Support IDEA Hacks 2026!
Help us fund the 12th Annual IDEA Hacks Hackathon!
IDEA Hacks is an annual event put on by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) at UCLA. But what is it? IDEA Hacks is a hackathon, which is like a marathon but for people who enjoy locking themselves in a room to write code, build prototypes out of loose wires and breadboards, and solder components together to bring their dreams to life. Our hackathon runs for 36 hours straight in that time our competitors will be given a theme (which we’re keeping a secret for now) and as many components as their heart, or team, desires in order to design and build a product that aligns with the central theme and one of three subcategories.
We pride ourselves with being the largest hardware hackathon on the west coast, usually seeing 200+ competitors enter each year to form around 50 teams each with their own unique ideas and backgrounds that come together to create stunning and innovative projects. Our hackers are primarily UCLA students though we welcome students from everywhere to compete alongside us and build their dreams!
The IDEA Hacks team is 30+ strong and has been and will be hard at work for months in preparation for this event but even with our combined efforts we find ourselves lacking. Everything has a cost and we want this event to be free to attendees so that there is no limit to whose plans come to fruition. We feed our hackers four meals over the course of the competition, supply them with snacks, room to hack, access to machinery, a series of workshops that cover concepts from product design to wireless communication, and perhaps most importantly of all electrical components. This racks up a bill. A bill we can’t cover with our budget alone which is why we’ve come to you!
With your donation you will have a marked and visible impact on IDEA Hacks as individual components are cheap, but quantity isn’t. We’ll be able to make this year’s hackathon the best yet by offering a wide breadth of parts so that teams can work with components that are not only high quality but familiar to them. Thanks to you, our hackers will be able to compete in comfort without having to worry about arranging their own accommodations like places to stay and where to get meals. Your contributions will give our hackers the basis of what they need to build a brighter tomorrow today. So thank you for giving to our campaign from all of us here at IDEA Hacks.
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Should this fund reach the campus minimum required for the establishment of an endowment or quasi-endowment, The UCLA Foundation reserves the right to convert this fund to an endowment or quasi-endowment. Please click here to learn more about how the UCLA Foundation invests and manages its endowments.
$10
Buy a hackers passives
Breadboards, jumpers, and resistors your donation will sponsor the rudimentary pieces need for our backers builds. You will be giving them the bones of their project, they would not have a project without you!
$25
Buy advanced parts
Without some sensors and integrated circuits our hackers would not be able to do much more than move electrons from point A to B. With your donation we can start controlling motors, detecting motion, light in the room, water, even DUST and start displaying some pictures, you give our hackers projects character and functionality
$50
Sponsor a projects brain
Hardware on its own is great but the only way to get the most out of it is with some software. With your donation we can afford microcontrollers for our hackers to wire into their projects to act as a brain. Thanks to you our hackers will be able to make their wildest dreams a reality!
$100
Feed a hacker
36 hours of nonstop hacking is no joke. We want to make sure our competitors have four guaranteed meals over the course of the competition as well as all the snacks and energy drinks they deem necessary to fuel their creativity, soldering iron, and development environment.
$250
Sponsor a prize
While hacking and creating something from scratch is reward enough, a tangible reward certainly does not hurt. We pride ourselves on being able to give a prize to each member of the top three teams AND the winners of our three themed tracks, and with your donation we can make that a possibility.
$500
Keeping the lights on
We are lucky enough to be able to host IDEA Hacks on campus in a venue we can stay in for the entire 36 hours, but to make that happen as well as supply our hackers with electricity, Wi-Fi, and a place to work does not come cheap. With your donation we can be sure hackers would not have to worry about any nonelectrical elements.
$1,000
All of the above and more
IDEA Hacks is a huge event and putting it on requires a dedicated and multifaceted team. But even beyond that it requires resources that we alone do not have access to. With your immensely generous donation we would be a good chunk of the way to not only making this event a reality but have it exceed our wildest dreams and we simply would not be able to do that without you!