About &HACKS XII: This year we are sharpening our imagination through AI!

William & Mary's annual hackathon is back for its 12th installment! Join us September 26th and 27th in W&M's Integrated Science Center 4 (540 Landrum Drive) for a fun weekend of coding, workshops, and camraderie! This year's theme: AI. We have engaging and informative workshops to help you to build your coding acumen, or maybe just have a little fun. Mentors will also be onsite to give advice (solicited advice only, we promise!) or help you work through thorny technical problems. Find more info and register at our website or ask around in our discord! We can't wait to see what you end up creating!

 

Get started:

- Website: andhacks.cs.wm.edu

- Register for the hack-a-thon: wmsas.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6S8vNLg8wb4xpum

- Join the discord!: discord.com/invite/4AJgGBEfQW

Requirements

Anything goes, idea wise! Whatever you end up creating, please submit a GitHub repository and a brief video introduction to Devpost by the submission deadline (noon on Sunday, September 27).

Hackathon Sponsors

Prizes

$3,985+ in prizes
+ other prizes
Best Overall
$500 in cash
1 winner

Runner Up
$300 in cash
1 winner

Gold Prizes
8 winners

Total worth of $300 (per team)

Silver Prizes
8 winners

Total worth of $120 (per team)

Bronze Prizes
8 winners

Total worth of $60 (per team)

[MLH] Best Use of ElevenLabs
1 winner

Wireless Earbuds
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
1 winner

MLH Swag Kits
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
1 winner

Ledger Nano S Plus
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 Tiger Data
1 winner

Stream Deck Mini
Building high-performance apps under hackathon deadlines shouldn't mean spending half your weekend configuring complex databases or learning obscure query languages. Tiger Data extends PostgreSQL to give student developers an ultra-fast foundation for real-time data, time-series metrics, and complex analytics.

Why build with Tiger Data this weekend?

Standard SQL Power: Query massive datasets instantly using the SQL you already know, with no complex NoSQL aggregation pipelines required.

Unified Data Stack: Store relational user profiles and high-frequency metric streams side-by-side in a single database.

Instant Dashboards: Serve lag-free, real-time frontend charts using pre-computed Continuous Aggregates.

90%+ Data Compression: Store millions of events on free-tier cloud instances without running out of disk space.

Whether you’re building real-time IoT monitoring, AI-driven analytics dashboards, or financial prediction engines, show us how Tiger Data powers your project. The team that demonstrates the most innovative, impactful, and performance-driven use of Tiger Data will take home some great prizes!

[MLH] Best Use of Backboard
1 winner

Tile Essentials Pack
Every AI model API is stateless by default. That means your app forgets everything the second a session ends. State management should be the first step of any AI build, regardless of what LLM you are using, and Backboard gives you that for free. But Backboard is not just state management. It is a single, unified API built on the world’s #1 AI memory that gives you everything you need in one place: long-term memory, RAG, embeddings, tool calls, model routing across 17,000+ LLMs, and persistent context that stays alive across every page refresh, session, and user. No stitching together five different services. One API. One integration. Built on the best memory in AI.

Here’s just a small list of things Backboard can make possible for your AI app!

AI-powered Travel Guide: Remembers allergies and preferences from past trips.
Personalized Fitness Coach: Adjusts workouts based on progress and injury history.
Smart Home Controller: Learns routines over time to anticipate lighting and climate preferences!

Use Backboard to build a seamless, persistent user experience without the usual infrastructure headache! Each winning team member will receive a Tiles Essentials Pack because, just like AI, we all need an occasional reminder of where things are!

[MLH] Best Use of DigitalOcean
1 winner

Retro Wireless Mouse
DigitalOcean offers a reliable and easy-to-use cloud platform for every stage of your project. Leverage core services like Droplets, Managed Databases, and App Platform to build, deploy, and scale your application effortlessly. Building with AI? DigitalOcean Gradient™ AI enables you to build, train, and deploy machine learning models, including access to GPU infrastructure and serverless inference!

Sign up for DigitalOcean today and reach out to your MLH Coach for credits that you can use towards building your next great hack. Build with DigitalOcean’s robust cloud infrastructure for a chance to win some great prizes for you and each of your teammates!

[MLH] Best Use of Auth0
1 winner

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
1 winner

Digital Gift Card
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!

Finance
3 winners

Gold, Silver, and Bronze prize, total prizes worth $400

Dean's Year of Civic Leadership
$400 in cash
1 winner

Gold, Silver, and Bronze prize, total prizes worth $400

AI & Imagination
$385 in cash
1 winner

Gold, Silver, and Bronze prize, total prizes worth $400

Education
$400 in cash
3 winners

Gold, Silver, and Bronze prize, total prizes worth $400

Novice
$400 in cash
1 winner

Gold, Silver, and Bronze prize, total prizes worth $400

Linguistics
3 winners

Sponsored prizes, check website!!

Nano Bio Lab
$400 in cash
1 winner

Gold, Silver, and Bronze prize, total prizes worth $400

Rellify
$400 in cash
1 winner

Gold, Silver, and Bronze prize, total prizes worth $400

Devpost Achievements

Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:

Judges

Libby Knight

Libby Knight
&HACK XII, Co-Chair

Lynn Egan

Lynn Egan
&HACKS XII, Co-Chair

Judging Criteria

  • &HACKS Judging
    Scored on 5 criteria points. Functionality, Engineering & Scope, Design & UX, Category Target/Fit, Innovation

Questions? Email the hackathon manager

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Hackathon sponsors

Partner
Silver
Bronze

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