About the Event
Chinatown Hacks is a unique, beginner-friendly hackathon designed specifically for high school students to create technology solutions that benefit San Francisco's Chinatown community. Over the course of two days, participants will learn, build, and present projects that address real local challenges.
What makes our hackathon special:
- Community Impact: Your projects will directly benefit the Chinatown community
- Beginner-Friendly: No prior coding experience needed - we provide comprehensive workshops and mentorship
- Structured Learning: Our "Learn → Build → Present" format ensures you gain valuable skills
- Full Support: Experienced mentors guide you throughout the event
- Team-Based: Work with peers at similar skill levels in teams of 3-4
What We Provide
- All meals and snacks throughout the event
- Workspace and internet access
- Technical mentorship and guidance
- Workshop materials
- Exciting prizes for winners
Location
University of San Francisco - Downtown Campus
101 Howard St
San Francisco, CA 94105
This event is supported by the University of San Francisco
Register now at chinatownhack.com
Requirements
Project Requirements
- Original Work Only
- All code must be created during the hackathon
- No pre-written code is allowed
- You can brainstorm ideas and learn concepts beforehand
- Team Composition
- Teams must have 3-4 members
- All team members must be high school students
- Required Submissions
- GitHub repository containing your project code
- Project submission through Devpost platform
- 2-3 minute presentation/demo of your solution
Project Focus
- Solutions should benefit the Chinatown community
- Projects can include:
- Mobile applications
- Websites
- Technical solutions addressing local challenges
- Specific themes will be announced at the event
Submission Timeline
- Submission portal opens: Sunday at 3:00 PM
- Final submission deadline: Sunday at 3:30 PM
- Demos and presentations: Sunday at 4:00 PM
Prizes
First Prize
One-Day Pass Access to the NVIDIA GTC 2025
Second Prize
4 Poly Voyager Headsets, 40 hours in Twelve Labs credits, Vercel Pro ($200) for 6 months
Third Prize
4 Poly Voyager Headsets, 30 hours in Twelve Labs credits, Vercel Pro ($100) for 6 months
Best Demo
4 Poly Voyager Headsets
Best Use of Twelve Labs Jockey
50 hours in Twelve Labs credits
Best Use of Cloudflare
Best Use of Vercel/v0
Vercel Pro ($300) for 6 months
Devpost Achievements
Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:
Judges
Abhinav Triguna
Principal TPM- AI/HPC and Data Center Networks @Meta
Chuanrui Li
Software engineer @Meta
Eliza Tan
Senior Manager, Product Partnerships @Adobe
Ella Shukho
Program Manager @500 Global
James Le
Head of Developer Experience @Twelve Labs
Mahesh Chaudhari
Assistant Professor @University of San Francisco
Matthew Eggertson
Venture Partner @Pioneer Fund
Nimit Patel
Principal Data Scientist II @Quantumblack (AI by McKinsey)
Siri Varma Vegiraju
Tech Lead @Microsoft
Shailin Saraiya
Sr. Engineering Manager, Software @Roku
Judging Criteria
-
Impact
How well the project benefits the Chinatown community -
Technical Implementation
Quality and complexity of the technical solution -
Creativity
Innovative approach to solving the problem -
Presentation
Quality of the 2-3 minute demo/presentation -
Extra Points
Criteria based on Judge's preferences
Questions? Email the hackathon manager
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