Welcome to HooHacks, the premier hackathon at the University of Virginia! At our in-person Hackathon, you will have 24 hours (starting on March 21st at 12 PM and ending on March 22nd at 12 PM) to ideate, construct, and showcase the product you build from scratch along with other developers, engineers, and designers.

This year, we will be awarding over $20,000 in prizes to winners in nine 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 at the time they were bought.

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:

  • Rock Painting
  • Midnight Piñata
  • Flash CTF Competition
  • Salsa
  • Lettuce Eating Competition

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 opt-in prizes, but you must describe why you are eligible by including how you are using the specified technology in your project.

Hackathon Sponsors

Prizes

$3,800+ in prizes
+ other prizes
Best Overall - 1st Place
1 winner

All members of the Best Overall team will receive a Bambu Lab P1S 3D Printer! $2800 in total value.
MLH winner Pin.

Best Overall - 2nd Place
1 winner

All members of the 2nd Overall team will receive an iPad (A16) and an Apple Pencil! $1400 in total value.
MLH winner Pin.

Best Overall - 3rd Place
1 winner

All members of the 3rd Overall team will receive a Dell 27 Plus 4K Monitor! $1200 in total value.
MLH winner Pin.

Best Beginner
1 winner

All members of the Best Beginner team will receive a copy of The Hackathon Survival Guide, a JBL Flip 6, and an annual subscription for Codecademy Pro! $1500 in total value.

Best Accessiblity & Empowerment
1 winner

All members of the best Accessibility & Empowerment team will receive a Raspberry Pi 5 (8GB)! $530 in total value.

Best Art & Gaming
1 winner

All members of the best Art & Gaming team will receive a Fujifilm Instax Mini 12 Instant Film Camera! $370 in total value.

Best Education
1 winner

All members of the best Education team will receive an Amazon Kindle (16 GB)! $440 in total value.

Best Health & Wellness
1 winner

All members of the best Health & Wellness team will receive a De'Longhi ECP3120 15 Bar Espresso Machine! $720 in total value.

Best AI & Data Science
$1,500 in cash
1 winner

$1500 will be split amongst the winners of the Best AI and Data Science Track!

Best AI Safety & Alignment Evaluations - Sponsored by Virginia AI Security Initiative
1 winner

All members of the best AI Safety & Alignment Evaluations team will receive Sennheiser Momentum 4 Headphones! $1800 in total value.

Best Financial Hack - Sponsored by Capital One
$1,200 in cash
1 winner

All members of the best Finance team will receive a $300 Giftogram!

Best Hardware
1 winner

All members of the best Hardware team will receive a hardware prize pack with a Dremel Rotary Tool Kit, a STREBITO Mini Electric Screwdriver Set, and a HengTianMei Magnetic Repair Work Mat! $515 in total value.

Best Sustainability - Sponsored by SustainableIT
$1,000 in cash
1 winner

$1000 will be split amongst the winning members of the Best Sustainability team!

Best Low Level Hack (Opt-In)
1 winner

All members of the best Low Level Hack team will receive a Tracfone TCL FLIP 3! $240 in total value.

Best Wild West (Opt-in)
1 winner

All members of the best Wild West team will receive a CATAN set! $220 in total value.

Wolfram Award Winners (Opt-in)
1 winner

This Wolfram Award contains a year of WolframOne, with a retail value of $1,660/year per user. In addition, any student who submits a project utilizing Wolfram Language is eligible for a $500 scholarship to one of our summer programs if they apply and are accepted. Those students may reach out to me for additional details

Flash CTF Winners
1 winner

All members of the winning team will receive a $50 Amazon gift card

Workshop Prizes
$100 in cash
1 winner

Winners of various workshops will receive up to $100 in cash prizes!

MLH || Best Use of ElevenLabs || Wireless Earbuds
1 winner

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 Gemini API || Google Swag Kits
1 winner

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?

MLH || Best Use of Solana || Ledger Nano S Plus
1 winner

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.
Create a game, social app, or consumer product that relies on instant, high-frequency transactions.
Design a sophisticated trading, lending, or decentralized exchange (DEX).
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 Presage || Fitbit Inspire & Presage Perks
1 winner

Presage is pioneering the Human Sensing Layer, enabling any application to understand a person’s real-time physical and emotional state. With Presage, you can leverage clinically-proven vital signs, movement, emotion, and/or focus tracking to build a project that gives the standard camera super powers.

Use any of the Presage SDKs to integrate capabilities like real-time heart rate, breathing rate, engagement levels, and facial expressions into your hack with just a few lines of code.
Immersive Gaming & Entertainment: Dynamically change game difficulty or story elements based on a player's excitement or focus levels.
Contactless Wellness & Fitness: Build a non-invasive app that monitors stress, recovery, or fitness performance.
Accessibility & Security: Utilize vital signs for effortless authentication, or to enhance accessibility.
Productivity: Design a tool that tracks focus or stress.
Build your next hack with Presage and show us the future of human-computer interaction! Win awesome prizes along for with the following perks from the Presage team:
Free refills for Presage Development credits to accelerate you through your next three months of building
30% off all Presage usage charges for your first year after going live

MLH || Best Use of Snowflake API || Raspberry Pi 4
1 winner

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 and check out this repository for an example of the Snowflake REST API in action.

MLH || Best Use of Auth0 || Wireless Headphones
1 winner

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? You can also secure your AI applications with Auth0 for AI Agents.

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 and use any of the Auth0 APIs for a chance to win a pair of wireless headphones for you and each member of your team!

MLH || Best Domain Name from GoDaddy Registry || Digital Gift Card
1 winner

GoDaddy Registry is giving you everything you need to be the best hacker no matter where you are. Register your domain name with GoDaddy Registry for a chance to win some amazing prizes!

Devpost Achievements

Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:

Judges

TBD

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 10 points to give participants a cumulative score out of 50.

Questions? Email the hackathon manager

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