Missions

Objective

Build a platform matching students to federal, state, and nonprofit aid programs they'd otherwise never find.

Constraints

• ▸36 hours
• ▸First major hackathon
• ▸Team build

Outcome

Best Beginner Hack — later featured by Santa Cruz Works as 1 of 5 winning projects with startup potential.

Objective

Pitch ClientSight: eye-tracking that reveals where users actually look, with AI generating and optimizing components around real attention patterns.

Constraints

• ▸Pitch format — startup, not just a demo
• ▸Team of 3: Surya Pugazhenthi, Glenn-Grant Richards, Jaisuraj Kaleeswaran

Outcome

1st place — $500 prize.

Objective

Build an autonomous agent that books business travel end-to-end and pays for it with real rails.

Constraints

• ▸Agent must transact autonomously
• ▸Stripe + x402-protocol stablecoins for cross-border micropayments

Outcome

2nd place overall + Stripe Prize Track.

Objective

Build a B2B prospect-intelligence platform scoring trust and fit from live web signals.

Constraints

• ▸Marketing-agents theme
• ▸Real-time scraping via Apify, normalized into live scoring

Outcome

3rd place — Best Use of Apify API.