About the Challenge
The CSC Back-to-School Hackathon is a beginner-friendly high school hackathon where students build technology to improve school life.
Your project can be an app, website, tool, AI project, design prototype, or physical gadget. It can help students, teachers, clubs, classrooms, dorms, teams, or schools solve a real problem. Projects can focus on studying, scheduling, communication, organization, wellness, accessibility, campus life, classroom tools, or any other school-related challenge.
AI tools are allowed and encouraged. You may use tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, or other coding and design assistants to brainstorm, code, debug, design, and build your project. Using AI will not lower your score. The goal is to help students explore ideas, build higher-quality projects, and see how computer science can create practical change.
However, teams must disclose how they used AI and must be able to explain their project, their decisions, and how their final product works.
Stay Connected
Follow CSC throughout the hackathon for updates, reminders, project highlights, and future opportunities.
Follow @webbcsc2028 on Instagram for major milestones, project highlights, winner spotlights, event recaps, and future CSC events.
Join the Webb CSC Community on Discord for announcements, reminders, Q&A, support, and updates throughout submissions and judging.
Participation in these communities is optional and does not affect eligibility or judging.
Our Sponsors
Sponsorship benefits and prizes will be added soon. Only registrants that sign up at the start of the hackathon can receive the benefits.
Get Started
1. Find a real school-life problem.
2. Think about who the problem affects and why it matters.
3. Build an app, website, AI tool, prototype, or gadget that helps solve it.
4. Use any tools, tutorials, APIs, templates, datasets, or AI assistants that help you learn and build.
5. Submit your project on Devpost with an explanation, demo or other evidence of your project, and AI-use disclosure.
You may work individually or in teams of up to 4 people. A 1–2 minute demo video is optional but encouraged.
Requirements
What to Build
Build an app, website, tool, AI project, or physical gadget that helps students, teachers, or schools solve a real school-life problem. Your project does not need to be perfect or fully finished, but it should clearly show the idea, how it works, and why it would be useful.
What to Submit
Each team must submit:
- Project name
- Short description of the problem you are solving
- Explanation of what your project does
- Demo link, website link, video, screenshots, photos, or another way for judges to understand the project
- List of tools, technologies, APIs, datasets, hardware, or AI tools used
- AI-use disclosure explaining how your team used AI during the project
- Team member names
- Source code, build files, or design files if available
For physical gadgets, submit photos or a short demo video showing the prototype. For apps, websites, and AI tools, submit a demo, GitHub repository, screenshots, or 1–2 minute video that clearly demonstrates the project.
Prizes
CSC Innovation Gold Award
The Gold Award recognizes the strongest overall project: a thoughtful, useful, and well-executed project that best improved school life.
To be eligible for this award, teams must opt in and agree to the prize eligibility terms listed below.
To be eligible for a CSC Innovation Award, teams must opt in and agree to the following:
1. The project must be open source or publicly viewable after submission.
2. The team must provide a public project link, such as a GitHub repository, website, demo, design file, or project page.
3. The team gives CSC permission to feature and promote the project on CSC’s Instagram, website, club materials, or other CSC-related channels.
4. CSC may contact winning teams after the event to discuss opportunities to help share, promote, or expand the project’s reach beyond the hackathon, such as through school communities, student groups, or other relevant environments. Any additional collaboration or promotion beyond CSC’s own channels will be discussed with the team first.
5. Teams must disclose how they used AI tools, if applicable.
6. Teams must be able to explain what they built, how it works, and what role outside tools or AI played in the final project.
CSC may spotlight winning projects using the project name, team name, screenshots, demo links, and short descriptions. Personal photos, individual student names, or other identifying information will only be shared when appropriate permission is given. Opting in does not transfer ownership of the project to CSC; creators keep ownership of their work.
Prize distribution may require follow-up communication with the winning team. If needed, CSC may ask for appropriate contact information or parent/guardian support to distribute prizes safely.
CSC Innovation Silver Award
The Silver Award recognizes an excellent project with strong execution, clear usefulness, and meaningful relevance for school communities.
To be eligible for this award, teams must opt in and agree to the prize eligibility terms listed below.
To be eligible for a CSC Innovation Award, teams must opt in and agree to the following:
1. The project must be open source or publicly viewable after submission.
2. The team must provide a public project link, such as a GitHub repository, website, demo, design file, or project page.
3. The team gives CSC permission to feature and promote the project on CSC’s Instagram, website, club materials, or other CSC-related channels.
4. CSC may contact winning teams after the event to discuss opportunities to help share, promote, or expand the project’s reach beyond the hackathon, such as through school communities, student groups, or other relevant environments. Any additional collaboration or promotion beyond CSC’s own channels will be discussed with the team first.
5. Teams must disclose how they used AI tools, if applicable.
6. Teams must be able to explain what they built, how it works, and what role outside tools or AI played in the final project.
CSC may spotlight winning projects using the project name, team name, screenshots, demo links, and short descriptions. Personal photos, individual student names, or other identifying information will only be shared when appropriate permission is given. Opting in does not transfer ownership of the project to CSC; creators keep ownership of their work.
Prize distribution may require follow-up communication with the winning team. If needed, CSC may ask for appropriate contact information or parent/guardian support to distribute prizes safely.
CSC Innovation Bronze Award
The Bronze Award recognizes a strong project that clearly identifies a real school problem and presents a promising technology-based solution.
To be eligible for this award, teams must opt in and agree to the prize eligibility terms listed below.
To be eligible for a CSC Innovation Award, teams must opt in and agree to the following:
1. The project must be open source or publicly viewable after submission.
2. The team must provide a public project link, such as a GitHub repository, website, demo, design file, or project page.
3. The team gives CSC permission to feature and promote the project on CSC’s Instagram, website, club materials, or other CSC-related channels.
4. CSC may contact winning teams after the event to discuss opportunities to help share, promote, or expand the project’s reach beyond the hackathon, such as through school communities, student groups, or other relevant environments. Any additional collaboration or promotion beyond CSC’s own channels will be discussed with the team first.
5. Teams must disclose how they used AI tools, if applicable.
6. Teams must be able to explain what they built, how it works, and what role outside tools or AI played in the final project.
CSC may spotlight winning projects using the project name, team name, screenshots, demo links, and short descriptions. Personal photos, individual student names, or other identifying information will only be shared when appropriate permission is given. Opting in does not transfer ownership of the project to CSC; creators keep ownership of their work.
Prize distribution may require follow-up communication with the winning team. If needed, CSC may ask for appropriate contact information or parent/guardian support to distribute prizes safely.
CSC Innovation Honorable Mention
Honorable Mentions recognize additional standout projects that show creativity, effort, learning, and potential impact.
To be eligible for this award, teams must opt in and agree to the eligibility terms listed below.
To be eligible for a CSC Honorable Mention, teams must opt in and agree to the following:
1. The project must be open source or publicly viewable after submission.
2. The team must provide a public project link, such as a GitHub repository, website, demo, design file, or project page.
3. The team gives CSC permission to feature and promote the project on CSC’s Instagram, website, club materials, or other CSC-related channels.
4. CSC may contact winning teams after the event to discuss opportunities to help share, promote, or expand the project’s reach beyond the hackathon, such as through school communities, student groups, or other relevant environments. Any additional collaboration or promotion beyond CSC’s own channels will be discussed with the team first.
5. Teams must disclose how they used AI tools, if applicable.
6. Teams must be able to explain what they built, how it works, and what role outside tools or AI played in the final project.
CSC may spotlight winning projects using the project name, team name, screenshots, demo links, and short descriptions. Personal photos, individual student names, or other identifying information will only be shared when appropriate permission is given. Opting in does not transfer ownership of the project to CSC; creators keep ownership of their work.
Devpost Achievements
Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:
Judges
Harry Chen
CSC Judge
Ayaan Bhagat
CSC Judge
Sarvesh Gupta
Consulting Member of Technical Staff at Oracle America
Pratyush Narain
SDE 2 at Akamai and YouTuber (Padho With Pratyush)
Sai Kishan Naraparaju
Founder, TreeThirty
Anudeep Bonagiri
Co-founder & CEO of Cruze
Sachin Gurjar
AI Engineer at Turing and Founder of QuickCommerceMap
New Judges Are Welcome!
If you are interested in judging, email us at webbcsc@gmail.com!
Judging Criteria
-
Learning
Can the team clearly identify what they built, why they built it, how it works, and what they learned? AI tools are allowed and will not lower anyone's score, but disclosure must reveal the use of AI and show understanding of the final product. -
Design
Is the project easy to understand and use? A strong project will have a clear interface, thoughtful design, simple user flow, and practical use cases. -
Creativity
Is the idea thoughtful, original, or interesting? A strong project does not need to be complicated, but it should show a clear, non-generic approach to improving school life. -
Functionality
How well does the project work? A strong project should demonstrate the core idea through a working app, website, AI tool, gadget, design prototype, demo, or clear proof of concept. -
Impact
Does the project address a real school-life problem? A strong project will clearly identify who the problem affects and explain why the solution would be useful for students, teachers, clubs, classrooms, or schools.
Questions? Email the hackathon manager
Invite others to compete
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.