The Software and Computer Engineering Society (SCE) at San Jose State University is a student-run organization, with over 600 members, that seeks to empower software and computer engineering students through support in academics, projects, and their professional development. 

 

Our goal as a club is to inspire, learn, and benefit society in a variety of ways. As our club continues to grow, we hope to not only provide our members with learning opportunities, but also we want to inspire them to create products that will solve real world problems by leveraging and enhancing their technical abilities. In order to encourage students to reach beyond the classroom, we organized the virtual SJSU SCE Spark Tech Conference, where we had many industry leads come and talk to students across the United States about cutting-edge technology, tech leadership, student entrepreneurship, reducing carbon emissions, and much more. We hope to ignite a spark of vision within the participants and our members and get them excited to solve real world issues.

 

SCEHacks, our annual upcoming hackathon, plans to put this vision into implementation. From October 15-17, 2021, we wish for students to take their aspirations from our previous conference and pursue their plans. The goal of this hackathon is for students to create technical solutions to some of the greatest challenges California currently faces. This hackathon will be open to all college students (18+) in California and will be completely virtual.

 

A huge thank you to our sponsors!

Platinum Sponsor: Microsoft

Gold Sponsors:

  • Balsamiq
  • echo3D

Silver Sponsor: Xircle LLC

 

Requirements

Submission Requirements

  • You and your team’s submission must focus on solving or bringing awareness to the following types of problems in California:

    • The Housing Crisis

      • California has an ever-increasing percentage of homelessness and a shortage of housing, ranking it 49th in the US in terms of housing units per resident.

    • Wildfires and Droughts

      • Every year, California faces disasterous wildfires, putting residents in danger and forcing people to evaculate out of their homes. This, coupled with California's droughts, makes the summer months tense.

    • Traffic Congestion

      • With the amount of cars on the road, it's no wonder some people's commutes take over 2 hours in California.

    • Urban Safety

      • As more people migrate to the suburbs, downtowns and heavily urban areas have gained a stigma of being unsafe.

    • Education Inequality

      • Not everyone in California has equal access to education due to the perpetuation of poverty in certain areas.

  • The submission MUST have been started and completed within the dates of the hackathon, from after the opening ceremony on October 15, 2021 to the submission deadline on October 17, 2021 at 6:00 AM PST.

  • A Github repository link AND a video link must be submitted with the overall submission.

    • The video should fall within the range of 2-4 minutes.

  • A thorough description describing the project, the team’s inspiration, and possible future enhancements must also be included with the submission.

Hackathon Sponsors

Prizes

$2,685 in prizes
1st Place Winner ($1000 Cash Value)
1 winner

2nd Place Winner ($600 Cash Value)
1 winner

3rd Place Winner ($400 Cash Value)
1 winner

Best Use of Azure (Sponsored By Microsoft)
1 winner

The winner of Best Use of Azure gets 4 Azure Data Science Associate Certifications, valued at $660!

Best UI and/or Use of React (Sponsored by Xircle LLC)
1 winner

Xircle LLC is sponsoring a $25 gift card for each member of the group for the project that wins best UI and/or use of React!

Devpost Achievements

Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:

Judges

Ben Reed

Ben Reed
Professor at SJSU

Chandrasekar Vuppalapati

Chandrasekar Vuppalapati
Software IT Executive, Professor at SJSU

Richard Sinn

Richard Sinn
Senior Dev Manager at Adobe, Professor at SJSU

Judging Criteria

  • Relevance / Impact
    Does it connect to the theme? How many people can it reach? The project must attempt to solve: The Housing Crisis, Wildfires and Droughts, Traffic Congestion, Urban Safety (Drug & Alcohol Abuse), Education Inequality.
  • Originality
    How much does it relate to pre-existing ideas / products on the market? Considering similarity, how does it build upon pre-existing ideas? How does it stand out against pre-existing products?
  • Feasibility
    Can you build the project out fully after the hackathon?
  • Technical Complexity
    Is the hack technically fascinating or challenging? Is it just some lipstick on an API, or were there real technical challenges to surmount?

Questions? Email the hackathon manager

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Hackathon sponsors

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