By Stacy Hernandez
DAVIS – After a weekend of coding, the winners of this year’s SacHacks virtual hackathon were announced during Sunday’s closing ceremony.
SacHacks is Sacramento’s first major intercollegiate hackathon. Open to all college students, the event culminated on Sunday morning after a 36-hour period. The hackathon was held over the online event platform Hopin, allowing for participants to interact and form teams.
The presenters began the ceremony by explaining the three tracks that projects were categorized into: design, code and launch.
The first awards announced were for projects in the design category. The winner for Best UI/UX (user interface) With Sketch was “Tidy Together,” a project that helps housemates delegate chores. The first-place winner for Best Design Without Code went to “One More Description,” followed by “Housemates App” in second place and “Study Room” in third place.
“Greencredus,” a project that aimed to reduce carbon emissions by using blocking technology came in first place for Best Design With Code. “Pickabox” and “Group Study Match” came in second and third place, respectively.
Next, the winners in the code category were announced. “Video-project” won the award for Best Solo AR/VR Hack Using EchoAR. “Video-project” allows users to play video games through pictures by using EchoAR.
“Studio Mea” won the award for Best Mobile App. It is an android audio app incorporating a virtual space that allows users to study and discuss with friends. It even allows users to meet new people who have similar interests.
The winner for Best Data Science Hack was “Nutshell,” a project that splices key point clips from videos so that users can conveniently view all the important parts instead of watching an entire video.
The next category was Best Game Dev Hack. “DM Bot,” a Discord bot that helps users manage their Dungeons & Dragons character, came in third place for that category. In second place was “Hunt for the Art,” a scavenger hunt consisting of many simple tasks that create interactions with the real world. Its aim is to reward users for engaging in physical activity. The strategy game “Get Sac Online” won first place. The project is a strategy game where users are tasked with maintaining Sacramento’s transit lines by using an allocated budget.
The Best IBM Z Hack was “It Takes A Village.” This platform utilizes machine learning and helps homeless people find job opportunities in their local area. Other community members are also given the opportunity to provide assistance and resources.
Certain projects also took into account current social problems. “Patrol Route for Safety and Security,” winner of Best Community College Hack, was one such project. Given the recent surge in hate crimes targeted at the Asian community, this project’s premise was to ensure this group’s safety by creating patrol areas in locations such as San Francisco’s Chinatown.
The winning project for Best Sacramento Hack was “Auxilium,” a standalone website that alerts people of free resources they can use in their community. “Civia,” a project that provides users with an aggregate of nearby locations to get food, won second place. And in third place came “EyeLead,” an interactive AI assistant that helps blind individuals perceive the beauty of the world around them.
Finally, the top three overall projects were announced, with “It Takes a Village” coming in first place, followed by “Auxilium” and “One More Description.”
Throughout the awards ceremony, participants sent a flurry of encouraging messages in the main chat, congratulating friends and teammates for their awards and achievements.
The award presenters ended the night ended by congratulating all the participants for their hard work, noting that it was a difficult task to judge all the fantastic projects.
To learn more about SacHacks visit their website at sachacks.io or follow their Twitter.
