Dates

Submission period: November 9, 2026 at 3:30pm PT to November 17, 2026 at 5:00pm PT.

Judging period: November 20th 2:00-5:00pm PT

Winners announced: on or around November 30th

Eligibility

Open to all CRC students. 

Participants may compete individually or in teams of up to 4 people.

Each participant may be on only one team.

Hackathon organizers and judges may not compete for prizes.

Project and Submission Requirements

- Projects must be started and built during the submission period. Ideas, planning, and design sketches done beforehand are allowed.

- Projects must use at least one external API and/or at least one AI capability.

- All submissions must meet the requirements listed under “What to Submit.”

- Teams may use open-source code, libraries, and AI coding assistants, but must credit any significant third-party code in their description.

- Projects must not contain harmful, offensive, or plagiarized content, and must follow the terms of service of every API and tool they use.

- Never publish API keys, passwords, or personal data in your code or video.

Prizes

 

Judging Criteria and Winner Selection

Each project is scored 1 to 5 on each criterion. The final score is the weighted average, out of 5.0.

 

Criterion Weight What judges look for
Impact 20% Solves a real, important problem for a defined group of users
API & AI integration 25% APIs and AI are core to the project and well implemented, including secure keys, error handling, and staying within rate limits
Feasibility 15% Realistic to build and maintain, including API costs and limits
Innovation 15% A fresh approach or new combination of APIs and AI
Execution / working demo 15% The demo shows the full flow working with real API calls
Presentation clarity 10% The video and description are clear, organized, and easy to follow

 

Ties will be broken by vote from Judges. 

 

All participants are expected to be respectful and inclusive in every hackathon space, including Devpost, Discord, and video calls. Harassment, discrimination, or disruptive behavior will not be tolerated. Organizers may remove participants or disqualify projects that violate this code. Report concerns to [email protected].