About the challenge
GullHacks is Salisbury University’s first-ever hackathon, built to help students of any major build real technical skills and become competitive candidates for careers in tech. Whether you’re a first-time hacker or a seasoned builder, our goal is to get you designing, building, and shipping a project from scratch, backed by mentors, workshops, and a community of makers.

This in-person, 24-hour, MLH-affiliated event runs November 7th–8th at Salisbury University, across Perdue Hall, Henson Hall, and the Guerrieri Academic Commons (GAC). Set sail with us as we Navigate New Horizons; solve a real problem, learn a new skill, or experiment with an idea you’ve been sitting on. No experience required, just curiosity and a willingness to dive in.

The Schedule
Saturday, Nov 7

10:00 AM: Doors Open & Pre Check-In Activities (Perdue 1st Floor)
11:00 AM: Opening Ceremony, required (Perdue 156)
11:45 AM–12:15 PM: Team Building & Brainstorming (Perdue 1st & 2nd Floors)
12:00 PM: Hacking Begins, required, all
12:15–1:00 PM: Sponsor Connect (Perdue 1st Floor)
1:00–2:30 PM: Lunch (The Commons)
1:00–3:00 PM: Official Check-In, required (Perdue 1st Floor)
2:00–2:30 PM: Workshop: Intro to the Cloud, sponsored by SBS (Henson 103)
2:45–3:45 PM: MLH Workshop (Perdue 156)
4:00 PM: Paint Your Own Island (Henson 111)
5:00–5:30 PM: Workshop: Build Smarter with AI, with Spencer Presley (Henson 148)
6:00–7:30 PM: Dinner (The Commons)
7:00–7:30 PM: Workshop: How to Use Git, with Isaac Dugan (Henson 243)
8:00 PM: Walk the Plank (Dance Floor Edition) (Perdue 268)
11:00 PM: Sailor’s Theater (Perdue 156)

Sunday, Nov 8

12:00 AM: Midnight Snack (Perdue 1st Floor)
9:30–10:30 AM: Breakfast (The Commons)
10:00 AM: Mandatory Check-In, required (Perdue 2nd Floor)
10:30–11:00 AM: Workshop: Packaging & Positioning, with John R. Tersigni (Perdue 268)
11:00–11:30 AM: Workshop: How to Submit Your Project, with Jairik McCauley (Perdue 263)
12:00 PM: Project Submission Deadline, required, submit on Devpost
12:00–1:30 PM: Lunch (The Commons)
12:30 PM: Judging Begins, required (Henson Hall)
1:00 PM: Captain’s Build-Off (Perdue 268)
2:00 PM: Board Games on Deck (Perdue 258)
3:00 PM: Closing Ceremony, required (GAC Assembly Hall)

Categories
If you submit to the Beginner Hacker track, you can only participate in that track. Otherwise, you can submit to up to two of any of the categories or tracks below. Beginners may take inspiration from any category but should submit to the Beginner Track if it’s their first hackathon. Choose the category that best matches your project - you’ll be judged within that track.

Any and all projects started before the hacking period on November 7th at 12:00 PM ET will be disqualified.

Beginner Hacker
Judging Room: Henson 123

New to hackathons? This track is for you. You don’t need to know everything to build something great. You just need an idea and a willingness to learn. Mentors are here all weekend to help.

Your challenge: build a project that solves a problem you care about, big or small. Any topic, language, or tool is welcome.

Project ideas:

• A tool that helps students stay organized
• A simple game or website
• An app that makes an everyday task easier

Eligibility Criteria:

1. If you choose this track, you can only participate in this track.
2. If you’re on a team, there can be no more than one non-beginner and no fewer than one beginner.
3. You must have taken no more than 3 CS courses to be eligible for this track.
4. Built during the hackathon

What’s a problem you’ve always wanted to solve with code?

Prize: JBL Speaker

AI & Autonomous Systems
Judging Room: Henson 115

AI is changing how people work, learn, and make decisions. This track is about putting it to good use.

Your challenge: build a project that uses AI to solve a real problem. Your project might learn from data, understand language or images, make decisions, or complete tasks on its own.

Project ideas:

• A tool that reads a photo of a plant, part, or product and tells you what’s wrong with it
• A study assistant that answers questions from class notes
• An AI agent that completes multi-step tasks on its own, like planning a schedule

Eligibility Criteria:

1. Built during the hackathon

How might we build intelligent systems that save people time, make better decisions, or take on work that is too complex, repetitive, or dangerous for humans to do alone?

Prize: DJI Neo Drone

Cybersecurity & Threat Defense
Judging Room: Henson 113

Every app, device, and network can be attacked. Good security keeps people and their information safe.

Your challenge: build a project that helps protect people, data, or systems from digital threats.

Project ideas:

• A tool that spots phishing emails or scam texts
• A password or account safety checker
• A dashboard that flags unusual activity on a network

Eligibility Criteria:

1. Tests only systems you own or have permission to test
2. Built during the hackathon

How might we create tools that detect attacks, protect sensitive information, or help people and small organizations defend themselves without needing to be security experts?

Prize: Raspberry Pi 5 Starter Kit

Sustainability & Climate Technology
Judging Room: Henson 111

Climate change affects our energy, food, water, and the places we live. Technology can help us use resources more wisely.

Your challenge: build a project that helps people, communities, or businesses save energy, reduce waste, or respond to climate change.

Project ideas:

• An app that tracks and lowers home energy use
• A tool that helps a campus reduce food waste
• A map that shows flood or heat risk on the Eastern Shore

Eligibility Criteria:

1. Built during the hackathon

How might we build solutions that reduce waste, conserve energy and water, or help communities understand and adapt to a changing climate?

Prize: Anker SOLIX C300 DC Power Station

Health, Wellness & Social Technology
Judging Room: Henson 109

Health is about more than doctor visits. It includes mental health, healthy habits, feeling connectedto others, and staying organized.

Your challenge: Build a project that improves physical health, mental well-being, or the way peopleconnect, support, and care for one another.

Project ideas:

• A habit or sleep tracker
• A tool that connects students with campus resources
• An app that helps people find local volunteer or support groups

Eligibility Criteria:

1. Uses no real patient or private health data
2. Built during the hackathon

How might we create tools that improve physical or mental health, make care more accessible, or bring people together in ways that make their lives better?

Prize: Beats Solo 4 Headphones

Public Systems & Infrastructure
Judging Room: Henson 107

Roads, transit, utilities, and public services keep communities running. Many of them could work better with the right technology.

Your challenge: build a project that improves how a city, town, campus, or public service works.

Project ideas:

• A tool that tracks bus arrivals or open parking
• An app that lets residents report potholes or broken streetlights
• A system that helps plan or monitor road and building projects

Eligibility Criteria:

1. Built during the hackathon

How might we improve transportation, government services, public safety, or city planning so they work better for the people who rely on them?

Prize: LEGO Creator Expert NASA Apollo 11 Lunar Lander

Sponsored Categories

Best Internal Operations Platform, Sponsored by OmniTechPro
Judging Room: Henson 103

OmniTechPro is a five-person IT team supporting about 60 small businesses. Their knowledge is spread across tickets, monitoring tools, documentation, Google Drive, and people’s heads, so one simple question can mean opening four tools and asking two people.

Your challenge: build “Omni Brain,” one place where a small IT team can find answers, follow step-by-step process plans, and see the numbers that matter.

A strong project:

• Answers questions from the team’s documents, cites the source, and says “I don’t know” when the documents don’t cover it
• Lets the team create, assign, and complete process plans, like onboarding a new client
• Shows a dashboard built from OmniTechPro’s sandbox API

OmniTechPro provides the sandbox API, sample data, 30+ sample guides, and AI credits for each team. All data is fake.

Eligibility Criteria:

1. Runs with one docker compose up command
2. Public GitHub repository with a README and an MIT or Apache 2.0 license
3. Dashboard numbers come from the sandbox API, not hardcoded
4. Built during the hackathon

A rough app that works beats a polished app that doesn’t.

Prize: $100 Amazon Gift Card

Best Cloud Engineering, Sponsored by Strategic Business Systems
Judging Room: Henson 148

Strategic Business Systems builds cloud products and infrastructure. They want to see how you use the cloud to solve a real problem.

Your challenge: build a practical app or tool where the cloud is central to the solution, not just a place to host it. Think scaling, automation, security, monitoring, or data processing. Your project can be an app, a developer tool, a security tool, a monitoring platform, or anything else that puts the cloud to real use. AWS is encouraged, but any cloud platform, language, or framework is welcome.

Eligibility Criteria:

1. Uses the cloud as a central part of the solution, not just for hosting
2. Working demo of the core idea
3. Clear reasons behind your technology choices
4. Uses no sensitive or private data
5. Built during the hackathon

Prize: Amazon Echo Dot

MLH Mini Categories
Judging Room: Henson 211

MLH is hosting several mini categories at GullHacks. To be considered, select the categories you want on your judging signup form and visit the MLH judging room during judging to present.

• Build Your Hackathon A-Team with SpaceXSI: Mechanical Keyboard
• Best Use of Gemini API: MLH Swag Kits
• Best Use of Solana: Unruggable Hardware Wallets
• Best Use of Tiger Data: Stream Deck Mini
• Best Use of Vultr: M5Stack Official Tab5
• Best Use of Snowflake API: Arduino Student Kit
• Best Domain Name from GoDaddy Registry: Digital Gift Card

Learn more at MLH Prizes. Prizes are provided by MLH sponsors.

How You’ll Be Judged
Every project is evaluated on five criteria. Mini categories may have additional requirements.

• Creativity & Originality: Is it a fresh idea or approach, more than a rehash of an existing tool?
• Technical Difficulty: Did the team take on meaningful challenges for their experience level?
• Design & User Experience: Is it usable, well-organized, and polished?
• Practicality & Impact: Could it realistically solve a real problem, and for whom?
• Presentation: Does the team clearly explain what they built, how it works, and why it matters? A working demo helps.

Get started

Register through our Google Form: https://forms.gle/NSQs7w3zG71V28Fd9. Registration is open to Salisbury University students, other college students, and high schoolers. Guardians must complete a waiver for minors. Registration is still open, but merch and food aren’t guaranteed for anyone who registered after October 31.

Form a team of up to 4, or come solo and find teammates on our Discord or at Team Building on Saturday.

Check in at Perdue Hall (1st Floor) on November 7th. Doors open at 10:00 AM, and official check-in runs 1:00–3:00 PM. Bring your student ID, plus a signed waiver if you’re under 18.

• Creativity & Originality
  Does the project bring a fresh idea or approach? Is it more than a rehash of an existing tool?
• Technical Difficulty
  How complex is the implementation? Did the team take on meaningful technical challenges given their experience level?
• Design & User Experience
  Is the project usable, well-organized, and intentional in its design choices? Does it look and feel polished?
• Practicality & Impact
  Could the project realistically solve a real problem? Who would benefit, and how much?
• Presentation
  Does the team clearly explain what they built, how it works, and why it matters? A working demo helps.