Hook ’Em Hacks is UT Austin’s newest student-run hackathon — a 24-hour innovation sprint designed to bring together creators, coders, designers, and problem-solvers from every major and skill level.
Our mission is to build a high-energy, beginner-friendly environment where students can experiment, create, and launch ideas that matter. Whether you're building your first website, training a machine learning model, prototyping hardware, or creating something totally unexpected, Hook ’Em Hacks is the place to bring your imagination to life.
What Makes Hook ’Em Hacks Special-
Beginner-Friendly Tracks: Clear pathways for first-time hackers with workshops, mentors, and guided challenges.
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Industry-Led Workshops: Learn from engineers and professionals across software, AI, hardware, and product design.
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Personalized Mentorship: One-on-one support throughout the event from experienced students and industry mentors.
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Innovation-Focused Tracks: Themes such as AI, Sustainability, FinTech, and Social Good (final tracks announced closer to event).
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Community-Driven: Created by UT students, for UT students — accessible, inclusive, and supported by a growing tech community.
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BLOCKCHAIN & DECENTRALIZED AI: Build AI systems powered by blockchain—decentralized models, on-chain inference, smart contract agents, and trustless AI pipelines.
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MULTIMODAL SEARCH & GENERATION: Create AI systems that search, understand, and generate across text, images, audio, and video.
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SECURITY IN AN AI-FIRST WORLD: Design secure, trustworthy AI systems that protect users, data, and infrastructure from emerging threats.
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INTELLIGENT FINANCIAL & MARKET SYSTEMS: Build data-driven technologies for markets, trading, risk, and real-time decision making.
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PATIENT-CENTERED TECH: Develop technology that improves patient care, access, and health outcomes with people at the center.
Requirements
To be eligible for judging, teams must submit the following on Devpost:
Required-
Project Description
A clear explanation of what you built, the problem you aimed to solve, and your solution’s key features. -
GitHub Repository
Include your code, organized and documented well enough for judges to understand the implementation. -
Demo Video (2–3 minutes)
Show your project in action — explain the idea, walk through the features, and demonstrate functionality. -
Devpost Submission Form
Fill in all required fields, including tech stack, challenges, accomplishments, and what you learned.
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Live demo at the expo
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Designs/mockups, datasets used, or architectural diagrams
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Additional documentation or instructions for running your project
Projects must be created exclusively during the hackathon.
Prizes
Best Use of Gemini API
Prize: Google Swag Kits, It’s time to push the boundaries of what's possible with AI using Google Gemini. Check out the Gemini API to build AI-powered apps that make your friends say WHOA. So, what can Gemini do for your hackathon project?
Understand language like a human and build a chatbot that gives personalized advice, analyze info like a supercomputer and create an app that summarizes complex research papers, generate creative content like code, scripts, music, and more.
Think of the possibilities… what will you build with the Google Gemini API this weekend?
Best Use of ElevenLabs
Prize: Wireless Earbuds, Deploy natural, human-sounding audio with ElevenLabs. Create realistic, dynamic, and emotionally expressive voices for any project, from interactive AI companions to narrated stories and voice-enabled apps. ElevenLabs will empower you to build rich, immersive experiences without the need for actors or complex audio production, using simply the power of AI. Integrate fully autonomous audio experiences into your hack with ElevenLabs and give your project a voice, along with giving your team the chance to win some wireless earbuds!
Best Use of Solana
Prize: Ledger Nano S Plus, The world of development is evolving fast and Solana is leading the charge with a network built to handle all of your infrastructure needs. Forget high fees and slow confirmations, it’s time to build applications that are fast, efficient, and scalable. Harness Solana's core advantages like blazing fast execution and near-zero transaction costs to make your hackathon ideas become real world projects. With Solana, the possibilities are endless. Create a game, social app, or consumer product that relies on instant, high-frequency transactions. Design a sophisticated trading, lending, or decentralized exchange (DEX). Build a prototype for supply chain, identity, or payments that can handle massive, real-world volume.
Show us how you can innovate with Solana for a chance to win some cool prizes for you and each member of your team!
Best Use of MongoDB Atlas
Prize: M5Stack IoT Kit, MongoDB Atlas takes the leading modern database and makes it accessible in the cloud! Get started with a $50 credit for students or sign up for the Atlas free forever tier (no credit card required). Along with a suite of services and functionalities, you'll have everything you need to manage all of your data, and you can get a headstart with free resources from MongoDB University! Build a hack using MongoDB Atlas for a chance to win a M5Stack IoT Kit for you and each member of your group.
Best Domain Name from GoDaddy Registry
Prize: Digital Gift Card, GoDaddy Registry is giving you everything you need to be the best hacker no matter where you are. Register your domain name with GoDaddy Registry for a chance to win some amazing prizes!
BLOCKCHAIN & DECENTRALIZED AI
To be revealed
MULTIMODAL SEARCH & GENERATION
To be revealed
SECURITY IN AN AI-FIRST WORLD
To be revealed
INTELLIGENT FINANCIAL & MARKET SYSTEMS
To be revealed
PATIENT-CENTERED TECH
To be revealed
Most Startup Ready
Top 3 Get Meeting with Pear VC
Best Use of AWS
To be revealed
Best Use of Supabase
To be revealed
Devpost Achievements
Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:
Judges
Maanya Chugh
Judging Criteria
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N/A
Questions? Email the hackathon manager
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