About the challenge

ZotHacks 2025 is Hack at UCI’s mini-hackathon geared towards beginners taking place on November 7th-9th at the UCI Donald Bren Hall 6011!

At this event, hackers will experience an introduction to hackathons and software development techniques applied to web-based projects. The event is free to attend. Technical workshops and prizes will be provided! Unfortunately, due to space constraints, ZotHacks is limited to ONLY UCI students who attend the event in-person.

Hacking begins Saturday morning at 10 AM and ends the same day at 10 PM. All submissions MUST be made here on Devpost.

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To be eligible for the Best Use of ZotGPT track, projects should incorporate a ZotGPT Creator chatbot in a way that meaningfully supports the solution. The Creator should contribute to the user experience through intentional configuration and clear interaction flow. Evaluation will consider the quality of integration, usefulness of the solution, technical execution, and clarity of presentation.

NOTE: As students are unable to create a public chatbot, embedding the HTML iframe for the chatbot does sometimes experience some authentication issues. Be sure to include a link to the chatbot accessible by UCI netids as a fallback. Ask any questions regarding the prize track in #sponsors-oit on Slack!

• Technology
  How technically impressive was the hack? Was thought put into the technologies -- libraries, tools, etc -- used to build the project?
• Quality
  Is the project a good piece of software? Is the code relatively efficient and organized in a way that makes it easy for others to understand?
• Impact
  How impactful are the solutions you develop? Do they influence and improve user experiences or address societal challenges in a measurable way through the use of innovative technology and strategic implementation?
• Practicality
  How feasible are the solutions you develop? Can they be implemented effectively in real-world scenarios, utilizing practical technologies and methods to ensure tangible impact and success?
• Devpost
  How well have you presented your project on Devpost? The quality of your Devpost submission matters, reflecting the effort, detail, and clarity you put into showcasing your hack.
• Presentation
  Your presentation is a vital aspect of your project's evaluation. How effectively can you present your project, both verbally and visually? Each team member should contribute, and the presentation should engage the judges and audience.