WELCOME TO HACKPRINCETON FAL 2026!

At HackPrinceton, you'll meet fellow hackers from around the world, learn new skills, and work alongside seasoned mentors. We'll have free workshops, lecture series, mentorship, prizes, games, and more. Don't have a team or even an idea? Don't worry! We'll give you the tools to build something incredible.

For 36 hours from Nov 13th to Nov 15th in-person on Princeton University's campus, you'll have the opportunity to collaborate and build out brilliant, innovative, and impactful ideas.

Our tracks for this semester's Hackathon:

HEALTHCARE

This category recognizes projects that improve healthcare delivery, promote wellness, or tackle public health challenges. Examples include telehealth solutions, AI-driven diagnostics, mental health tools, and fitness tracking apps.

SUSTAINABILITY

This award highlights projects that leverage technology to address environmental challenges or encourage eco-friendly behaviors. Examples include carbon footprint tracking apps, smart waste management systems, and renewable energy solutions.

BUSINESS & ENTERPRISE

This category focuses on projects that enhance the efficiency of financial tools or streamline business operations. Examples include fintech tools for startups, B2B billing systems, analytics dashboards, cybersecurity solutions, and privacy-focused applications.

ENTERTAINMENT

This category celebrates projects that creatively integrate entertainment and media elements. Examples include storytelling applications, interactive experiences, and media literacy platforms.

EDUCATION

This award is given to projects that make learning more interactive, accessible, or personalized. Examples include e-learning platforms and tools that enable immersive or virtual educational experiences.

SCIENCE & DISCOVERY

This award is given to projects that turn curiosity into discovery. Examples include research accelerators, data models, and innovative tools to aid scientific processes and methods.

Overall Hack Tracks:

BEST OVERALL HACK

This award is given to the best project as determined through both the initial and final judging process. The winning project must excel across all four rubric criteria: creativity, utility, charity, and avidity. The specific track of the project does not matter. Note that track winners are not eligible to win Best Overall Hack.

BEST ROOKIE HACK

This award is given to the best project developed by first-time hackathon participants, recognizing strong execution and creativity from new hackers.

BEST HARDWARE HACK

This category honors projects that creatively incorporate hardware components. This may include IoT systems, robotics, wearable technology, or other physical computing solutions that push the boundaries of innovation.

BEST GAME

Projects that successfully create interactive, exciting, and innovative games through a variety of methods and forms. Examples include Player v. Player games or individual games.

Requirements

1. You must submit a link to your project's public GitHub repository created between Nov 13, 2026 - Nov 15, 2026

2. You MAY submit an OPTIONAL video demo that does not exceed 2 minutes in length. Remember to leave time to upload your video to YouTube/any other platform and add the link to your video to your Devpost submission. Note: In-person demos will be required on Sunday, see below!

3. Judging will be from 9:30 AM - 2 PM on Sunday, Nov 15. Hackers will be expected to present their finished work in front of the judges during this time period. You must prepare for a presentation explaining/demoing your project to the judges that does not exceed 2 minutes in length, even if you attached a video to your project. Your presentation should clearly indicate the problem your hack attempts to solve and a walkthrough of your hack’s functionality.

Please add your Discord usernames to your submission so we can contact you if you win a prize!

Hackathon Sponsors

Prizes

$0 in cash

Placeholder

$0 in cash

1 winner

Judges

Akanksha Anand

Shynitha Muthyam

Ramakanth Ayalasomayajula

Ritvik Sharma

Akanksha Khanna

Sai Kishan Naraparaju

Yurii Tovarnytskyi

Anoop Gopi

Hina Gandhi

Umakanth Ayalasomayajula

Ahmed Abdelrehim

Rishabh Sharma

Sagar Bharat Shah

Vanchhit Khare

Dhruv Sekhawat

Payal Surana

Yung-Hsuan Yang

Saran Bodduluri

Varun Chopra

Arun Pratap Singh

Sanjavan Ghodasara

Pramod Begur Nagaraj

Kaushal Patel

Srinivasa Chary Maringanti

Yogesh

Niharika Pramod Pujari

Mahender Mangalasri

Tye O’Brien

Lakshay Chopra

Ganesh Harke

Sandeep Kumar Khandelwal

Neeraj Kumar

Ayokunle Oni

Sandeep Damodaran Nair

Savar Jain

Sri Ram Swaminathan

Rajashekar Reddy Vennavelli

Muhammad Saleh

Sai Prasad Veluru

Aditya Krishnan

Tharak Abraham

Humphrey Ahn

Nithesh Gudipuri

Neeraj Kumar

Namya

Chaelynn Kim

Kapil Rathod

Nurida Nurmambetova

Kai Lentit

Sharan Ramjee

Himanshu Sahni

Rishika Lall

Sidharth Gopakumar

Hidhayath Nisha Mohamed Idris

Kush Palkesh Dudhia

Gaurang Deshpande

Andrew Gordon

Alparslan Cetin

Sujay Swain

Tony Luo

Krish

Sunny Dalsania

Shamin Chokshi

Sasha Sosnytskyi

Sasikanth Kesani

Nureldin Mohamed

Udaya Vijay Anand

Siddhesh Kumbhare

Anmol Whorra

Adriana Munoz

Karthik Santhanam

Orpheas Kofinakos

Wenke Du

Pratham Mehta

Rohidas

Vikram Bishnoi

Mckenzie Lionel Joseph Prince

Shalini Hasija

Pratham Saraf

Sankalp Shukla

Sagar Rijhwani

Sneha Shambula

Dheeraj Velaga

Yuxin Liu

Nurida Nurmambetova

Caroline Di Vittorio

Judging Criteria

Creativity
How unique is the concept behind the hack? Does it address a problem you didn’t even know existed? Does it address a common problem in a creative way or with an intuitive algorithm? What is this hack’s “ah-ha” moment?
Utility
Does this hack function? If so, how in-depth is its functionality? How likely would you be to frequently use this hack in its current state in your own life?
Charity
Does this hack address a specific societal need? If so, how well does it address it? What contributions does this hack make in the nation’s service and the service of humanity?
Avidity
How excited do the team members seem about the final state of their project? Passion can be demonstrated through their presentation, the project’s description on Devpost, the future plans they have for their hack, or an overall polished program.