| April 17-19, 2026 |

CUXD

DESIGN-[A]-THON

A three-day, virtual event that brings student designers together to build innovative, user-centered solutions.


Register by 11:59 PM EST April 16th, 2026.

| April 17-19, 2026 |

CUXD

DESIGN-[A]-THON


A three-day, virtual event that brings student designers together to build innovative, user-centered solutions.


Register by 11:59 PM EST April 16th, 2026.

| April 17-19, 2026 |

CUXD

DESIGN-[A]-THON

A three-day, virtual event that brings student designers together to build innovative, user-centered solutions.


Register by 11:59 PM EST April 16th, 2026.

About

CU Design-a-thon is a three-day, virtual event that brings student designers together to craft innovative, user-centered solutions.


Students will work together to address a specific problem and visualize their digital product by creating an interactive prototype (no coding required!). During the design-a-thon, students will have the opportunity to learn from industry professionals through beginner-friendly workshops and meet other student designers from all across the country.


We hope to help designers grow both soft and hard skills in empathizing with users, defining a set of goals and needs, developing products, and improving confidence and creativity as a designer.

About

CU Design-a-thon is a three-day, virtual event that brings student designers together to craft innovative, user-centered solutions.


Students will work together to address a specific problem and visualize their digital product by creating an interactive prototype (no coding required!). During the design-a-thon, students will have the opportunity to learn from industry professionals through beginner-friendly workshops and meet other student designers from all across the country.


We hope to help designers grow both soft and hard skills in empathizing with users, defining a set of goals and needs, developing products, and improving confidence and creativity as a designer.

About

CU Design-a-thon is a three-day, virtual event that brings student designers together to craft innovative, user-centered solutions.


Students will work together to address a specific problem and visualize their digital product by creating an interactive prototype (no coding required!). During the design-a-thon, students will have the opportunity to learn from industry professionals through beginner-friendly workshops and meet other student designers from all across the country.


We hope to help designers grow both soft and hard skills in empathizing with users, defining a set of goals and needs, developing products, and improving confidence and creativity as a designer.

Judges

Judges

Judges

Adeola Kukoyi

UX Designer @ IBM

Cristie Huang

Product Design @ LinkedIn

Samir Patki

UX Designer @ IBM

Dennis Quizhpi

Product Design @ Nowadays YC S23

(Prev. Lawnstack)

Lydia Shan

Product Design @ Shopify

Diana Diakité

Product Design @ Github

Sara Clayton

Product Design @ Dropbox

Workshop Leads

Workshop Leads

Workshop Leads

Francis Phan

Head of Design @ Splice

Diane Tarira

Product Design (Prev. Nike & IBM)

Bhroovi Gupta

Product Design @ Roku

Yuha Kim

Product Design @ Salesforce

Rules

Rules

Rules

  1. All experience levels are welcome.


  1. Registration is open to undergraduate students in the US and Canada.


  1. Students can participate in teams of 1-4 people.


  1. All members of a team must be an undergraduate or graduate college student with an associated institutional email.  Bootcamp students are NOT allowed unless they show proof of undergraduate or graduate student enrollment.


  1. Each team may only submit one submission.


  1. All work submitted to CU Design-a-thon must be original work. Any submissions with plagiarized work will be disqualified.


  1. You may not submit work previously designed before CU Design-a-thon. All designs must be made between the dates of May 2nd - May 4th.


  1. Late submissions will not be accepted.

Schedule

Schedule

Eastern Standard Time (EST). The passcode for all meetings is 877703.

Friday, April 17th

4:30-5:30 PM: Opening Ceremony
(Prompt reveal + event details)

Zoom link

Saturday, April 18th

11:00-12:00 PM: Design Career Talk w/ Francis

Zoom link


12:30-1:30 PM: Designing with Google, Microsoft and Roku (ft. Bhroovi)

Design projects in the classroom vs at tech companies

Zoom link

1:30-2:30 PM: Designing With Data w/ Diane Tarira

• Designing data and AI heavy products, tracking the success of your designs, being technical as a designer

• How to communicate with senior stakeholders across the business

Zoom link


3:00-4:00 PM: Designing Agentic Experiences: Beyond Chatbots (w/ Yuha)

Introducing Agentic Experience Design (AX) — an emerging design discipline focused on how humans and AI agents work together to achieve real goals

Zoom link

Sunday, April 19th

11:00 AM: Submissions due


2:30 PM: 10 finalist teams announced


3:30-5:00 PM: Finalist presentations

Zoom link


6:30-7:30 PM: Closing ceremony (winners announced)

Zoom link

11:00 AM: Submissions due


2:30 PM: 10 finalist teams announced


3:30-5:00 PM: Finalist presentations

Zoom link


6:30-7:30 PM: Closing ceremony (winners announced)

Zoom link

Schedule

Eastern Standard Time (EST). The passcode for all meetings is 877703.

Friday, April 17th

4:30-5:30 PM: Opening Ceremony
(Prompt reveal + event details)

Zoom link

Saturday, April 18th

11:00-12:00 PM: Design Career Talk w/ Francis

Zoom link


12:30-1:30 PM: Designing with Google, Microsoft and Roku (ft. Bhroovi)

Design projects in the classroom vs at tech companies

Zoom link

1:30-2:30 PM: Designing With Data w/ Diane Tarira

• Designing data and AI heavy products, tracking the success of your designs, being technical as a designer

• How to communicate with senior stakeholders across the business

Zoom link


3:00-4:00 PM: Designing Agentic Experiences: Beyond Chatbots (w/ Yuha)

Introducing Agentic Experience Design (AX) — an emerging design discipline focused on how humans and AI agents work together to achieve real goals

Zoom link

Sunday, April 19th

11:00 AM: Submissions due


2:30 PM: 10 finalist teams announced


3:30-5:00 PM: Finalist presentations

Zoom link


6:30-7:30 PM: Closing ceremony (winners announced)

Zoom link

PRIZES

PRIZES

PRIZES

2nd Place:

Nami Matcha + Hojicha Set

+ 1 Year Framer Pro


1st Place:

Victrola Vinyl Player

+ 1 Year Framer Pro

1st Place:

Victrola Vinyl Player

+ 1 Year Framer Pro

3nd Place:

Kodak Charmera Keychain

Blind Box + 1 Year Framer Pro

Other Prizes

Other Prizes

Other Prizes

Newbie Track

Framer merchandise + 1 Year Framer Pro

Accessibility Track

Framer merchandise + 1 Year Framer Pro

Sponsors

Sponsors

Sponsors

FAQs

FAQs

FAQs

Who can participate?

What is the maximum number of people in a team?

When does registration close?

Can I still participate if I do not have a lot of design experience?

Do I have to be part of a team to participate?

What if I do not have a team before the event?

What design tools should I use?

Where do I submit my project?

Contacts

cornelluxdclub@gmail.com

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