About the challenge
The CSC Summer Impactathon is a beginner-friendly high school hackathon where students build technology to address real needs in their local communities.
Your project can be an app, website, tool, AI project, design prototype, or physical gadget. It can help a school, neighborhood, family, club, nonprofit, small business, public space, or community group solve a real problem. Projects can focus on education, accessibility, communication, organization, wellness, sustainability, safety, community support, or any other local issue that affects real people.
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. However, teams must disclose how they used AI and must be able to explain their project, their decisions, and how their final product works.
Get started
1. Find a real local community problem.
2. Think about who the problem affects.
3. Build an app, website, AI tool, prototype, or gadget that helps solve it.
4. Use any tools, tutorials, APIs, templates, or AI assistants that help you learn and build.
5. Submit your project on Devpost with an explanation, demo, 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, design prototype, or physical gadget that helps solve a real problem in your local community. This could be a problem in a school, neighborhood, family, club, nonprofit, small business, public space, or community group.
Your project does not need to be perfect or fully finished, but it should clearly show the idea, how it works, who it helps, and why it could 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, and AI tools used
- AI-use disclosure explaining which AI tools your team used and what you used them for
- 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.
Prizes
CSC Impact Gold Award
The Gold Award recognizes the strongest overall project: a thoughtful, useful, and well-executed technology project that clearly addresses a real local community problem.
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 Impact 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 Impact Silver Award
The Silver Award recognizes an excellent project with strong execution, clear usefulness, and meaningful local community relevance.
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 Impact 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 Impact Bronze Award
The Bronze Award recognizes a strong project that clearly identifies a real local 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 Impact 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 Impact 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
Ayaan Bhagat
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 explain 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 a real local community problem. -
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 local community problem? A strong project will clearly identify who the problem affects and explain why the solution would be useful in a school, neighborhood, family, club, nonprofit, etc.
Questions? Email the hackathon manager
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