Building for Good Hackathon

What if your next project could improve your neighbor’s lives?

The Data Science Alliance believes the best way to drive ethical innovation that helps others is through collaborative, community-driven action. That’s why we’re hosting a 2-day hackathon to create societal good in San Diego.

Data science and AI have the unprecedented power to solve some of society's most pressing challenges. Join the Building for Good hackathon, where data scientists, analysts, and engineers will catalyze the San Diego ecosystem.

Date: August 20-21

Venue: UC San Diego - Halıcıoğlu School of Data Science and Computing (HSDSC)

Location: 3234 Matthews Ln, La Jolla, CA 92093

Prizes (Value)

1st Place: $1,000

2nd Place: $500

3rd Place: $250

Best Use of EyePop.ai: $200

Challenges

Participants may choose one of the following challenge tracks:

1. Cost-of-Living Affordability

Who in San Diego is being priced out, and what would it take for them to stay? Analyze household income and cost-of-living data to identify affordability gaps, understand who is being impacted most, and propose data-driven insights or tools that could help inform future solutions.

1. Downtown Homelessness

Where is downtown's homelessness situation headed? Use historical data to develop forecasts, visualizations, or decision-support tools that help organizations better understand trends and allocate resources more effectively.

1. Open Challenge: Societal Good

Have another idea? Choose a community challenge you're passionate about (preferably impacting San Diego), use relevant data, and build something that improves people's lives.

Open Challenge submissions require pre-approval from the event organizers.

1. EyePop.ai Sponsor Challenge

EyePop.ai is challenging participants to build an AI-powered Ability—a reusable computer vision workflow that turns visual data into actionable insights. Whether it's object detection, OCR, automation, sports analytics, or something completely original, they're looking for projects that combine technical creativity with real-world impact. Top submissions will be featured by EyePop.ai and shared with their community.

Schedule

Day 1

4:00 PM   Hacker Check-in
5:00 PM   Kickoff Ceremony
5:30 PM   Dinner & Team Formation
6:00 PM   Hackathon Begins
7:00 PM   Workshops Begin
10:00 PM   Wrap-up

Day 2

8:30 AM   Breakfast
9:00 AM   Hacking Away
12:00 PM   Lunch
2:00 PM   Demo Day Begins
4:00 PM   Judging & Showcase
5:00 PM   Closing Happy Hour

Thank you to our sponsors and community partners!