Authors: Chitra Venkatesh, Lekan Adisa
To close out 2025, Google Cloud proudly sponsored Florida’s top hackathons, ShellHacks and KnightHacks, witnessing firsthand the incredible talent emerging from the Sunshine State. From Miami to Orlando, we challenged developers to push the boundaries of AI—and the results were nothing short of inspiring.
ShellHacks 2025: Innovation at Scale
As Florida’s largest hackathon and a cornerstone of the Major League Hacking (MLH) season, ShellHacks brought over 1,400 global participants to Florida International University. The energy was highest in the Cloud AI track, where 115+ teams competed to build advanced implementations using our Agent Development Kit (ADK) and Agent2Agent (A2A) protocol.
Winners
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BrainSafe: A proactive browser extension prioritizing digital safety for children.
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Imposture: A clever real-time health tool for posture monitoring.
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A11y tools: A comprehensive suite dedicated to making the web more accessible for everyone.
Google Cloud is thrilled to continue our partnership with MLH and FIU, bridging knowledge gaps in agentic architectures and empowering the Miami tech ecosystem.
KnightHacks VIII: Building Production-Ready Solutions
Meanwhile, at the University of Central Florida, KnightHacks VIII delivered a high-octane 36-hour sprint for over 1,000 developers. Our mission was clear: drive deep expertise in the Agent Development Kit (ADK) and Agent2Agent (A2A) protocol. With 800+ participants tackling the Google Cloud challenge, the competition highlighted how agentic AI can solve real-world problems.
Winners
Hermes: A seamless AI travel companion that interprets landmarks to provide context.
Emergent: A groundbreaking AI platform for crisis simulation that allows emergency managers to test disaster plans
KnightSource: A specialized financial advisor built to navigate the unique needs of university students.
A massive congratulations to all the winners and participants! These projects proved that with ADK and A2A, developers can move beyond prototypes to build robust, production-ready AI solutions.
Ready to Build?
Inspired by these projects? You can start building your own agentic solutions today using the same tools our winners used:
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Agent Development Kit (ADK) Documentation: Get started with building agents today
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Agent2Agent (A2A) Protocol Documentation: Learn how to enable seamless communication and interoperability between autonomous agents.
