Learn, create, and develop exciting projects and connections at UCSB's 12th annual hackathon!
Mark your calendars for January 10-11th for a weekend of building real-world solutions, competing for incredible prizes, and networking with the coolest hackers, mentors, and sponsors. Our team is excited to welcome hundreds of participants of all skill sets and backgrounds to the stunning UC Santa Barbara campus. Whether you are a first-time coder or a seasoned hacker, we encourage you to enter SB Hacks XII with enthusiasm and curiosity.
We hope that you challenge yourself with a fun project, learn something new, and feel proud of what you accomplished at the end of it all.
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
• Personalized mentorship by industry professionals
• Vast array of workshops to develop your skill set
• Free food, snacks, and drinks all weekend (one less adult responsibility to worry about)
• $50 worth of API credits from Cursor for each hackathon participant
• Experiencing the beautiful Santa Barbara sunsets, beaches, and weather!
Visit our website www.sbhacks.com for more information!
Requirements
Tracks
1. Entertainment - Includes projects that create engaging experiences, like games, apps, videos, music platforms, or interactive content
2. Health & Wellness - Projects that improve people’s physical, mental, or emotional health, including fitness, nutrition, meditation, healthcare tools, or wellness apps
3. Education - Projects that help people learn or teach, including learning platforms, study tools, tutorials, or educational content that makes knowledge more accessible
4. Sponsor Track - Build the Future of Video Understanding with TwelveLabs Challenge (see more information below)
Judging Rules
All projects must be submitted to Devpost by 8:30 AM Sunday, Jan. 11. Teams must present their project live in front of judges on Sunday morning.
Judging will last from 9:00 AM to 11:30 AM on Sunday, Jan 11. Anyone who plans to be present during their live demos must be ready by 9:00 AM.
The time limit for all demos is 2.5 minutes. For live demonstrations, judges will have 1.5 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. In addition, teams are required to include a recorded video demonstration in the Devpost submission for judges to review during deliberation, maximum video length is 3 minutes. For the live demo and/or Devpost submission, we recommend teams to include a diagram or explanation of their project's system for judges to review.
You must also submit the link to the public GitHub repository
Note: The "About the project" section will be considered for judging in the Sponsor/MLH prize categories. If you are applying for any of the Sponsor/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 Jan 10th.
• Cross submission (submitting to other hackathons) is not allowed.
• Everyone must follow the MLH code of conduct: http://mlh.io/code-of-conduct.
TwelveLabs API Challenge: Build the Future of Video Understanding
The Twelve Labs challenge encourages you to harness state-of-the-art video foundation models to make sense of video like never before. Whether you want to search, summarize, analyze, or build entirely new video experiences, our models—Pegasus and Marengo—give you the superpowers to do it.
Read the full TwelveLabs challenge description here.
Deepgram API Challenge: Make Your App Talk Back
Build a real-time voice experience that goes beyond buttons and text.
For this challenge, you will build a composite voice agent by combining Deepgram streaming speech recognition (Flux) with your own orchestration logic, an LLM, and autonomous tools. The goal is to create an application that can listen, reason, and act in real time.
This challenge rewards teams that design voice experiences that feel fast, useful, and accessible.
Prizes
Grand Prize (First Place)
Every team member will receive an iPad + Apple Pencil + MLH Winner Pin.
Grand Prize (Second Place)
Every team member will receive Meta Glasses + MLH Winner Pin.
Grand Prize (Third Place)
Every team member will receive an Apple Watch + MLH Winner Pin.
Best Education Hack
Every team member will receive AirPods.
Best Health & Wellness Hack
Every team member will receive a Ninja Creami.
Best Entertainment Hack
Every team member will receive a Bose speaker.
Best Joke Hack
Every team member will receive a weighted plushie.
President's Pick
Every team member will receive a Comfy (wearable blanket).
Best Design
Every team member will receive an Owala water bottle.
Best Use of AI
Every team member will receive a Full HD mini projector.
Best Hardware Hack
Every team member will receive a Raspberry Pi.
Drawing Contest
The winner will receive PrismaColor Premier Colored Pencils.
Deepgram API Challenge
First place receives a Steam Deck, Deepgram Swag bundle and $5000 credits.
Second place receives $2500 credits and Deepgram Swag bundle.
Third place receives a Deepgram Swag bundle.
TwelveLabs API Challenge
1st Place (50 hours in TwelveLabs Credit), 2nd Place (40 hours in TwelveLabs Credit), and 3rd Place (30 hours in TwelveLabs Credit).
[MLH] Best Use of Gemini API
[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? 1. Understand language like a human and build a chatbot that gives personalized advice. 2. Analyze info like a supercomputer and create an app that summarizes complex research papers. 3. 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 Snowflake API
[Arduino Tiny ML Kit] Play with industry-leading LLMs on a single account using the Snowflake APIs. Adding AI capabilities into your application can be as simple as a single CURL command to Snowflake’s REST API. Build customized applications, RAG powered chat bots, or embed AI-powered features into your app in half the time with half the hassle. Get started for free with a special, student [120-day Snowflake trial](https://mlh.link/snowflake-signup) and check out [this repository](https://mlh.link/snowflake-tutorial) for an example of the Snowflake REST API in action.
[MLH] Best Use of Solana
[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: 1. Create a game, social app, or consumer product that relies on instant, high-frequency transactions. 2. Design a sophisticated trading, lending, or decentralized exchange (DEX). 3. 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
[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 ElevenLabs
[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 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](https://mlh.link/mongodb-free) (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](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.
Devpost Achievements
Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:
Judges
Neal Gandhi
Capital One
Josh Schlumpberger
Capital One
Zack Glazewski
ChipAgents
Danny Rose
ChipAgents
Ryan Barnes
Unwrap
Kiley Williams
Deepgram
Jeniya Tabassum
Deepgram
James Le
Twelve Labs
Steve Nemzer
TELUS
Ziad Matni
University of California, Santa Barbara
Timothy Sherwood
University of California, Santa Barbara
Nabeel Nasir
University of California, Santa Barbara
Antonis Antoniades
University of California, Santa Barbara
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 chosen track? 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? -
Technical Complexity
How technically impressive was the hack? How challenging was the technical problem the team tackled? Did it use particularly clever techniques, unconventional frameworks, or integrate many different components?
Questions? Email the hackathon manager
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