Until now, you needed to be a coder to participate in a hackathon. Not anymore.  

Code, Carve, Sing, Dance, Write

At Z HACKS, your project entry can be code, OR any form of ART: a dance, a song, a poem, artwork, a short story, a sculpture, just about anything. Why? Because you care about inclusivity.  

Why Z?

Z is for Gen Z.  Z is for ZentrepreneurZ is for Zeitgeist.  You are "Z" change needed in the World.

Categories

  •  Social Justice 
    • From wealth to education, housing to homeless, your project will increase the awareness of disparities for underserved communities.  How do we address police brutality? Democracy? Affordable housing?
  • Environment
    • Our oceans are polluted with plastics, our air unbreathable, our drinking water has lead, our housing is not energy efficient.  How can we inspire and help entire communities to reduce our emissions? Reuse? Recycle?
  • Pandemic
    • COVID 19 is not our first health crisis, nor our last.  How do we help those at high risk? How do we create vibrant supply chains, fast vaccine testing, better PPE designs, better signage and solutions for restaurants, stores, etc. How do we help small businesses and performers stay afloat during Shelter-in-Place?

Award Distribution

Donations are for the organizations listed below (Become a Sponsor).  As indicated in the Prizes, cash stipends go to Winners to fund their next brilliant project. The following non-profits are donation designees:

  • Oakland Black Business Fund (OBBF) is a Black-led investment platform, providing capital, technical assistance, and growth strategy to Black-owned businesses. The nonprofit relief & recovery fund deploys recovery grants and technical assistance to stabilize Oakland businesses and prepare them to receive capital investments to grow their businesses.
    • Funds Raised: 9/11/20: $150,628
  • Equal Access Santa Cruz County - the Equal Access Santa Cruz County Fund has a simple goal: bridge the digital divide and bring true high-speed broadband to every family in the Santa Cruz community, regardless of income level. This project is spearheaded by Cruzio Internet, working with the Santa Cruz County Office of Education, Pajaro Valley School District, and other local organizations.
    • Funds Raised (9/11/2020): $50,500
  • Digital NEST - a youth workforce development and empowerment center located in Watsonville and Salinas, CA, has moved all of their in-person classroom curricula online and has found new ways to support a community in need.
    • Funds Raised (9/11/20): $65,000
  • Habitat for Humanity Monterey Bay - addresses affordable homeownership in Monterey and Santa Cruz counties. In our coastal region, there is a growing gap between house prices and what the local workforce can afford. One in three households spends more than 50% of their income on housing.
    • Funds Raised: not reported to Z Hacks
HOW TO PARTICIPATE
  • Participants: this event is open to anyone anywhere who attended school in 2019, or will attend in 2020-21.  Schools can include public, private, online, full time or part time. Physical prizes to US only. Coders and Artists are welcome. A Participant does not need to be on a Team. Anyone younger than 16 will be required to submit the Parental Consent Agreement Attend a Clinic (see Resources) to get an extra point towards your final score!
  • Teams: a Team must include at least 1 Participant.  Teams should not be larger than 6 persons. 
  • Mentors: a Mentor can be of any age, and does not need to be in school.  The purpose of a Mentor is to help others.  Mentors must list "Mentor" in their skill set.
  • Sponsors - would you like to support this event? Click on this Become a Sponsor

Ask Us Anything

Got questions? Click on this: Ask Us.  Or, use the Slack channel, or Register to join us via Zoom to Ask Us Anything on the following dates:

And check out one of the videos by Jordan Corey who will judge song projects. She wrote this song, Google bought it: SHAKE

Eligibility

  • Participants: this event is open to anyone who attended school in 2019, or will attend in 2020-21.  Schools can include public, private, online, full time or part time. Physical prizes to US only. Coders and Artists are welcome. A Participant does not need to be on a Team. Anyone younger than 16 will be required to submit the Parental Consent Agreement
  • Teams: a Team must include at least 1 Participant.  Teams should not be larger than 6 persons. 
  • Mentors: a Mentor can be of any age, and does not need to be in school.  The purpose of a Mentor is to help others.  Mentors must list "Mentor" in their skill set.

As per our Code of Conduct, there is no discrimination on the basis of race, religion, national origin, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, social class, economic status, veteran status, disability, or age. 

Requirements

Participants need to write code or create art that helps solve one of the many challenges we face: social justice, environment, or pandemics. Submit a 3-5 minute video presentation of the final project. Project must be started and finished during the event: 5 days. Finalists will participate in a 15 minute Zoom video conference with the judges for their category. More detailed instructions in Rules.

Hackathon Sponsors

Prizes

$34,700 in prizes

Social Justice - 1st Place

- $5,000 to non-profit
- $500 to winning person/team

Social Justice - 2nd Place

- $2,500 to non-profit
- $250 to winning person/team

Social Justice - 3rd Place

- $1,000 to non-profit
- $100 to winning person/team

Environment - 1st Place

- $5,000 to non-profit
- $500 to winning person/team

Environment - 2nd Place

- $2,500 to non-profit
- $250 to winning person/team

Environment - 3rd Place

- $1,000 to non-profit
- $100 to winning person/team

Pandemic - 1st Place

- $5,000 to non-profit
- $500 to winning person/team

Pandemic - 2nd Place

- $2,500 to non-profit
- $250 to winning person/team

Pandemic - 3rd Place

- $1,000 to non-profit
- $100 to winning person/team

Think Care Act - 1st Place

- $5,000 to Head Heart Hands
- $500 to winning person/team

Think Care Act - 2nd Place

- $2,500 to Head Heart Hands
- $250 to winning person/team

Think Care Act - 3rd Place

- $1,000 to Head Heart Hands
- $100 to winning person/team

Contrast Community (4)

$50 Amazon gift card to the first 4 teams using Contrast Community Edition to find at least one vulnerability in their Java or .NET Core web application: https://bit.ly/2XVB4yG

GetVirtual

GetVirtual will give 1 team $500 for a project that helps a community business during the pandemic. https://www.getvirtual.org/

Devpost Achievements

Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:

Judges

Toby Corey

Toby Corey
Z Life, GetVirtual, Tesla SolarCity

Salvatore Pecoraro

Salvatore Pecoraro
Painter, Sculpture, Educator

Susan True

Susan True
Community Foundation of Santa Cruz County

Gina Tuzzi

Gina Tuzzi
Professor Humboldt State, Artist

Trevor Partham

Trevor Partham
GP / Oakland Black Business Fund

Jordan Corey

Jordan Corey
Singer, Song Writer, Performer

Michael Matkin

Michael Matkin
CITRIS, Banatao Institute

Jim Whitehead

Jim Whitehead
Professor, Dept. of Computational Media, UCSC

Ian Waters

Ian Waters
Staff Engineer Looker Google

Mothusi Pahl

Mothusi Pahl
Chief Commercial Officer /B3Bar Holdings

Emma McLaren

Emma McLaren
Founder & CEO of Myrth. International Speaker. Writer. Coach. Nomad-In-Residence.

Sue Carter

Sue Carter
Director of the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurial Development at UCSC

Ahmed Bekhit

Ahmed Bekhit
CTO / Magic Studio

Aliza Hava

Aliza Hava
Musician / Musican's Bass

Elodie Maillet Storm

Elodie Maillet Storm
Visual Media, Author/ Catchlight

Chris Thomas

Chris Thomas
CEO / The Stonington Group / HHH Board

Suzi Josselyn

Suzi Josselyn
Director Founder / Head Heart & Hands

Chris Miller

Chris Miller
CEO / Launch Brigade

Judging Criteria

  • Inclusivity (10%)
    The final output considers equity, accessibility, and inclusiveness.
  • Collaborative (20%)
    Did team conduct Discovery, gather input, collaboration whether in the form of a team or advisors.
  • Potential for impact at scale (30%)
    The final output can work for a broad range of people and geographies.
  • Creativity (20%)
    How original is the idea? How does it uniquely address the problem?
  • Project Completeness (20%)
    Finalists will be judged on their abilities to narrate their creation process, identifying a problem, innovation, and final solution.

Questions? Email the hackathon manager

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