Student Creativity and Innovation Take Center Stage at Hack at UCI 2023

February 23, 2023

Hack at UCI 2023, the largest collegiate hackathon in Orange County hosted by the club Hack at UCI, took place from Feb. 3-5. Over 400 students participated in the hackathon and created projects for entertainment, health, school and more, competing for over $5,000 worth of prizes. Hacks were judged based on technology, quality and purpose. 

Here are the winning Hack at UCI 2023 hacks:

Best Overall Hack: IrvineSweeper
IrvineSweeper is a Minesweeper-inspired game where users are given a starting balance of $10,000 to explore the city of Irvine. The team used the Google Maps Platform APIs to gather the location data of properties ranging from residences to offices and construct the city.

IrvineSweeper was created by:

  • Yasper De Jong – second-year computer science and engineering major, UCI
  • Sean Fong – second-year computer science major, UCI
  • John Lorenzini – second-year computer science major, UCI

Best Overall Hack Runner Up & Best AI Hack (AI@UCI): ZotScheduler
On ZotScheduler, students can choose up to 50 classes they’re interested in taking and the number of units they plan to take, and the machine learning algorithm generates different schedules for them to choose from. It crafts the ideal schedule based on course and instructor data from the PeterPortal API and RateMyProfessor.

ZotScheduler was created by:

Best Real Estate Related Hack (CoStar Group): OpenHouse
OpenHouse takes inspiration from dating apps and aims to make the home-buying process less stressful for prospective homeowners. All users need to do is swipe right on a property they’re interested in, which allows them to meet real estate agents and attend open houses.

OpenHouse was created by:

  • Frances Fletcher – third-year computer science major, UC Santa Cruz
  • Tyler Kay – third-year computer science major & information security and policy minor, Chapman University
  • Gillian Canicosa – fourth-year computer science major, Chapman University
  • Michael Masakayan – fourth-year computer science major, Chapman University

Best Use of CockroachDB Serverless (Cockroach Labs): Zot Hub
The Zot Hub team describes its hack as a “hybrid between UCI CampusGroups and Eventbrite.” Students can follow clubs, get updates from the clubs they’re in and register for club events. Zot Hub also has an AI algorithm that personalizes new club recommendations.

Zot Hub was created by:

  • Advay Anand – third-year computer science major, UCI
  • Eric Huang – third-year computer science major & statistics minor, UCI
  • Nathan Ng – third-year computer science major & mathematics minor, UCI
  • Vanna Vuong – third-year business administration major & digital information systems minor, UCI

Best Use of Twilio API: ZotGainz and FrenFinder
ZotGainz is a mobile application that can assess how busy it is at the Anteater Recreation Center at a certain time of day. It also allows users to reserve facilities ahead of time and doubles as a workout app where users can track their workouts. 

ZotGainz was created by:

  • Zion Mateo – first-year computer science engineering major, UCI
  • Ostend Suryajaya – first-year computer science major, UCI
  • David Dao – third-year computer science major, UCI
  • Daniel Jong – fourth-year computer engineering major, UCI

Making friends can be intimidating, especially for introverts, which is why the FrenFinder team sought to create a hack that helps people meet each other. On FrenFinder, users are anonymously matched with each other and can chat and can gradually reveal more of their online profiles to the person they’re chatting with. 

FrenFinder was created by:

  • Omar Yahia – first-year computer science major, UCI
  • Danica Jew – second-year computer science and engineering major, UCI
  • Megan Tsoi – second-year computer science major, UCI
  • Michelle Sheu – third-year computer science major, UCI

Best Use of Google Cloud API: ZotSell
ZotSell is an online marketplace for the UCI community where users can sell and purchase clothes, technology and more from other Anteaters. The hack uses Google Cloud to store product information and images.

ZotSell was created by:

  • Sean Liem – first-year computer science and engineering major, UCI
  • Ryan Tran – first-year undeclared ICS major, UCI
  • Caleb Yang – first-year computer science major, UCI
  • Julius Yang – first-year computer engineering major, UCI

Best Financial Literary Hack (PIMCO): Munch
Recognizing that food waste is a costly problem, the Munch team developed a hack that helps users find all kinds of recipes while being mindful of their spending. Each recipe on Munch comes with detailed ingredient measurements, the estimated total cost of the recipe, step-by-step cooking instructions and nutrition facts.

Munch was created by:

  • Leah Sun – first-year undeclared ICS major, UCI
  • Ian Atkins – second-year computer science major, UCI
  • Diego Navarro – second-year computer science major, UCI

Best Health Hack: SkinDeep
Skin conditions like acne, eczema and psoriasis affect many people, which is why SkinDeep was created to support those with skin conditions. The SkinDeep app is a community platform users can ask questions, share their experiences and more to build knowledge about managing their skin conditions.

SkinDeep was created by:

  • Brayden Rudisill – first-year computer science major & biomedical engineering minor, 
  • Ashwin Sampath – fourth-year computer science and engineering major, UCI
  • Ell Park – fourth-year informatics major & information and computer sciences minor, UCI
  • Vickie Do – second baccalaureate in software engineering, UCI

Best Beginner’s Hack: Petr Run
Petr Run is a game based on Petr Drops that take place at random times on campus throughout the year. Users are given the general location of a Petr sticker and have to find it in one minute to win the game.

Petr Run was created by:

  • Francine Go – first-year computer science and engineering major, UCI
  • Muniza Ahmed – third-year biomedical engineering major, UCI
  • Victor Chhun – third-year computer science major, UCI

Best Meme/Joke Hack: HaveFun
HaveFun encourages users to do exactly that: have fun. The app is a social media platform that has a built-in meme generator. Users can turn their photos into memes, post their memes and interact with other users’ posts.

HaveFun was created by:

Hacker’s Choice: Zot Alarm!
To motivate students to attend class, Zot Alarm! tracks users’ location data when it’s time for class. If the student isn’t in the classroom when they should be, the app sends the user a notification about how much tuition money they’re losing by not attending class. Zot Alarm! also allows users to interact with each other and has an AI algorithm that sends users inspirational quotes.

Zot Alarm! was created by:

  • Mukarram Ali – second-year computer science major, UCI 
  • Connor Delacruz – second-year software engineering major, UCI
  • Rayyaan Nadeem – second-year computer science and engineering major, UCI
  • Matthew Phan – second-year computer science major & entrepreneurship and innovation minor, UCI

View the rest of the projects on the Hack at UCI 2023 Devpost.

Hack at UCI and Women in Information and Computer Sciences will host VenusHacks in the 2023 spring quarter.

Design at UCI’s annual Design-a-thon will take place on Feb. 24.

— Karen Phan

—  Photos courtesy of Hack at UCI