Dates
Hacking runs from Saturday, October 3, 2026 at 12:00 PM to Sunday, October 4, 2026 at 12:00 PM Eastern Time. Judging takes place on Sunday afternoon, and winners are announced at the closing ceremony at 4:00 PM.
Eligibility
Hack Dearborn is open to currently enrolled college students and to anyone who graduated within the past year. All majors and experience levels are welcome, especially beginners. Participants must be 18 or older at the time of the event and must meet Major League Hacking's eligibility rules.
This is an in-person event at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. There is no virtual option. Every participant must be accepted through the official application at hackdearborn.org/apply. Joining on Devpost alone does not register you.
Teams
Teams can have 1 to 4 members. Every member must be individually registered and eligible.
Project and submission requirements
All work must be created during the hacking period. You may use APIs, SDKs, open-source libraries, frameworks, public datasets, hardware, cloud services, sponsor technologies and AI-assisted development tools. Existing projects may not be repackaged or resubmitted.
Submit your project on Devpost before 12:00 PM on October 4. Each submission needs a project name, a description, the track you are entering, a link to a public source code repository, the technologies used and at least one image. A demo video is optional. Every team must demo its project in person during judging.
Prizes
Overall prizes: 1st place Nintendo Switch 2, 2nd place Meta Quest 3S, 3rd place Bose QuietComfort Headphones. Track prizes: Shaping Society, Kodak PIXPRO FZ45; Enchanted Transit, Garmin Dash Cam Mini 3; Mindscapes, Fitbit Charge 6; Ideation Matrix, Wacom One S. Each project competes in one primary track. Sponsor challenges may have their own requirements, which will be announced at the opening ceremony.
Judging criteria and winner selection
Judging is an in-person expo. Teams stay at their tables, and every project is seen by at least three judges. Judges score each project from 1 to 5 on five equally weighted criteria:
- Technology: how well the team used technology to build a working solution
- Design: usability, visual quality and coherence of the experience
- Solution: whether it solves a real problem in a meaningful way
- Presentation: clarity and confidence of the demo and answers
- Track and concept: fit with the chosen track and originality of the idea
General judges rank the projects they see, and the combined rankings decide the overall winners. Track judges review every project in their track and choose the track winner. All decisions by the judges and organizers are final.
Code of conduct
Everyone at Hack Dearborn must follow the MLH Code of Conduct. Participation is also subject to the Hack Dearborn Terms, the Privacy Policy and the MLH Contest Terms.