Cal State Monterey Bay students will put their creative and technical skills to work at HACK UCSC 2015.

Organizers at UC Santa Cruz have expanded the Jan. 9-11 hackathon from last year’s campus event to one that is open to high school and college students around Monterey Bay. More than 300 programmers, designers and tech enthusiasts are expected to compete for $10,000 in cash and prizes.

A hackathon is a coding marathon where teams comprised of developers, designers and entrepreneurs work together to create apps and programs. The themes for this event are technology, environmental stewardship and social justice.

CSUMB is one of the event sponsors. Information Technology and Communications Design students as well as business students are expected to enter since the hackathon involves writing code and developing a business case for each team’s project.

“We are excited to be a part of the regional effort to build entrepreneurial skills and interest through this event,” said Dr. Brad Barbeau, associate professor of economics and entrepreneurship at CSUMB. “This will benefit all of the students in the region.”

Judges will score projects based on technical difficulty, functional completeness, usefulness and business potential.

About 100 UCSC students competed in the first hackathon last April, developing apps to benefit local businesses. “When we surveyed the participants two weeks after the hackathon, we learned that over half had been made job offers,” Doug Erickson, founder of the Santa Cruz New Tech MeetUp said in a news release.

HACK UCSC

WHAT: Competition for $10,000 in cash and prizes; open to students throughout the Monterey Bay region

WHEN: Jan. 9-11, 2015

WHERE: UC Santa Cruz Crown Merrill Cultural Center

DETAILS: Starts at 1 p.m. Friday, Jan. 9; meals, mentors and a safe place to hack are provided. Judging begins Sunday afternoon, Jan. 11; dinner for the top teams that night. Winners will be announced at dinner.

COST: $20 per student prior to Nov. 22; $25 after that date

REGISTER FOR HACK UCSC