Citrus Hack, a hackathon, hosted by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) at the University of California, Riverside (UCR), gives students in the Inland Empire access to opportunities in computer science that otherwise wouldn’t be available to them. With keynote speakers, sponsorships, interview opportunities and more, ACM at UCR puts on an event that is a true showcase of hardwork, curiosity and generosity.
The event started with an opening ceremony describing the different sponsors as well as how Citrus Hack found its beginnings here at UCR. Co-president of the club and third year computer engineering major, Allison Pham, explained that Citrus Hack was founded back in 2015, making it one of the first and oldest hackathons here at UCR. This year’s competition workshops range from user interface and user experience to game design. The keynote speaker of the morning, distinguished professor Dr. Rajiv Gupta, spoke about his research into algorithms, graphs and efficiency.
After that, the rules of the competition were set out, as well as the overall schedule during the 24 hour period with meals being provided.
Competitors set out to create their projects working in teams and individually. The club hosts other hackathons such as CutieHack and RoseHack as well as projects of their own, not limited to designing webpages for other clubs on campus. Pham explained that ACM as an organization hopes to provide students with resources related to technical careers as well as opportunities to create projects of their own: “[The] goal is to provide technical professional and also community opportunities through our events, workshops, programs and more. Our goal with Citrus Hack, and just in general, is to provide students with the career skills and development over time in order to prep them for their future.”
Pham herself joined around in the summer of her first year as a business major. She explained that the club helped her make the decision to switch to computer engineering and gave her a space to learn and grow. Chris Zaldivar, second year computer science and business application major, joined the team as operations lead after winning CutieHack in 2024 and a beginner prize at RoseHack.
The average ACM meeting can range in its subject matter but support is always there. Pham explained that board members are always there to support members in their computer science journey providing opportunities to engage with different aspects of the field such as web development, UI/UX design, data science and more.
Furthermore the club aims to provide students with a means of expanding their professional knowledge with a variety of workshops, such as building their resumes and mock interviews. The club aims to provide a friendly environment with their social events like going to the beach.
In regards to the process of bringing Citrus Hack to life, co-president Cristian Roberts compared it to planting and growing a seed. Citrus Hack planning began over the summer, which Roberts likened to as the “skeleton of the event.” From there, ACM went about finding the right leads to organize it and bring it to life. Roberts shared, “We emphasize trying to make this event successful,” because “if we can’t do the basic things, then we can’t have an event at all.”
Roberts emphasized the presence of industry professionals and representatives to help them in their time after the competition. He hopes that the connections that students make at Citrus Hack will carry them into their future careers. Zaldivar added on, stating that it is a great opportunity for students who have never participated in a hackathon: “When I first came to UCR, I had my first hackathon. It was my first quarter, and I knew nothing. And I know there are plenty of people like that. When you ask people, there were over a dozen people [who] raised their hand [at] just [the] opening ceremony alone, and said that it was their first hackathon.” Because of this, board members and program organizers aim to be as helpful and welcoming as possible.
The planning team faced some setbacks in regards to scheduling, as they did fall behind this year. Because the club hosts two other Hackathons during fall and winter quarter, the team is often balancing multiple projects. Pham described how they were able to get back on track coordinating with their finance, marketing and operations team locking down sponsors, industry professionals and company appearances.
The team was most excited to see what projects people came up with as well as to dole out the prizes which went to Mira, iris. and Plock. ACM and Citrus Hack are great ways for students to explore their technological prowess, so be sure to participate next year and check them out!
