QWER Hacks @ UCLA is Major League Hacking's first collegiate LGBTQIA+ hackathon that celebrates the queer and trans community in STEM. We bring together queer individuals and allies through tech talks, technical and community-building workshops, and development of innovative projects to help underrepresented groups!
Presenting our theme for this year: Breaking boundaries and expanding horizons! Our overall theme is about increasing accessibility! Within this theme, we have three tracks covering this:
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Sustain – improving access to food, clean air, clean water, natural resources.
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Adventure – improving access to public services, transportation, and other daily needs.
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Celebrate – improving access to cultural heritage and community!
Here are some track-specific resources you might find useful as you begin your projects!
In addition to the main prize tracks, you can choose to opt into other superlative prize tracks when submitting your project. For the main prize tracks, you will be judged with the criteria below. The superlative prize tracks will be chosen by judges’ votes.
At QWER Hacks, we want to see you thrive, grow, and share joy with tech, and maybe even ✨make something great✨. So this year, we hope you to learn to find real, impactful issues, make things to help your community and spread joy, and find new pals and pride in your identity. Happy hacking!
Requirements
Remember that hackathons are like marathons. Some people go to compete but most people take part to learn new skills and have fun! All submissions must be done by groups of 1 to 4 people. You must have applied and been accepted to participate in QWER Hacks for your project to be judged.
*IMPORTANT*
Submission
Submission will be open from 3:00 PM PST, February 1st, 2025 to 3:00 PM PST, February 2nd, 2025. Judging will occur 3:30 PM on Feb 2 according to the [judging criteria] and awards will be announced at the ceremony at 5:30 PM.
Demos
After hacking finishes, teams will present live demos what they have built. It is totally okay (and even expected) that your hack is incomplete and contains bugs. Demoing is a chance to share with others what you have learned, what you tried to build, and your motivation—that's what hacking's truly about! Please submit your github repository link.
This year, hackers will be presenting live. There will be live Q&A time between the judges and the teams. Demos will be 3-4 mins long. Q&A will be 1 minute.
Checklist:
- Did the hack address a clearly defined problem space that benefited from this development? Did your team explore a new application domain (e.g. art, health, etc.) with which you weren’t previously familiar?
- How relevant and creative was your project in solving an issue within the track you chose to follow?
- What technologies did your team leverage? Did your team try to learn a new technology?
- Was your team methodical and collaborative in your hacking process? Did your team overcome any obstacles or major goal changes during hacking?
- Did your team put thought into the user experience? What accessibility considerations did you make?
Prizes
Please only choose ONE track prize (don't worry, you can opt-in to multiple superlative prizes!). The superlative prizes will have their own separate criteria which can be seen under the prize names.
Prizes
Track 1: Sustain
Sustain (1st Place)
Original Allpa 42L Travel Pack - Del Día
Sustain (2nd Place)
BruinPlate Cookbook
Bee's Wrap
OXO 7-Piece Nesting Measuring Beaker Set
Cuisinart Stainless Steel Mixing Bowl Set, 3-Piece
Reusable Bamboo Cutlery Set
Track 2: Adventure
Adventure (1st Place)
Osprey Hiking Backpack
Packing Cubes
Belkin Power Bank
Kitsch Satin Eye Masks
Adventure (2nd Place)
National Parks Pass
Life-straw
Reusable Bamboo Cutlery Set
Track 3: Celebrate
Celebrate (1st Place)
Kodak PIXPRO AZ255 Digital Camera
Celebrate (2nd Place)
JBL Flip 6 - Portable Bluetooth Speaker
Best Forge Hack
Forge (1st Place)
MSI MP273A 27-inch Class Full HD LCD Monitor
Lilypad Development Main Board
Forge (2nd Place)
Instant Pot
Most QWER Hack
Most QWER Hack (1st Place)
Ikea DJUNGELSKOG ʕ ◕ᴥ◕ ʔ or BLAHAJ :3 !
Ikea Rainbow Smaller Tote
Nutri-Bullet
Queer Tarot Decks
Most QWER Hack (2nd Place)
Ikea DJUNGELSKOG ʕ ◕ᴥ◕ ʔ or BLAHAJ :3 !
Ikea Rainbow Smaller Tote
Happrun Projector
Queer Tarot Decks
Most QWER Hack (3rd Place)
Ikea DJUNGELSKOG ʕ ◕ᴥ◕ ʔ or BLAHAJ :3 !
Ikea Rainbow Smaller Tote
Queer Tarot Decks
Best Beginner Hack
Klimtech Chroma Wireless Keyboards
OR
Clothing Steamers
Most Whimsical
Penny Board
Most Impactful
Lego Frog Bonsai Tree
Most Joyous
Morning Bloom Gooseneck Tea Kettle
Baby Nessie Tea Difuser
Most Creative
Winsor & Newton Watercolor Paint Set
"You Are An Artist" Book
Most Connective
Large Picnic Blanket
goodr A Unicorn's Calamity Polarized Sunglasses
WE'RE NOT REALLY STRANGERS GAME
Best Accessibility and/or Inclusion Hack
Air Fryers
MLH: Best Use of MongoDB Atlas
MongoDB Atlas takes the leading modern database and makes it accessible in the cloud! Get started with a $50 credit for students or sign up for the Atlas free forever tier (no credit card required). Along with a suite of services and functionalities, you'll have everything you need to manage all of your data, and you can get a headstart with free resources from MongoDB University! Build a hack using MongoDB Atlas for a chance to win a M5GO IoT Starter Kit for you and each member of your team. Prize: M5GO IoT Starter Kit
MLH: Best Use of .Tech
Make your Team's Achievements timeless: Win a .Tech Domain Name for Life to Showcase and Expand Your Project, Plus 4 Blue Snowball Mics for Effortless Collaboration on Zoom, empowering you to build even more cool things together!
MLH: Best AI Application Built with Cloudflare
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: Sauce Labs Hot Sauce Raffle
Sauce Labs (https://mlh.link/saucelabs-docs) empowers you to develop, test, and deliver top-tier web and mobile apps quickly and efficiently. Their unified platform makes automated testing and error monitoring easy to do, enabling you to save time building your hackathon project! Let Sauce Labs help resolve any issues with your code so you can get back to building an award winning hack. Make sure your project is hackathon-tested by signing up for a Sauce Labs account!
To spice things up even more, we're running the Sauce Labs Hot Sauce naming raffle and selecting up to 4 individual winners at this event. To qualify come up with a cool hot sauce name and submit it to the Sauce Labs raffle form (https://hackp.ac/saucelabs-rafflesubmission-form) for a chance to win some awesome swag including a backpack, beanie, and a bottle of Sauce Labs hot sauce!
MLH: Best Use of Gen AI
Generative AI is rapidly changing the landscape of software development. This category challenges you to build novel applications that leverage the power of Generative AI APIs. Think outside the box and integrate cutting-edge AI models to create innovative solutions with real-world impact. To participate, utilize publicly available Generative AI APIs (like those from OpenAI, Anthropic, Hugging Face, Llama, IBM Watson, or Google Gemini) to develop a unique and functional application. This could include: AI-powered creative tools: Design an app that allows users to generate unique marketing copy, translate languages in real-time, or create personalized learning experiences. Intelligent assistants and automation: Build a chatbot that can provide insightful customer support, or a system that automates complex tasks using natural language processing. Next-generation content creation platforms: Develop a platform that empowers users to generate high-quality images, write different kinds of creative text formats, or compose original music with AI assistance. This is your chance to get hands on with cutting edge tech, put your skills on display, and of course, win some awesome prizes!
jedi by ACM at UCLA: Most Unserious
Anker PowerCore 10k Power Banks!
Devpost Achievements
Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:
Judges
N/A
Judging Criteria
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Categories
Technology (appropriate use of format), Design, Completion, Topic Specific Criteria, Communication and Presentation -
General Rules
Judges will refer to the following six categories. Keep these in mind when pitching, and remember that some categories (such as completion) aren’t weighed as heavily as others! -
Reminders
It's important to note that these criteria do NOT evaluate how good your code is. It doesn't matter if your code is messy, not well commented, or uses inefficient algorithms. Hacking is about playing around, making mistakes, and learning new things.
Questions? Email the hackathon manager
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