Dates

Hacking ran from Saturday, October 3, 2026 at 12:00 PM to Sunday, October 4, 2026 at 12:00 PM Eastern Time. Judging took place on Sunday afternoon, and winners were announced on Devpost on October 18, 2026.

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 Overall, Nintendo Switch 2; 2nd Overall, Meta Quest 3S; 3rd Overall, 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 competed in one primary track. The VentureWell Innovation award, the Best Beginner Hack award and six MLH sponsor challenges were also awarded. See the Prizes section for all 15 awards and their winners.

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.