Over the weekend of October 17-19th, Queens College hosted the Fall 2025 Hack Knight Hackathon with a major win.
With the support of the Provost’s Office, the Department of Computer Science, the Student Association (SA), and on-campus coding clubs such as Code For All, the semi-annual coding event welcomed over 500 student participants from 11 CUNY campuses.
Major companies in the industry sponsored the event such as Capital One, Bloomberg, CodePath, and Major League Hacking (MLH).
The Fall 2025 Hackathon had a total of 47 projects competing in fields across finance, health, and the environment. Projects were judged by industry leaders and professors from the Queens College Computer Science (CS) department.
“Hack Knight is a dynamic gathering of creative minds and tech enthusiasts where participants collaborate intensively on projects for 48 hours, competing for certificates and recognition,” read the Hack Knight FAQs. Hack Knight returned as an open-ended hackathon made for peers of all expertise, welcoming new coders in groups of 2-4 people each.
The event awarded more than $1,600 worth of cash and tech prizes for categories like Best Overall Hack, Best Beginner Hack, and Most Popular Hack. Popular tech tools like Google’s Gemini API, ElevenLabs, Cloudflare services, DigitalOcean Gradient AI, and GoDaddy domains were encouraged to be used in the competition. All teams who competed for prizes had to showcase a live demo.
Revoice was awarded Best Overall Hack, with Rezon becoming Runner-Up. MLH-sponsored prizes went to Wizdom (Best Use of Gemini API), Gymbro (Best Use of Cloudflare), Revoice (Best Use of ElevenLabs), and Utero (Best Domain Name). Other winners included Aura Health (Best Beginner Hack), AEye (Best Health Hack), Stocktube (Best Financial Hack), and GreenRoute (Best Environment Hack).
ReVoice’s winning idea featured an AI tool that aimed to support speech proficiency with people who had a stutter. ReVoice built their software with React, Flask, Whisper, ElevenLabs, Gemini, and Wav2Lip. The tool aimed to help people retain their natural voices while analyzing their speech and detecting stutters.
The analysis would instantly generate a smooth sounding version that was free of stutters. The team tackled issues with real-time processing, preservation of natural human tones, and proper lip-syncing.
“We wanted something more human — a system that doesn’t erase someone’s identity, but amplifies it. Because when you hear someone’s real voice — without the struggle — it can completely change how they’re perceived, and how they feel about speaking,” said Team ReVoice.
On the other hand, Rezon’s project featured a personal trading assistant named Rezon.
This project examined another layer of human innovation through finance. Rezon built their project using Electron, a tool used for developing desktop apps, and Qwen2, an AI engine that examines user behavior and gives personalized trading support. The support given is tailored to the specific user and entirely confidential.
Some of the challenges associated with this project included ensuring the system ran efficiently, synced well between AI and the app, and provided guidance to users.
“Every trader has habits: selling too early, holding risky stocks too long, or chasing hype. We wanted to build a system that helps traders understand and correct those habits in real time through an intelligent overlay that reacts to their actions and trading style,” said Team Rezon.
Teams left with both confidence and new skills as they presented their ideas. Hack Knight became a collaborative experience where students could challenge their pre-existing knowledge of the field and challenge the developments present.
“It’s less about technical skills and more about what people can make within a short time. Even with AI it helps students pump out ideas quicker and focus on the product. You’re not judged on how efficient and clean your code is,” said Kelvin Yu, an upper senior majoring in Computer Science.
Coding and AI became languages of expression, rather than technicality, where there was no right or wrong as long as they tapped into a real passion. Hack Knight left with peers understanding how AI engines when coupled with human creativity can reveal a new layer of innovation.
