United Hacks V6 - Hackathon Recap
Introduction
Over the weekend of January 16-18th, United Hacks V6 brought together over 1,200 student innovators from around the world, showcasing immense creativity, remarkable talent, and some truly groundbreaking ideas. With 100+ teams competing and more than 200 participants attending our workshops and announcement streams, this year’s hackathon marked a new high point for Hack United, our most ambitious and impactful event yet.
Centered around the theme of Human Interaction, this year’s challenge invited participants to think beyond the current innovations and enhance the different ways humans can connect. From rethinking how people interact online to reinventing how people can stay safe online, United Hacks V6 participants created some incredible new ways of human interactions and connections.
Our panel of judges consisted of experienced professionals from across the tech, design, and entrepreneurship industries. Each judge carefully evaluated each project across five key criteria: creativity, practicality, design, presentation, and technical complexity. After careful deliberation, a handful of standout projects emerged, each exemplifying the innovation, clarity, and technical excellence United Hacks strives to foster. That being said, we saw many amazing projects and would like to extend our gratitude to everyone who participated; you guys all did incredible and truly exceeded our expectations.
Project Spotlight
Backplane: First General Prize
Created by Mohit Srinivasan, Bryan Zou, and Joshua Baron, Backplane is a collaborative tool for software engineers that helps fix the bottleneck where frontend developers have to wait on backend engineers to finalize database structures. It’s essentially the Figma for databases.
These developers created a visual interface for software engineers to use a node-based graph to visually build schemas for PostgreSQL and MySQL, with no code necessary for the user to create secure, temporary REST APIs. Especially impressive is how Backplane supports real-time collaboration, allowing teams to prototype seamlessly together. Overall, it’s a great idea with an incredible execution.
Parallel is a decision-based social platform where users scroll through real dilemmas from real people, vote on what they think the person should do, and earn or lose points based on how closely their judgment aligns with AI-driven reasoning. Users of the app can also post their own decisions, track live votes, share results, and compete across worldwide leaderboards. The team from Sydney, composed of Harshil Kakkar, Rayan Sharma, Ishan Kumar, and Avenesh Sivasubramanium, was inspired to create this application because of their experience with life-changing decisions, whether it be ending a relationship or sending a risky text; having other opinions can help mitigate the magnitude of the situation.
The team wanted to turn this moment of indecision into something that is more socially involved and playful. Along with posts from other users, they used AI to analyze posts, votes, and what others have commented about to generate a clear and in-depth personality report to summarize strengths, weaknesses, and what direction the user should go towards in the future. Ultimately, they presented their ideas very clearly and truly convinced us of their project and implementation.
Built by Gabriel Ramirez Perez, Frank Laterza, and William Eustis, WebHangin’ is a 3D social space made for “low-pressure” hanging out. Compared to traditional video calls, it focuses on a shared presence with your peers, giving users the feeling of being together while working on their own separate hobbies like coding, gaming, or practicing music. They used 3D environments for users to join and interact with each other, including spatial voice chat, text chat, and in-world screen sharing.
This project really captured the spirit of the digital community and those late-night calls with friends. It truly focused on the theme of human interaction and exceeded our expectations by a long shot.
Human Interactions have come a long way, especially with the advancements and developments in text messaging. Being able to communicate with someone else without having to wait too long or be in close proximity was groundbreaking, but it left one problem. Without the other person, it can be hard to decipher the tone of their message or the true meaning behind their text. This is what inspired Rakesh Jai to develop Echo.
Echo is a Google Chrome Extension that is AI-powered and predicts how the other person will react and perceive the user’s message. This is done through context-based classification. The app works in the background to support social media platforms as well. Echo helps users ensure that their message will not be misinterpreted and maintain connections and relationships with everyone. Overall, it really fits with the theme and shows a great example of seamless integration into human interaction.
Over 240 million 911 calls are made every year in the United States, with countless situations involving a distressed civilian, and the operator is unable to decipher the emergency. This gave inspiration to Darren Shen to develop FirstWaveAI, an AI project that will benefit society, first responders, and 911 operators by providing clear information and next steps.
FirstWaveAI is a multi-agent AI-powered software that utilizes an Extraction Agent, which captures the key details of the event, a Triage Agent that prioritizes tasks, a Next-Question Agent that suggests follow-up questions, a Dispatch Planner that recommends first responders, a Resource Locator to calculate estimated ETAs, and a Safety Guardrail that ensures ethical recommendations. Together, these agents power a system that structures information in real time, visualizes the situation on a live map, and supports dispatchers with clear, actionable recommendations while keeping a human firmly in control of the final decision. Overall, this project does a great job connecting various human systems together into one flawless project, showing great promise for future expansion.
Startup fundraising has become a frustrating, complex, and tedious task, especially when it comes to cold outreach. While the internet makes it possible for founders to contact hundreds of investors, crafting meaningful, personalized emails remains a challenge. Researching each investor’s background, interests, and past investments can take 20–30 minutes per person, turning outreach into a full-time job that pulls founders away from actually building their product. This challenge inspired Anton Melnyk to create ReachRound.
ReachRound is an AI-powered platform designed to streamline and scale investor outreach without sacrificing personalization. Using Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 Sonnet, the platform performs deep, multi-step research on each investor by analyzing recent investments, social media activity, podcast appearances, and investment theses. Based on this context, ReachRound generates tailored cold emails that reference specific and relevant details. With direct Gmail integration, founders can confidently reach 50+ investors in the time it once took to contact just a few, maintaining both efficiency and authenticity in their outreach, and time to further develop their product. Overall, this project shows a lot of promise and ingenuity, and it's incredible that it’s done by just one person.
Sponsors
We would like to thank all of our sponsors for their generous support in making United Hacks V6 a success. We would also like to highlight our keynotes, Pega6 and the Youth Research Initiative, whose insights and contributions were invaluable in inspiring and guiding our participants throughout the event. Your support has played a crucial role in bringing this hackathon to life, and we are incredibly grateful!
Pega6 is revolutionizing the way students enter the workforce by providing an alternative to traditional college education. Their Career Accelerators program offers a one-year, immersive, hybrid learning experience that combines hands-on training with industry-relevant skills. Students graduate as AI-first Product Builders, ready to tackle real-world challenges with both technical and soft skills. Pega6’s unique approach helps students jump-start their careers three years earlier than college graduates, offering an opportunity to get ahead in both experience and salary. We are thrilled to have Pega6 as a key sponsor for United Hacks V6, as their commitment to transforming education aligns perfectly with our mission to empower and support the next generation of innovators.
The Youth Research Initiative (YRI) is dedicated to transforming students into published researchers through one-on-one mentorship from top-tier PhD mentors. Through their rigorous 10-week fellowship program, YRI provides students the tools and resources needed to conduct groundbreaking research, publish in prestigious journals, and earn recognition at top science fairs. Their alumni have gone on to secure placements at leading universities such as MIT, Stanford, and Harvard. YRI’s unparalleled focus on research excellence and career development makes them a powerful force in shaping the next generation of scientific leaders. We are grateful for their partnership and support in making United Hacks V6 an unforgettable experience for all involved.
Conclusions
United Hacks V6, held over the weekend of January 16-18th, showcased an extraordinary spectrum of creativity, innovation, and technical brilliance. From ambitious solo projects to collaborative, impact-driven platforms, the event proved just how powerful student innovators can be when given the freedom to explore, build, and inspire. Each project reflected the passion, curiosity, and drive that define the United Hacks community.
As we wrap up these unforgettable chapters, we’re already setting our sights on what’s next. United Hacks V7 is on the horizon, taking place from July 10-12, 2026. It’s a virtual event open to all skill levels. You can register for UHV7 today through Devpost!
Important Links
If you are interested in learning more about Hack United, visit the following links below!
Website: https://www.hackunited.org/
United Hacks V6 Devpost: https://unitedhacksv6.devpost.com/
Social Media: https://www.hackunited.org/social
Discord Server: discord.gg/hackunited
To support future events, please consider donating. All contributions are tax-deductible. Visit hackunited.org/donate for more information.