The CSC Back-to-School Hackathon is a beginner-friendly high school hackathon where students build technology to improve school life. Participants can create an app, website, tool, AI project, design prototype, or physical gadget designed to help students, teachers, clubs, classrooms, dorms, teams, or schools solve real problems. Projects may focus on studying, scheduling, communication, organization, wellness, accessibility, campus life, classroom tools, or any other school-related challenge.
AI tools are allowed and encouraged. Participants may use tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, or other coding and design assistants to brainstorm, code, debug, design, and build their projects. Using AI will not lower scores; 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 be able to explain their project, their decisions, and how their final product works.
Teams may work individually or in groups of up to four people. A 1–2 minute demo video is optional but encouraged. To participate, teams should find a real school-life problem, identify who it affects, and build a solution using any available tools, tutorials, APIs, templates, datasets, or AI assistants.
Prizes The event features Innovation Awards (Gold, Silver, and Bronze) sponsored by various organizations. Prizes include significant credits for platforms like Momen, Render, Featherless.ai, n8n, Boot.dev, and KnowledgeOwl, with total values ranging from over $2,000 to nearly $5,000 depending on the award tier. Winning projects are recognized for their thoughtfulness, usefulness, execution, and relevance to school communities.
To be eligible for awards, teams must opt in and agree to terms including making their project open source or publicly viewable, providing a public link (e.g., GitHub, website), granting permission for CSC to feature the project, and disclosing AI usage. Teams must also be able to explain what they built and how it works.