Skip to main content

11 Teams Recognized at IrvineHacks 2025

Angelina Wang and Ashley Nguyen
Hack at UCI board members (from left) Angelina Wang and Ashley Nguyen, who helped organize IrvineHacks 2025. (Photo courtesy of Hack at UCI)

The student-led organization Hack at UCI kicked off another successful IrvineHacks hackathon from Jan. 24–26. As the largest collegiate hackathon in Orange County, IrvineHacks 2025 hosted over 400 students to develop creative projects while competing for over $7,000 in prizes.

Projects were judged based on technology, quality and purpose. Here are the winning hacks:

Best Overall: Retinova

RetiNova encourages preventative eye care by using AI-driven image analysis to help users detect potential eye problems. Users upload a photo of their eyes and receive insights about their eye health and recommendations for healthcare providers.

Retinova was created by:

  • Jay Chan – second-year computer science major, UCI
  • Daniel Li – second-year computer science and engineering major, UCI
  • Nathan Ong – second-year computer science major, UCI
  • Leo Siu – second-year computer science major, UCI

Best Runner-Up: Homesuite

Homesuite is a property exploration platform where users browse for homes using swipe-based navigation, voice interactions and gesture controls. It also includes a messaging feature to instantly connect with agents and property owners.

Homesuite was created by:

  • Berit Cheema – third-year computer science major, CSU Long Beach
  • Byren Cheema – third-year computer science major, UCI

Hacker’s Choice: The HotSpot

To encourage more diverse and global news consumption, the HotSpot team created an interactive news map that allows users to explore real-time news, events and safety updates from anywhere in the world.

HotSpot was created by:

Four students standing in front of a banner that says IrvineHacks and holding Photo Booth props.
Matthew Phan, William Chu, Mukarram Ali and Connor Delacruz from The HotSpot team. (Photo courtesy of Hack at UCI)

Best Travel Hack: Planit

Planit is an all-in-one travel planner that helps users find the cheapest flights, book highly-rated hotels, build itineraries and more, making travel effortless and tailored to their unique needs.

Planit was created by:

  • Andy Choi – third-year computer science major, UCI
  • Geoffrey Lee – third-year software engineering major, UCI
  • Brandon Park – third-year software engineering major, UCI
  • Marian Lu – second-year applied statistics master’s student, CSU Long Beach

Best Beginner Hack: Patient

Recognizing the challenges patients face in finding reliable healthcare providers, the Patient team developed an AI-powered search engine that builds a comprehensive profile of doctors by aggregating information on their credentials, patient reviews, and more.

Patient was created by:

  • Branson Wong – first-year cognitive sciences major, UCI
  • Kelly Bach – second-year computer science & engineering major, UCI
  • Jake Bookwalter – second-year computer science and comparative history of ideas double major, University of Washington
  • Daniel Welicki – second-year computer science major, University of Washington

Best Sustainable Hack: Don’t Trash It, Cash It!

On Don’t Trash It, Cash It!, one student’s trash becomes another’s treasure. Students can rent or borrow items they no longer need and track the carbon emissions saved by reducing waste.

Don’t Trash It, Cash it! was created by:

  • Dang Nguyen – fourth-year computer science major, UCI

Best Patient Safety Technology Hack: DocuDoc

DocuDoc aims to reduce medical miscommunication between doctors and patients. It transcribes conversations patients have with their doctors and generates an after-visit summary with key takeaways and next steps.

DocuDoc was created by:

  • John Connell – second-year computer science major, UCLA
  • Ava Gonick – fourth-year computational biology major, UCLA
  • Wren Xue – fourth-year computer science major, UCLA

Best Use of AI in Real Estate (First American): Apprazer

Apprazer uses AI to automate document processing and quickly assess mortgage applications, reducing approval times from days to seconds and helping buyers move faster in competitive markets.

Apprazer was created by:

First Place Meme/LeBonBon Hack: LeTherapy

LeTherapy is an AI-powered chatbot that shares advice and wisdom from LeBron James through text, voice and video messages.

LeTherapy was created by:

  • Brandon Sun – second-year computer science major, UCI
  • Aaditya Borse – third-year computer science major, UCI
  • Varun Sunkavalli – third-year business information management and computer science double major, UCI
  • Khanh Vu – third-year computer science major, UCI

Second Place Meme/LeBonBon Hack: LeShrine

LeShrine is an entertaining Chrome extension that replaces ads with images of LeBron James. For every ad that is removed, a “Blocked by James!” audio clip also plays.

LeShrine was created by:

  • Jonathan Pan – second-year computer science major, UCI
  • Eddie Zhang – second-year computer science and engineering major, UCI

Best Use of Melissa API or Data Sets: Unity Nonprofits

Giving back to the community is fulfilling, and Unity Nonprofits helps users do just that. Users can find local nonprofits that align with their interests and easily get involved in community work.

Unity Nonprofits was created by:

  • William Jiang – first-year computer science and engineering major, UCLA
  • Candice Li – first-year art and informatics double major, UCI
  • Daniel Wu – first-year computer science and engineering major, UCLA
  • Tom Zheng – first-year data science and math double major, UCSD

Hack at UCI and another student-run organization at UCI, Women in Information and Computer Sciences (WICS), will host this year’s VenusHacks, UCI’s largest women-centric hackathon, in the spring quarter.

View the rest of the projects on the IrvineHacks 2025 Devpost.

— Karen Phan

Related Posts

Skip to content