2024
BayHacks 2024: Building the Future in Tampa Bay
Charlton Trezevant
Tampa Devs Contributor
Charlton Trezevant
Tampa Devs Contributor
When Vincent Tang and I first started Tampa Devs, the goal was simple: to create a space where developers, founders, and tinkerers could just build together. Looking back at the sheer scale and energy of BayHacks 2024, it’s incredible to see how far that vision has come.
Held at USF's Discovery Hall over a weekend in February 2024, BayHacks was a pressure cooker of caffeine, collaboration, and code. We saw over 120 of Tampa Bay’s brightest minds sacrifice their sleep to build software prototypes, pitch startups, and push their technical limits in a race against the clock.
It was one part part, one part overnight battle—and 100% a testament to the talent we have right here in Tampa Florida.
With $2,000 in cash prizes on the line, the competition was fierce, and the sheer variety of the projects was inspiring. We saw teams tackling everything from local community issues to global tech challenges:
An app built to counter misinformation by connecting users directly with trusted, primary sources.
A specialized tracking app built for Florida’s scuba diving community to log and identify local marine life.
A tool designed to translate YouTube audio into a user's preferred language on the fly.
A platform dedicated to streamlining pet adoptions and promoting responsible pet ownership.
For me, one of the most exciting parts of the weekend wasn't just a hackathon project—it was our very first test for our cloud project. BayHacks 2024 served as the official launchpad for the Tampa Devs Public Cloud.
During the hackathon, participants were actually able to spin up virtual machines and test their code on our hardware. Providing free compute resources to students and developers to bridge the digital divide has been a massive goal for us, and seeing it live in action at BayHacks was an unforgettable milestone.
A hackathon is only as good as the builders who show up, and you all absolutely delivered. A massive congratulations to our overall winners who took home the cash prizes:
🥇 1st Place ($950): CodeBoxx
🥈 2nd Place ($700): Graphien
🥉 3rd Place ($350): Elastic Engineering
We also want to give a huge shoutout to our category winners for pushing the boundaries of what you can build in a single weekend:
Thank You to the Community!
To the mentors who stayed up late troubleshooting bugs, the judges who lent their expertise, and the incredible sponsors who made the event possible: thank you. Tampa Devs is built by the community, for the community, and BayHacks 2024 proved exactly why we do this.
If you want to get involved, volunteer for the Cloud Project, or just talk tech. Come find us in the Tampa Devs Slack and let's keep building!