Cruz Hacks 2022: Making a Better World
Team Cruz Hacks 2022 (left to right): top row: Sidhanta Sharma, Eliot Winchell, Ajay Bhatia, and Tracy Rocha. Middle row: Sonali Malik, Navya Rao, Khushi Shah, Avani Karkare, and Tony Ma. Bottom row: Jiewen Li and Hannah Wong.
Cruz Hacks 2022 was another success - now 8 years and counting! A high-energy team of 11 UCSC students planned and executed a second “virtual” event year. 45 projects were submitted in the final minutes of the 2.5 day hackathon. Of the 182+ hackers, 30% were female or non-binary. 56% of the participants were first-time hackers. 80% of the hackers were from UCSC & Santa Cruz County. Prize tracks were: Health Hacks, Justice Hacks, Education Hacks, Beginner Hacks, Golden State Hacks, UI/UX Hacks, and Best High School Project.
Sonali Malik
“I was incredibly impressed by all of the projects our hackers put together in such a short period of time! Many online events have noticed a decrease in participation and engagement. Although this is something that we definitely struggled with as well, all of the hackers this weekend were really enthusiastic and we saw increased participation in workshops and games compared to last year. We also had a large number of first-time hackers and quite a few high school teams this year. These teams were able to put together some awesome projects with goals that ranged from increasing the accessibility of educational resources to identifying fake news. I'm really proud of everything our team accomplished this year and I am looking forward to next year!” Sonali Malik / Executive Director Cruz Hacks 2022
History
Cruz Hacks was founded in 2013 by Mark Adams, Brent Haddad, and Doug Erickson. The first event - Hack UCSC - was held on April 5-6, 2014. In July 2017, the event was rebranded to Cruz Hacks to serve a larger audience and market. In the spirit of innovation, the tenets of this annual event are to 1) provide participants with a world class hackathon experience, 2) to develop solutions to real-world problems, 3) pursue inclusion in tech, 4) connect students with community and industry, and 5) to stimulate local job opportunities. Each year, a new student team is selected to managed run the hackathon. The 2021-22 board of Cruz Hacks includes: Doug Erickson / President, Nathan Westrup / Secretary, Tony Ma / Treasurer, and Amanda Rotella / City of Santa Cruz. Advisors include Sue Carter / UCSC, Drew Meyer / Amazon, and Nada Miljkovic / UCSC. Cruz Hacks is a 501c3 organization.