What is Camp PolyHacks?

Camp PolyHacks is a student-run, multidisciplinary hackathon dedicated to social entrepreneurship and human-centered design.  

Throughout this two-day event, Cal Poly students of all backgrounds work in teams to ideate, design, pitch, and market their solution to a problem facing the San Luis Obispo community. It’s a Learn by Doing marathon of collaboration, learning, and creativity.  

Our Focus

PROBLEM SOLVING  Camp PolyHacks is a Learn By Doing experience. We encourage campers of all levels to step out of their comfort zone to learn new skills and tackle problems head-on.  

MULTIDISCIPLINARY TEAMS  This hackathon goes beyond coding. Designers, entrepreneurs, and developers work together in teams to unite skill sets, experiences, and perspectives to execute ideas — just as you would in the workforce.  

SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP  We believe in using technology for good. Camp PolyHacks informs campers about important problems in the community and provides a platform to help solve them.

• Innovation/Creativity
  How unique is the solution? Is the idea similar to an existing product or does it have its own spin to it? Does the solution have any special features or components? How well does the product align with the given theme?
• User Interface/User Experience
  Is the user interface/experience viable and feasible? Is the workflow intuitive and consistent, or is it cluttered? How finished is the solution? Did the team set feasible goals that were successfully achieved given the time frame?
• Pitch
  Did you identify a key problem and solution? Did you provide a compelling demonstration of the solution and how it works? Was the pitch effective in explaining the solution and answering questions?