Welcome to HooHacks, the premier hackathon at the University of Virginia! At our in-person Hackathon, you will have 24 hours (starting on March 29rd at 12 PM and ending on March 30th at 12 PM) to ideate, construct, and showcase the product you build from scratch along with other developers, engineers, and designers. All participants will also receive 6 months of free Perplexity Pro!
This year, we will be awarding over $10,000 in prizes to winners in seven different prize tracks! Hackers are additionally considered for our best overall, best beginner, and special sponsor prizes. Note that all prizes listed include the cash value of prizes, but unless otherwise specified, do not include cash in addition to the prize.
Along with the hackathon, we will be putting on technical and recreational workshops that all participants can attend. Examples of some of our workshops include:
- Godot Basics
- Beyond the Code: Behavioral Interviews & Networking in Tech
- Intro to CTF
- Salsa
- Poker Tournament
These workshops will also provide participants to network with corporate sponsors, experienced professionals, and others with similar interests!
We will be providing travel reimbursement for participants.
For more details, please vistit our website.
Learn. Build. Achieve.
Requirements
Only submit to 1 prize track category. You may submit to any number of sponsor prizes, but you must describe why you are eligible by including how you are using the specified technology in your project.
Prizes
Best Overall - 1st Place
All members of the best overall team will win a Mac Mini!
Best Overall - 2nd Place
All members of the overall 2nd place team will win a Meta Quest 3!
Best Overall - 3rd Place
All members of the overall 3rd place team will win an iPad (10.9-Inch Latest Model - (10th Generation) - 64GB)!
Best Beginner
Each member of the best beginner team will win an LG Monitor!
Best Accessiblity & Empowerment
Google Nest Hubs for all members of the best Accessibility & Empowerment Team!
Best Art & Gaming
Lego The Great Wave Sets for all members of the best Art & Gaming team!
Best Data Science
Corsair Keyboards for all members of the best Data Science team!
Best Education
Wacom Tablets for all members of the best Education team!
Best Health
Fitbit Charge 6s for all members of the best Health team!
Best Artificial Intelligence
$100 OpenAI credits, as well as 1 year long subscriptions of NordVPN, NordPass and Incogni + 1GB of free data, for the best AI team!
Best Sustainability
$1000, sponsored by UVA Sustainable IT, divided between all members of the winning team!
Most HooCoins Collected
The hacker who ends the hackathon with the most HooCoins will win a Nintendo Switch Lite!
Raffle Prizes
Hackers will get the opportunity to enter a raffle to win an Echo Dot 5th Generation, Sony Extra Bass, Roku, or MergeCube with Merge VR at certain workshops!
[MLH] Best Use of .Tech
Blue Snowball Microphone & a Free .Tech Domain Name for Life!
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 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? 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 (https://mlh.link/auth0-signup) and use any of the Auth0 APIs (https://mlh.link/auth0-docs) for a chance to win a pair of wireless headphones for you and each member of 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 MongoDB Atlas
M5GO IoT Starter Kit
MongoDB Atlas takes the leading modern database and makes it accessible in the cloud! Get started with a $50 credit for students (https://mlh.link/mongodb) or sign up for the Atlas free forever tier, no credit card required (https://mlh.link/mongodb-free). 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 (https://mlh.link/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.
[MLH] Best Use of Gemini API
Prize: Libre Computer Board & EP8266 MicroBoard
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?
Devpost Achievements
Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:
Judges
TBD
Judging Criteria
-
UI/UX
How does your project look? Is the app intuitive for the user? Do the visuals add to or detract from the project? -
Creativity
How unique is your project? What aspects are more innovative than traditional approaches? -
Feasibility
How likely is your project to be created in the real world? What are the costs/benefits of running this project? In your opinion, is it worth it? -
Functionality
How well does your project work? Does it work outside of the local environment and does it work as intended? -
Impact
How much of a difference does your project make in the world? How efficiently does the project solve the problem it poses? -
Scoring
These criteria will each be scored out of 5 points to give participants a cumulative score out of 25.
Questions? Email the hackathon manager
Tell your friends
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.