The University of California Santa Cruz hosted the annual ACM Hackathon on Saturday, March 3, crowning three winners for innovative startup ideas.
Amazon Alexa, UCSC and RAVV hosted the 12 hour event. Over 100 students participated in the hackathon, creating 12 teams to compete for prizes. The teams had 12 hours to create a startup and present their pitch to the judges.
Creations included, Slug Loop, a helpful AI, using Amazon Alexa to find the best bus routes and times for students during school hours. Slug Assistant also stood out as a contender, using AI to help students decide on lunch. Amazon Alexa tells students the daily menu of the cafeteria.
During the event students had the opportunity to attend a small entrepreneurs workshop with RAVV Incubator and VC Zixuan An. Zixuan gave assessments to the teams explaining how much a VC would invest in their project. He also helped students create a reasonable business model.
The creations were split into three categories, Amazon Alexa, gaming and student help. The winners include Slug Loop and Slug Assistant. In the game category, Deep Learning Algorithm won with their music app, turning pictures into music.
The event ended with students enjoying the experience of creating real life products and learning what it takes to build a startup from the bottom.
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