX Hack
Elgato Stream Deck (for each team member)
Best Freshman Hack
Razer BlackWidow V3 (for each team member)
Spirit of the Hackathon
Sony WH-CH520 Wireless Headphones (for each team member)
Most Over Engineered Hack
R36MAX Retro Gaming Handheld Console (for each team member)
Failure to Launch
Fujifilm Dispoable Camera & Monopoly Board Game (for each team member)
[MLH] Best Domain Name from GoDaddy Registry
Digital Gift Card || GoDaddy Registry is giving you everything you need to be the best hacker no matter where you are. Register your domain name with GoDaddy Registry for a chance to win some amazing prizes!
[MLH] Best Use of Auth0
Wireless Headphones || Auth0 wants your applications to be secure! Why spend hours building features like social sign-in, Multi-Factor Authentication, and passwordless log-in when you can enable them through Auth0 straight out of the box? You can also secure your AI applications with Auth0 for AI Agents. Auth0 is free to try, doesn’t require a credit card, and allows for up to 7,000 free active users and unlimited log-ins. Make your new account today and use any of the Auth0 APIs for a chance to win a pair of wireless headphones for you and each member of your team!
[MLH] Best Use of Gemini API
Google Swag Kits || It’s time to push the boundaries of what's possible with AI using Google Gemini. Check out the Gemini API to build AI-powered apps that make your friends say WHOA. So, what can Gemini do for your hackathon project?
[MLH] Best Use of ElevenLabs
Wireless Earbuds || Deploy natural, human-sounding audio with ElevenLabs. Create realistic, dynamic, and emotionally expressive voices for any project, from interactive AI companions to narrated stories and voice-enabled apps. ElevenLabs will empower you to build rich, immersive experiences without the need for actors or complex audio production, using simply the power of AI. Integrate fully autonomous audio experiences into your hack with ElevenLabs and give your project a voice, along with giving your team the chance to win some wireless earbuds!
[MLH] Best Use of DigitalOcean Gradient™ AI
Retro Wireless Mouse || DigitalOcean GradientTM AI is a unified AI cloud for building, training, and deploying machine learning models and AI agents. Get access to GPU infrastructure like DigitalOcean GPU Droplets and Bare Metal servers, along with serverless inference and 1-Click Models for instant deployment of your favorite LLMs! Sign up for DigitalOcean today and get $200 worth of free credits that you can use towards building your next Gradient-powered hack. Enable your next project with DigitalOcean GradientTM AI for a chance to win some great prizes for you and each of your team mates!
[MLH] Best Use of Vultr
Portable Screens || Vultr empowers hackers to bring their high-performance projects to life instantly; providing everything from the speed of one-click deployment and scalable cloud compute, to specialized Vultr Cloud GPUs that can power AI-driven applications. We want you to push the limits of what can be built when infrastructure is no longer the bottleneck! Sign up for a Vultr account today and claim your free cloud credits! Take your next hack to the cloud with Vultr for a chance to win some awesome portable screens for you and your team!
[MLH] Best AI Application Built with Cloudflare
Arduino Kit || Cloudflare is one of the world’s largest networks enabling hackers like you to build, deploy, and deliver trusted applications, no matter where you are! With Cloudflare, you’ll have all the building blocks to create a full-stack application, from C3 (create Cloudflare command line) instance deployment to object storage. You can even run GenAI (LLMs, text to image, Voice to text, etc.) in the cloud and leverage your AI functionality via API requests using Cloudlfare’s Workers AI. Enjoy Cloudflare’s generous free tier to get started at no cost. This weekend, we want you to build an AI Application utilizing Cloudflare’s numerous services for a chance to win Arduino Kits for you and your team!
[MLH] Best Use of Solana
SenseCAP Card Tracker || The world of development is evolving fast and Solana is leading the charge with a network built to handle all of your infrastructure needs. Forget high fees and slow confirmations, it’s time to build applications that are fast, efficient, and scalable. Harness Solana's core advantages like blazing fast execution and near-zero transaction costs to make your hackathon ideas become real world projects. With Solana, the possibilities are endless.
Devpost Achievements
Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:
Judges
Alan Hunt
Professor
Ethan Blanton
Professor
Yazgi Akata
Research Assistant - University at Buffalo
Karthik Dantu
Professor
Oliver Kennedy
Professor
Roshan Ayyalasomayajula
Professor
Andrew Hirsch
Professor
Alina Vereshchaka
Professor
Maria Rodriguez
Professor
Srirangaraj Setlur
Co-Director and Principal Research Scientist
Christian Miller
Director, CSE Software Engineering
Asif Imran
Professor
Ifeoma Nwogu
Professor
Nicholas Myers
Senior Software Engineer - UB
Saj Maru
Data Scientist - Walmart
Maninder Singh
Senior Director of Engineering - Capital One
Ramanpreet Singh Khinda
Staff Software Engineer - LinkedIn
Shawn Zimmermann
PHD Student - University at Buffalo
Ankith Bala
Artificial Intelligence Engineer - Radial Ventures
Jake Woodward
Entrepeneur in Residence - Radial Ventures
Michael Canzoneri
CTO - Radial Ventures
Victoria Dib
PHD Student - University at Buffalo
Rishabh Changwani
Robotics Software Engineer - Fleetglue
Matt Stock
Principal Architect - Viasat
Nick Brown
PHD Student - University at Buffalo
Vishal Paul
Senior Software Engineer - PayPal
Nitin Kulkarni
Machine Learning Intern - ACV Auctions
Emily (Yutong) Wang
Co-Founder - BlossomsAI
Joy Lee
Product Development & Marketing Intern - BlossomsAI
Shubham Kulkarni
Product Designer - QVC
Judging Criteria
-
It Works
Is the project functional? Was there an attempt to have it production-ready? -
Usefulness
Is this project useful to its target audience? -
Technicality
How technically difficult was this project while still being able to achieve the goals they set? A bit more nuanced than the other categories. You could have the most complex hackathon project, but they weren’t able to do any of it. -
Effort
How much effort was put into the project; did you try? -
Freshness
How new/fresh of an idea is this? This more-so relates to how common their project is for hackathons, but be conscious of the types of projects seen online. -
Pitch
How well did they sell you on their project? Keep in mind, many of these students are pitching for the first time ever. -
X-Factor
The project doesn’t stack up well to our grading system, but should be in the conversation for prizes. It gets an all-or-nothing score. Most projects will NOT get the X-Factor.
Questions? Email the hackathon manager
Tell your friends
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

















