Inside Sh!tty Hacks: An Anti-Hackathon at CU Boulder

As the summer waned in 2025, CU professor Zack Weaver and I brainstormed ideas over lunch in Longmont, Colorado. We were looking for ways to increase student engagement in the ATLAS BTU makerspace, and pretty quickly landed on the idea of hosting a hackathon…but not a typical one. To differentiate ourselves from the other hackathons throughout campus, we wanted something that broke away from the usual pattern of “design a product in 24 hours.”

Inspired by NYU ITP’s Stupid Hackathon and YouTube makers like Michael Reeves and Simone Giertz, we settled on “Sh!tty Hacks,” a 24-hour hackathon that awarded the weird, wild, and possibly destructive nature of making and engineering. We recruited 5 students and former students to form a planning committee and set to work.

The Plan

Most hackathons focus on fast prototyping in a tight timeframe (usually 24 or 48 hours) where teams create and pitch a product to solve a problem. 2013-2020 saw hackathons grow in popularity from grassroots movements, often in colleges, to fully sponsored, 1000+ person events (e.g. Major League Hacking). 

While I was excited to see tinkering, making, and rapid prototyping gain mainstream focus, I also saw the focus of such events narrow to purely product pitching. Many companies started hosting internal hackathons to help “foster innovation.” When done well, such events can help create team cohesion and generate new ideas. When done poorly, it can come across as exploitative of the workforce (or at least cynical). Even community-held events started to award submissions based purely on how profitable they could be, and many “volunteer” judges could be found working for local venture capital firms.

Not to say that product-focused hackathons are bad, but Zack and I felt that somewhere along the way, the process of making and creating lost its “fun” streak. 

The idea of an anti-hackathon caught on quickly with the student planning committee. To push creativity and break people out of the usual mindset, we came up with five award categories:

1. Best storytelling
2. Worst use of AI
3. Best prank
4. Most useless
5. People’s choice

There were no prizes for “best product” or “most profitable.” The goal was simple: have fun, be weird, and learn something along the way.

The CU3D club designed and 3D printed amazing badges and trophies for the event. We are also extremely grateful to DigiKey and Prusa for donating electronics parts and filament! Sh!tty Hacks would not have been successful without their contributions.

The Event

The inaugural Sh!tty Hacks event was held in the BTU lab and ATLAS lobby. We kicked things off at 11:00am on Saturday with a few ground rules before releasing attendees into the lab to start building. We had over 30 attendees, which more than filled up the BTU lab space.

Geoff and I worked the electronics table for most of the afternoon/evening to hand out electronics parts and assist with planning, soldering, and programming.

Snacks, pizza, and caffeine were provided by ATLAS so that attendees could hack through the night. I’m happy to report that more than half the teams left before 10pm to get some sleep. But the rest were quite groggy in the morning. 

Presentations and Awards

Sunday morning is where Sh!tty Hacks really paid off. I was blown away by the creativity of the projects. 

Groups were given four minutes to present their projects, and the lecture hall was awash in nonstop laughter and cheers. I’ll highlight the winners below, but keep an eye out for a full-length YouTube video showcasing the whole event.

Best Storytelling: Z3 Prototype

Team Un(stop)able’s Z3 Prototype actually solved a real problem that none of us knew we had: wiping our butts with an automated toilet. They called it a “bidet without water.” The rectilinear wiping mechanism promised to clean the dirtiest of bums with a simple push of a button. Now wiping can be hands-free while you continue to doom scroll on Instagram!

Worst Use of AI: do-something-anything.com

In a surprisingly competitive category, DJ Nothingburger took home the prize by creating the frivolous (but poignant) website do-something-anything.com. Users click the (:< button to send a random prompt to ChatGPT. It does not matter what the prompt is. The only thing that matters is that water was wasted. You get a glorious counter showing you exactly how much water was wasted and how much you personally contributed to ending the world. Yay!

Best Prank: Pinky

This terrifying robot worked as a trainer to teach aspiring parents about the joys of having kids; mostly that they are gross. If a person or object got too close, it would “pee” by releasing water out of one of its meaty “appendages.” If shaken, it would scream…and also pee itself.

Most Useless: Gary

An orange blob of ennui, Gary was an immobile robot that questioned its own existence and had the power to end its own life. It moaned, asked questions like “What am I?” and could randomly shut off its own power by manipulating a servo arm over the power strip switch. Makes us wonder if superintelligent AI might suffer from a similar kind of depression…

People’s Choice: Z3 Prototype

The People’s Choice Award was decided by the mostly unscientific method of measuring sound level as the audience cheered for their favorite project. The auto-wiping Z3 Prototype toilet took home a second trophy by winning over the hearts (and butts) of the other participants.

Other Projects

Even projects that did not win in a category showcased top-notch creativity. For example:

Reflections

In the process of decompressing from the event, I want to take a moment to reflect on what I witnessed. I feel the need to reiterate how impressed I was by the level of creativity. Give motivated students some time, parts, and caffeine, and you’ll likely be surprised, too.

While many hackathons focus on creating viable products and solving solutions, I think Sh!tty Hacks (and its NYU inspiration) serve as beacons to remind us that building, tinkering, and creating does not need the motivation of making money. Having fun, laughing, camaraderie, and making something with our hands can remind us that we’re human in a world that values productivity.

Will there be a Sh!tty Hacks 2? We hope so. Zack expressed a lot of interest in continuing the tradition, and it seems the students had fun, too. We plan to collect feedback from attendees and learn how to make the event even better next year.