Inviting all builders, hackers & tinkerers to USC's premier AI Hackathon!  

 

SEP Hacks 2026 is USC's premier AI hackathon and an official LA Tech Week event.  Ship a real product and pitch to judges from OpenAI, YC companies & beyond!  

 

🏆 $3,000+ in prizes, sponsored by AfterQuery, SideShift, Lemma, OutcastVentures & Figma!

Requirements

What to Submit

- A 2 min demo + pitch video

- Github project link

- Project link (eg. deployed on vercel)

Hackathon Sponsors

Prizes

$3,300 in prizes
Grand Tech Winner
$1,500 in cash
1 winner

Grand Tech Runner-Up
$500 in cash
1 winner

Best Visual Design
$300 in cash
1 winner

$300 + Exclusive Figma Merch!

Most Scalable To $1B
$500 in cash
1 winner

Continual Failure Detection
$500 in cash
1 winner

Devpost Achievements

Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:

Judges

Michelle Liu

Michelle Liu
Studio Michelle Liu

Kaushal Patel

Kaushal Patel
OpenAI

Jerry Zhang

Jerry Zhang
Lemma

ShiaoFong Yin

ShiaoFong Yin
Lloyd Greif

Judging Criteria

  • Eligibility
    Be a team of at MAX 4 people, ensure your project AND GitHub links work, ensure your demo is legible
  • Functionality
    How functional is the prototype or demo?
  • Continual Learning
    Does your product get better as it's used, or adapt as the world changes?
  • Pitch
    Tell a story with your demo, put the judges into the shoes of your consumer and demonstrate why your product is valuable

Questions? Email the hackathon manager

Invite others to compete

Hackathon sponsors

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