October 3-4, 2026
University Center, University of Michigan-Dearborn
24 Hours | In Person | Free to Attend

Hack Dearborn returned for its fifth year with Hack Dearborn: Conjure Reality. That's 24 hours of building, learning, experimenting and turning imagination into something real.

Hosted by the Google Developer Group on Campus at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, Hack Dearborn brought together hundreds of students, developers, designers, engineers, creators and first-time hackers for one weekend.

Whether this is your first time writing code or your tenth hackathon, Hack Dearborn is a place to experiment, meet new people, learn new technologies and create something you're proud of.

This year, we challenged hackers to Conjure Reality. Take an idea that exists only in your imagination and turn it into something people can see, experience, use or learn from.

The event is over

Hack Dearborn 5 took place October 3 to 4, 2026. Thank you to every hacker, judge, mentor and sponsor. See the winners in the Project Gallery.

Tracks

Shaping Society. Technology for a more equitable, sustainable world. Develop solutions that improve access to healthcare, clean water, food security, economic opportunity, environmental sustainability or crisis response. Aim for practical, scalable solutions that put equity and long-term impact first.

Enchanted Transit. Intelligent systems that move across land, air and sea. Explore smart, connected transportation, from futuristic cars to advanced aircraft and connected transit, to make travel safer, faster and more efficient.

Mindscapes. Immersive experiences that redefine how we learn. Build tools and platforms that make education more effective, engaging and personalized, from AI-powered study aids and interactive apps to smarter classroom technology.

Ideation Matrix. The wildcard track. Conjure anything. This track is for ideas that defy categories: bold, unconventional projects that rethink what technology can do and blur the line between reality and imagination.

Schedule

Saturday, October 3

  • 9:00 AM: Check-in and breakfast (RUC Hallway)
  • 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM: Sponsor fair and professional headshots (RUC Hallway)
  • 11:15 AM: Opening ceremony (Kochoff Hall). Attendance is mandatory.
  • 12:00 PM: Hacking begins
  • 12:00 PM: Lunch (McKinley Cafe)
  • 1:00 PM: Technical mentor tables (Kochoff Hall)
  • 6:00 PM: GitHub workshop (RUC 1225)
  • 7:00 PM: Dinner (McKinley Cafe)
  • 8:00 PM: MLH Cup Stacking (RUC Stage)
  • 11:00 PM: Building entry closes. No re-entry after 11 PM.

Sunday, October 4

  • 12:00 AM: Register your team's project on Devpost by midnight. You can keep editing until noon.
  • 12:00 AM: Midnight snack and game night
  • 8:00 AM: Breakfast (McKinley Cafe)
  • 9:30 AM: MLH workshop: How to Demo (RUC 1225)
  • 12:00 PM: Hacking ends. Devpost submissions lock.
  • 12:00 PM: Lunch (McKinley Cafe)
  • 1:30 PM to 3:30 PM: Judging expo (Kochoff Hall)
  • 4:00 PM: Closing ceremony and awards (ELB Atrium)

Prizes

  • 1st Overall: Nintendo Switch 2
  • 2nd Overall: Meta Quest 3S
  • 3rd Overall: Bose QuietComfort Headphones
  • Shaping Society: Kodak PIXPRO FZ45
  • Enchanted Transit: Garmin Dash Cam Mini 3
  • Mindscapes: Fitbit Charge 6
  • Ideation Matrix: Wacom One S

Team size

Teams can have 1 to 4 hackers. Come alone, bring a team or find teammates at Hack Dearborn. We set aside time before hacking began for people looking for a team. Every team member must be registered individually and be eligible.

Sponsors

Gold: CDW
Silver: AMD, Astemo, BorgWarner, Bosch, Dell
Bronze: Consumers Energy, Ford, Rezzy, 365 Retail Markets
Friends: Incogni, LightGuide, NordPass, NordVPN, Saily, Coveron, TechSmith, Featherless, Pure Buttons, Atomic Object

Questions

Email [email protected] or join our Discord. More at hackdearborn.org.

Requirements

What to Build

You have 24 hours to turn an idea into a working project.

Your project can be almost anything:

  • A web or mobile application
  • An AI-powered product
  • A hardware prototype
  • An embedded or IoT system
  • A game
  • An AR/VR or immersive experience
  • A transportation solution
  • An educational technology
  • A sustainability project
  • A civic or social-impact platform
  • A developer tool
  • A completely experimental idea we haven't thought of yet

You do not need to arrive with a finished idea.

You do not need to be an experienced developer.

Hackathons are about building, learning, experimenting, collaborating, and trying something new.

At the end of the hacking period, teams presented what they created to our judges.

What to Submit

To be considered for judging, your team must submit a completed Devpost project before the submission deadline.

Your submission should include:

1. Project Name - Give your creation a name.

2. Project Description

Tell us:

  • What your project does
  • What inspired it
  • Who it is for
  • How it works
  • What technologies you used
  • Challenges you encountered
  • What your team learned
  • What you're proud of
  • What you would build next

3. Track

Select the Hack Dearborn track your project is entering:

  • Shaping Society
  • Enchanted Transit
  • Mindscapes
  • Ideation Matrix

Unless otherwise announced, a project should compete in one primary Hack Dearborn track.

Sponsor challenges may have their own eligibility requirements.

4. Source Code

Provide a publicly accessible source-code repository containing the code created for your project.

Your repository should clearly distinguish your team's work from external libraries, starter templates, APIs, datasets, models, or other third-party resources.

5. Technologies Used

List the major technologies behind your hack, including relevant:

  • Languages
  • Frameworks
  • APIs
  • Cloud platforms
  • Hardware
  • Databases
  • AI models
  • AI development tools

6. Project Images

Upload screenshots or photos that help judges and other hackers understand your project.

7. Demo

Your team must be prepared to demonstrate the project during the in-person judging period. A working demonstration is strongly encouraged.

It does not need to be production-ready.

Show us what you built, what works, what you attempted, and what you learned.

8. Demo Video [OPTIONAL]

Teams may include a short project demonstration video on their Devpost submission.

9. Presentation

Teams may prepare a short presentation to support their demonstration, but the primary focus of judging remains on the project itself.

 

 

Prizes

15 non-cash prizes
1st Overall
1 winner

Nintendo Switch 2

2nd Overall
1 winner

Meta Quest 3S 128 GB VR headset

3rd Overall
1 winner

Bose QuietComfort Headphones

Shaping Society Track
1 winner

Kodak PIXPRO FZ45 digital camera. For the best project in the Shaping Society track: technology for a more equitable, sustainable world.

Enchanted Transit Track
1 winner

Garmin Dash Cam Mini 3. For the best project in the Enchanted Transit track: intelligent systems that move across land, air and sea.

Mindscapes Track
1 winner

Fitbit Charge 6. For the best project in the Mindscapes track: immersive experiences that redefine how we learn.

Ideation Matrix Track
1 winner

Wacom One S pen tablet. For the best project in the Ideation Matrix track: the wildcard track, conjure anything.

[MLH] Best Use of ElevenLabs
1 winner

Wireless Earbuds
Deploy natural, human-sounding audio with ElevenLabs. Create realistic, dynamic, and emotionally expressive voices for any project, from interactive AI companions to narrated stories and voice-enabled apps. ElevenLabs will empower you to build rich, immersive experiences without the need for actors or complex audio production, using simply the power of AI.

Integrate fully autonomous audio experiences into your hack with ElevenLabs and give your project a voice, along with giving your team the chance to win some wireless earbuds!

[MLH] Best Use of Gemini API
1 winner

MLH Swag Kits
It’s time to push the boundaries of what’s possible with AI using Google Gemini. Check out the Gemini API to build AI-powered apps that make your friends say WHOA. So, what can Gemini do for your hackathon project?

Understand language like a human and build a chatbot that gives personalized advice
Analyze info like a supercomputer and create an app that summarizes complex research papers
Generate creative content like code, scripts, music, and more
Think of the possibilities… what will you build with the Google Gemini API this weekend?

[MLH] Best Use of Solana
1 winner

SenseCAP Card Tracker
The world of development is evolving fast and Solana is leading the charge with a network built to handle all of your infrastructure needs. Forget high fees and slow confirmations, it’s time to build applications that are fast, efficient, and scalable.

Harness Solana’s core advantages like blazing fast execution and near-zero transaction costs to make your hackathon ideas become real world projects. With Solana, the possibilities are endless.

Create a game, social app, or consumer product that relies on instant, high-frequency transactions.
Design a sophisticated trading, lending, or decentralized exchange (DEX).
Build a prototype for supply chain, identity, or payments that can handle massive, real-world volume.
Show us how you can innovate with Solana for a chance to win some cool prizes for you and each member of your team!

[MLH] Best Use of Tiger Data
1 winner

Stream Deck Mini
Building high-performance apps under hackathon deadlines shouldn't mean spending half your weekend configuring complex databases or learning obscure query languages. Tiger Data extends PostgreSQL to give student developers an ultra-fast foundation for real-time data, time-series metrics, and complex analytics.

Why build with Tiger Data this weekend?

Standard SQL Power: Query massive datasets instantly using the SQL you already know, with no complex NoSQL aggregation pipelines required.

Unified Data Stack: Store relational user profiles and high-frequency metric streams side-by-side in a single database.

Instant Dashboards: Serve lag-free, real-time frontend charts using pre-computed Continuous Aggregates.

90%+ Data Compression: Store millions of events on free-tier cloud instances without running out of disk space.

Whether you’re building real-time IoT monitoring, AI-driven analytics dashboards, or financial prediction engines, show us how Tiger Data powers your project. The team that demonstrates the most innovative, impactful, and performance-driven use of Tiger Data will take home some great prizes!

[MLH] Best Use of Backboard
1 winner

Tile Essentials Pack
Every AI model API is stateless by default. That means your app forgets everything the second a session ends. State management should be the first step of any AI build, regardless of what LLM you are using, and Backboard gives you that for free. But Backboard is not just state management. It is a single, unified API built on the world’s #1 AI memory that gives you everything you need in one place: long-term memory, RAG, embeddings, tool calls, model routing across 17,000+ LLMs, and persistent context that stays alive across every page refresh, session, and user. No stitching together five different services. One API. One integration. Built on the best memory in AI.

Here’s just a small list of things Backboard can make possible for your AI app!

AI-powered Travel Guide: Remembers allergies and preferences from past trips.
Personalized Fitness Coach: Adjusts workouts based on progress and injury history.
Smart Home Controller: Learns routines over time to anticipate lighting and climate preferences!

Use Backboard to build a seamless, persistent user experience without the usual infrastructure headache! Each winning team member will receive a Tile Essentials Pack because, just like AI, we all need an occasional reminder of where things are!

[MLH] Best Use of Vultr
1 winner

M5Stack Official Tab5
Vultr empowers hackers to bring their high-performance projects to life instantly; providing everything from the speed of one-click deployment and scalable cloud compute, to specialized Vultr Cloud GPUs that can power AI-driven applications. We want you to push the limits of what can be built when infrastructure is no longer the bottleneck!

Sign up for a Vultr account today and claim your free cloud credits! Take your next hack to the cloud with Vultr for a chance to win some awesome prizes for you and your team!

VentureWell Innovation Track
1 winner

Awarded by VentureWell to the project with the clearest path from idea to real-world impact.

Best Beginner Hack
1 winner

Awarded by the general judges to the strongest project from a team of first-time hackers.

Judges

Reem Al-Tassi

Reem Al-Tassi
General Motors

Ali Bdeir

Ali Bdeir

Amit Karia

Amit Karia
Bosch

Azeem Hafeez

Azeem Hafeez
University of Michigan

Basel Abdelfatah

Basel Abdelfatah
Ford

Chethan Krishnamurthy

Chethan Krishnamurthy
Bosch

Christian Toney

Christian Toney
Ford

Christopher Wakenell

Christopher Wakenell
AMD

Guilherme Vieira Hollweg

Guilherme Vieira Hollweg
University of Michigan-Dearborn

Hadi Chaaban

Hadi Chaaban
Twin Dragon Studio

Hoda Solati

Hoda Solati
BraunAbility, Compass Detroit

Husniyah Alam

Husniyah Alam
Consumers Energy

Ibrahim Ivan

Ibrahim Ivan
Consumers Energy

Jaime Martinez

Jaime Martinez
Independent Consultant

Jenna Ritten

Jenna Ritten
IBM

Jie Shen

Jie Shen
UM-Dearborn and VentureWell

Jodi Joven

Jodi Joven
Rocket

Kasravi

Kasravi
University of Michigan

Krunal Mehta

Krunal Mehta
Bosch

Madina Saad

Madina Saad
Ford

Mahmoud Abou-Nasr

Mahmoud Abou-Nasr
University of Michigan-Dearborn

Maryam Tello

Maryam Tello

Nagender Kasarla

Nagender Kasarla

Olubunmi Fadiora

Olubunmi Fadiora
BorgWarner

Priya Sridhar

Priya Sridhar
General Motors

Rehab Jadallah

Rehab Jadallah
Atomic Object

Ryan Feldman

Ryan Feldman
LightGuide

Sabyasachi Dutta

Sabyasachi Dutta
University of Michigan-Dearborn

Sami Maghnaoui

Sami Maghnaoui
Adobe, Student Insider

Shima Solati

Shima Solati
BraunAbility, Compass Detroit

Sridhar Lakshmanan

Sridhar Lakshmanan
University of Michigan-Dearborn

Sumia Saleh

Sumia Saleh
Consumers Energy

Judging Criteria

  • Implementing Technology
    How well the team used technology to build a working solution.
  • Overall Design
    Usability, visual quality and coherence of the experience.
  • Quality of Solution
    Does it solve a real problem in a meaningful way?
  • Team Presentation
    Clarity and confidence of the demo and answers.
  • Track and Concept
    Fit with the chosen track and originality of the idea.

Questions? Email the hackathon manager

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