SB Hacks is a 36-hour hackathon hosted annually by students at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Normally the event takes place on campus, but this year, we are going digital! SB Hacks aims to expose college students to the technology industry and provide the necessary resources to get hands-on experience in coding. Whether you are a first-time coder or a seasoned hacker, we encourage you to enter SB Hacks with enthusiasm and curiosity. Our hope is that you challenge yourself with a fun project, learn something new along the way, and are proud of what you have accomplished at the end of it all.

Hackathon Sponsors

Prizes

$16,130 in prizes

Grand Prize

One prize to rule them all...

Prize: Apple iPad Air 4th Gen 64GB

Runner-Up Prize

Second place is great too!

Prize: Nintendo Switch

Best UI/UX

Marquee elements, nested menus, dense blocks of tiny text: these are some fun ways to make your users cry! This category is for projects that contain innovative, thoughtful UI/UX designs that make your project clean, stylish, and fun to use.

Prize: Canon Ivy Mini Photo Printer + Axure Subscription

[Organizers' Choice] Best Joke Hack

Machine-learning powered Pepe Search? A hot dog detection app? We’ve got you covered with a special prize for the funniest (but appropriate!) hack out there :-)

Prize: Tushy Spa Premium Warm Water Bidet Attachment

Best Entertainment Hack

Feeling bored? The entertainment track encompasses anything that keeps people entertained, such as games, TV shows/movies, or pop culture. Let’s create a new way to have fun!

Prize: Corsair K100 Keyboards

Best Beginner Hack

The primary aim of Hackathons is to push your limits and learn new skills. At SB Hacks we love showcasing the amazing projects made by our first-time hackers! If this is the first hackathon for you and everyone on your team, you will be eligible for the beginner category.

Prize: Corsair HS60 Haptic Headsets

[The @ Company] Improved Smartphone Utility App (2)

Improve your least favorite smartphone utility app with the @protocol as its backend service! Examples of this could be the pre-installed messaging app, contacts app, weather app, music app, settings, and so on. The apps must use the @protocol and suggested stack is Flutter/Dart.

Prizes:
(1st) AirPods + a $1000 vanity @sign + an @sign sweatshirt
(2nd) $25 Best Buy gift cards + a $100 customized @sign + an @sign sweatshirt

[Stacks] Best Smart Contract Hack using Clarity

Build a Smart Contract Challenge that lets you experiment and get familiar with Clarity's developer environment.

Prize: Beats by Dre Solo3 wireless headphones + Stacks swag bag (a backpack, hoodie, shirt, water bottle and other fun items)

[Invoca] Best Web App

Prize: JBL Flip 5 Bluetooth Speaker

[Amazon Alexa] Best Alexa Skill (2)

Use your Customer Obsession, Thinking Big, and Inventing & Simplifying to create the best Alexa Skill.
Prizes:
1st place: Echo Show 8 + Amazon Swag Pack (backpack, t-shirt, stickers)
2nd place: Echo Dots + Amazon Swag Packs (backpack, t-shirt, stickers)

[MLH] Best Domain Registered with Domain.com

Register a .tech, .space, or .online domain name using Domain.com during the weekend. Each team may submit one entry per person on the team. Prize: PowerSquare Qi Wireless Phone Charger & Domain.com Backpack.

[MLH] Best Hardware Hack Sponsored by Digi-Key (2)

Build a hack using your preferred hardware or hardware emulator! We select two winning teams for this category. Each winning team member will receive a prize! Prize: Grove Beginner Kit, with Arduino Uno R3 included.

[MLH] Best use of Google Cloud

Build your hackathon project with a suite of secure storage, powerful compute, and integrated data analytics products provided by Google Cloud. See full list of products here: g.co/cloud. Prize: Google Branded Parkland Academy Backpack.

Devpost Achievements

Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:

Judges

Ziad Matni

Ziad Matni
UCSB Faculty Lecturer

Paul Ruiz

Paul Ruiz
Firebase

Heike Schirmer

Heike Schirmer
Amazon Alexa

Judging Criteria

  • Technical Difficulty
  • Usefulness/Impact
  • Creativity
  • Execution/Polish

Questions? Email the hackathon manager

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