USC hackathon brings students to Columbia Oct. 10-11

The University of South Carolina chapter of Kappa Theta Pi and the Boyd Innovation Center will host PalmettoHacks, a free 24-hour hackathon, Oct. 10-11 in Columbia. The event is open to students from any college or major and is designed to help beginners and experienced builders leave with a prototype, pitch, and new industry connections.

Why it matters: - PalmettoHacks gives students a low-barrier way to build technical, business and product skills in one weekend. - The event is meant to connect student talent with Columbia's startup and innovation network. - Organizers say the hackathon can produce a project students keep building, a portfolio piece or a concrete interview story.

What happened: - The University of South Carolina chapter of Kappa Theta Pi will host PalmettoHacks on Oct. 10-11, 2026, at USC's Molinaroli College of Engineering and Computing in Columbia, South Carolina. - The Boyd Innovation Center is presenting the 24-hour hackathon. - PalmettoHacks is an official Major League Hacking event. - The event is open to students from any college or university, any major and any experience level.

The details: - Students can arrive without a team, an idea or coding experience. - Teams will form at kickoff and work across five tracks: Clean Energy, Hardware, Startups, AI/ML and Cloud. - Projects can draw on design, research, data, business and product skills, along with software and hardware. - Participants will have mentors, workshops, overnight build space and free meals. - Teams will present projects to judges on Sunday. - The prize pool is $2,500 and growing, including more than $1,000 for first place. - Corporate partners include QNX, BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina, Capgemini, CVS Health and Dominion Energy. - USC's Faber Entrepreneurship Center is also supporting the event. - The event website is PalmettoHacks.

Between the lines: - Kappa Theta Pi is pitching the hackathon as a professional on-ramp for beginners and experienced builders alike. - The Boyd Innovation Center sees student-led events as a pipeline into Columbia's startup community. - The sponsor mix connects the event to software, healthcare, energy and technology consulting employers. - Sam Herskovitz said hackathons can be an early founder experience and a way to show students that serious technical and entrepreneurial work is happening in Columbia.

What's next: - Organizers are taking registrations now for the free event. - Organizations can still sponsor, add to the prize pool, mentor, judge or submit a challenge. - Interested partners can contact Luke Jannazzo at jannazzo@sc.edu. - More information is available at PalmettoHacks, Kappa Theta Pi at USC and Boyd Innovation Center.