HackCU is back with our biggest hackathon of the year, HackCU 12! The event will be held in person from March 7-8 with lots of opportunities to meet and work with new people! HackCU 12 is for all students and people regardless of their experience or their major— we have something for everyone! We have amazing sponsors who are looking to meet and recruit you, a variety of workshops for students of all levels, fun side events, 6 tracks to submit to, and lots of prizes! If you have any questions, check out our website hackcu.org/hackcu9 or contact us at contact@hackcu.org.

Requirements

  • A Github link
  • Presentation Deck, Video, or Alternative
  • Present to the judges in-person.
  • Judging Criteria 
    Technology: How technically impressive was the hack? Design: Did the team put thought into the user experience? Completion: Does the hack work? Learning: Did the team learn something new?

Hackathon Sponsors

Prizes

10 non-cash prizes
CU AI: Red Bull Basement AI Competition Track
3 winners

1rd place:
Red Bull Swag Pack, and 6 months of an AI

2nd place:
Red Bull Swag Pack, and 3 months of an AI

3rd place:
Red Bull Swag Pack, and 1 month of an AI

General Track
3 winners

1rd Place: Gameboy (and charger), Dragon Board, JBL clip 3, 1 projector

2nd Place: Hydro flask WB, 4 Echo dots, 2 HackCU tumblers

3rd Place: Cracking coding interview textbook (2), Cracking the pm interview textbook (1), The Design of Everyday Things (1)

All Beginner Track
3 winners

1rd Place: 4 photons, 4 sensor/maker kits, 1 projector, 1 Fast Charger
2nd Place: The Design of Everyday Things (2), 4 photons
3rd Place: House kit (lightbulbs / Tupperware)

Social Impact Track
3 winners

1rd Place: Yerba Kit (https://www.naturalhighs.org/), Foosball, Temp controlled mug
2nd Place: 3 Rocket Books, Arduino Starter kit
3rd Place: 2 exploding Kittens, Power Bank

[MLH] Best Hack Built with Google Antigravity
1 winner

Google Swag Kits
Google Antigravity is an agentic development platform, evolving the IDE into the agent-first era.

Google Antigravity's Editor view offers tab autocompletion, natural language code commands, and a configurable, and context-aware configurable agent.

We want you to leverage Google Antigravity to build your hack this weekend. Enjoy free usage of the latest models through a free for students Google AI Pro plan.

[MLH] Best Use of Gemini API
1 winner

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?
Understand language like a human and build a chatbot that gives personalized advice
Analyze info like a supercomputer and create an app that summarizes complex research papers
Generate creative content like code, scripts, music, and more
Think of the possibilities… what will you build with the Google Gemini API this weekend?

[MLH] Best Use of ElevenLabs
1 winner

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 Solana
1 winner

Ledger Nano S Plus
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.
Create a game, social app, or consumer product that relies on instant, high-frequency transactions.
Design a sophisticated trading, lending, or decentralized exchange (DEX).
Build a prototype for supply chain, identity, or payments that can handle massive, real-world volume.
Show us how you can innovate with Solana for a chance to win some cool prizes for you and each member of your team!

[MLH] Best Use of Vultr
1 winner

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 Use of MongoDB Atlas
1 winner

M5Stack IoT Kit
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 M5Stack IoT Kit for you and each member of your group.

Devpost Achievements

Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:

Judges

Sena Uctuk

Sena Uctuk
HackCU Director

Sumeet Jeswani

Sumeet Jeswani
Cloud Security @ Google

Nithin Mohan

Nithin Mohan
AI & Supercomputing Leader @ Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Andrew Homeyer

Andrew Homeyer
Cofounder @ Landingsite.ai

Sophia Stein

Sophia Stein
Customer Solutions Engineer @ gTech Users & Products

Dawson Botsford

Dawson Botsford
Founder of stopmailing.us and Co-Founder of HackCU

Lilly Jones

Lilly Jones
PHD, Associate Scientist III at CIRES Earth and ESIIL Labs in the SEEC

Andy (Andrev) Austin

Andy (Andrev) Austin
Founder @ Adsora

Jay Malave

Jay Malave
Founding Engineer at Normal Finance

Ken Fricklas

Ken Fricklas
CTO @ Nodiac

Megan La Grave

Megan La Grave
Entrepreneur, Investor, Author

Priyaranjan Marathe

Priyaranjan Marathe
Software Professional

Thomas Alder

Thomas Alder
Software Engineer @ Google

Anna Rahn

Anna Rahn
Application Developer @ RSM

Korey Mercier

Korey Mercier
Leadership Alignment & AI Governance Architect

Andres Sepulveda Morales

Andres Sepulveda Morales
Creative Technologist

Matt "Kelly" Williams

Matt "Kelly" Williams
Founder, Speaker, Mentor/IT/Cloud, DevOps, Sustainable IT, Architecture

Celine Christori

Celine Christori
Major League Hacking

Chinmay Somayajula

Chinmay Somayajula
HackCU Director

Joseph Malandruccolo

Joseph Malandruccolo
Compa

Li Lee

Li Lee
Google

Kyle Pfromer

Kyle Pfromer
Compa

Dawson Botsford

Dawson Botsford
stop mailing us

Judging Criteria

  • General Criteria
    Judging Criteria Technology: How technically impressive was the hack? Design: Did the team put thought into the user experience? Completion: Does the hack work? Learning: Did the team learn something new?

Questions? Email the hackathon manager

Tell your friends

Hackathon sponsors

Silver Partners
Bronze Partners
Club Partners

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.