Excited for a weekend of networking with the coolest people and mentors, competing for incredible prizes, and coding solutions for the real world? UCSB's 9th annual hackathon is ready for you all! We're ecstatic to hold our first in-person event since SB Hacks VI, so mark your calendars for May 13-14th. Students of all backgrounds and skill sets welcome :)

What you can look forward to:

  • A 24-hour adrenaline rush from problem-solving, coding, and collaborating
  • Hands-on experience using company tech and hardware not accessible elsewhere
  • Getting mentored by industry professionals
  • Developing your skill set from workshops
  • FREE food, snacks, and drinks all weekend (just one less adult responsibility to worry about)
  • Experiencing the beautiful Santa Barbara sunsets, beaches, and weather!

Requirements

Submission Guidelines:

Submit your project to Devpost and demo live in front of judges on Sunday afternoon.

IMPORTANT: Judging will last from 12:30 PM to 2:30 PM on Sunday, May 14. Anyone who plans to be present during their judging must be ready by 12:15 PM. 

 

The time limit for demos is 3 minutes. Judges will have up to 2 minutes to ask any questions after the demonstration is over. Make sure that your presentation shows off your project in a clear and concise manner.

 

Note: The "About the project" section will be considered for judging in the MLH prize categories. If you are applying for any of the MLH prize categories, make sure to fill out all of the parts and give detailed answers.

The rules depend on the specific challenge that you apply for, but in general:

You cannot submit a codebase that you have worked on before May 13th.

Cross submission (submitting to other hackathons) is not allowed.

Also, everyone must follow the MLH code of conduct: http://mlh.io/code-of-conduct.

Hackathon Sponsors

Prizes

$5,816 in prizes

Grand Prize

Every team member will win a new 5th Generation IPad Air

Runner Up (2)

Each team member will win an Apple Watch SE

Beginner Hack

Each team member will win a Keychron Mechanical Keyboard

Best Mobile Hack

Each team member will win Beats Solo 3 headphones

Best Joke Hack

Each team member will win a Squishmallow

Entrepreneurial Hack

Each team member will win a JBL Flip 5 speaker

Student Life Hack

Each team member will win an AuKing Mini Projector

Best Use of Google Cloud

Build your hackathon project with a suite of secure storage, powerful compute, and integrated data analytics products provided by Google Cloud. See full list of products here: g.co/cloud. Winners located in the US will receive a Google Cloud Swag Bag complete with a beanie, Android pillow, journal, socks & lanyards. Winners outside of the US will receive a Google Cloud branded backpack.

Best Domain Name from Domain.com

Register a .Tech domain name using Domain.com during the weekend for your chance to win a Domain.com branded backpack for you and each member of your team! Each team may submit one entry per person on the team. The more creative the domain the better!

Most Creative Use of GitHub

GitHub is one of the best ways to collaborate, push code, get feedback, and show the world what you’ve built during a hackathon. To take it a step further, GitHub is now offering you access to industry tools, events & learning resources through something called GitHub Global Campus. Win this weekend’s Best Use of GitHub prize category, first by signing up for GitHub Global Campus and second by using a GitHub repository to host your hackathon project’s code! Make sure your use of GitHub stands out with a detailed ReadMe page, meaningful pull requests and collaboration history, and even a GitHub pages deployment!

Best Use of MATLAB

MATLAB and Simulink are computation tools used at more than 5,000 institutions worldwide. Use their software in your next hack to win some exclusive MathWorks swag including a MathWorks branded yoyo wireless speaker! You can also claim a free MATLAB software license to get started.

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! Build a hack using MongoDB Atlas for a chance to win a M5GO IoT Starter Kit for you and each member of your team.

Devpost Achievements

Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:

Judges

SB Hacks

SB Hacks

Judging Criteria

  • Completion
    Does the hack work? Did the team achieve everything they wanted?
  • Originality
    Has this project been done before at hackathons in the past? How creative is their project in solving the problem at hand?
  • Adherence to Theme
    Does the hack adhere to the event's theme? Does it implement that theme fully or just partially?
  • Learning
    Did the team stretch themselves? Did they try to learn something new? What kind of projects have they worked on before?
  • Design
    Did the team put thought into the user experience? How well designed is the interface?
  • Technology
    How technically impressive was the hack? Was the technical problem the team tackled difficult? Did it use a particularly clever technique or did it use many different components? Did the technology involved make you go "Wow"?

Questions? Email the hackathon manager

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