Major League Hacking 2026 Hackathon Season
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HackCU presents...

World Cup Hackathon 2026

CodeCompeteConquer

March 7-8, 2026 • Eaton Humanities • Boulder, Colorado
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About the Event

Join us for 48 hours of innovation, collaboration, and competition at the World Cup Hackathon! Inspired by the global spirit of soccer, we're bringing together developers, designers, and creators to build incredible projects while celebrating teamwork and creativity.

Compete

Form teams of 2-4 and compete for amazing prizes across multiple categories including Best Overall, Most Creative, and Best Use of Technology.

Collaborate

Meet talented individuals from diverse backgrounds, learn from workshops, and build lasting connections with fellow hackers.

Create

Turn your wildest ideas into reality with access to mentors, APIs, hardware, and all the caffeine you need to make it happen.

Schedule

*All events take place at Eaton Humanities

Saturday, March 7

Participant Arrival & Check-in

9:00 AM

Dedicated Meetup/Networking Time With Sponsors

9:00 AM - 11:00 AM

Open Doors For Opening Ceremony

10:30 AM - 11:00 AM

Opening Ceremony

11:00 AM

Lunch

12:00 PM - 1:00 PM

**Hacking STARTS!**

12:00 PM

Team Formation

12:00 PM - 12:30 PM

Workshop: GLabs - Revolutionize Application Design w/ Nita from Google - Stitch and Jules

1:30 PM - 3:00 PM

Dinner

6:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Sunday, March 8

Breakfast

8:00 AM - 9:00 AM

**Submissions Due on Devpost**

12:00 PM

Lunch

12:00 PM - 1:00 PM

Project Expo / Judging

1:00 PM - 3:00 PM

Open Doors For Closing Ceremonies

3:00 PM

Closing Ceremonies & Team Pictures

3:30 PM - 4:30 PM

**Hackathon Ends**

5:00 PM

Tracks

Compete in the following tracks. Details and prizes will be updated soon.

Our Tracks

General Track

Max teammates: 4 · winners

HackCU's general challenge includes 1st, 2nd, and 3rd prize winners. This challenge will be evaluated based on the overall creativity of the team and their project, questions selected by HackCU organizers, as well as any additional criteria mandated by the judges.

Prizes: Prizes TBD

All Beginner

Max teammates: 4 · winners

Hackathons are a great way for beginners in technology—from the workshops to software resources provided by HackCU, we want first-time hackers to learn and build a project first hand. This track will assess the best hack created by a team of all beginner hackers.

Prizes: Prizes TBD

Social Impact

Max teammates: 4 · winners

Technology is a powerful tool that allows us to identify and combat real-world problems that billions of people face around the world today. This track will be assessed based on the project's ability to propose a resolution for a social issue. Build a product to support the Boulder community.

Prizes: Prizes TBD

CU AI

Max teammates: 4 · winners

Artificial intelligence is reshaping how we approach creativity, problem-solving, and technology. This track invites teams to dive into AI-based projects—whether you're building a new model, designing an application, or exploring ethical AI practices. Projects will be judged on innovation, impact, and technical implementation within the AI space.

Prizes: Prizes TBD

Red Bull Tracks

Red Bull: AI Launch Track

Max teammates: 2 · winners

Created in partnership with Red Bull Basement, this track is designed for teams just starting their AI journey at the event. If you're here to brainstorm, experiment, and get your first prototype off the ground, this track is for you. The focus is on ideation, creativity, and learning rather than competition against experienced teams. 2nd and 3rd place prizes.

Prizes: Prizes TBD

Red Bull: AI Orbit Track

Max teammates: 2 · winners

Also inspired by Red Bull Basement, this track is meant for participants with projects already in motion. Teams in the Orbit Track are refining their prototypes, integrating feedback, or scaling their existing ideas. Judging will spotlight technical growth, problem-solving, and the trajectory of your project's development. 1st place.

Prizes: Prizes TBD

Judges & Mentors

Our judges and mentors will be announced soon.

Judges

Sumeet JeswaniCloud Security @ Google · IEEE Senior · OWASP Gen AI Security Contributor

Results-oriented Cloud Security Specialist with 10+ years of experience delivering secure, scalable cloud architectures across global enterprises. Currently leading secure cloud and AI/LLM infrastructure transformations at Google as a Solutions Consultant. Proven track record in designing zero-trust systems, securing application stacks, and mitigating advanced cyber threats.

LinkedIn
Nithin MohanAI & Supercomputing Leader, Hewlett Packard Enterprise

I work at the frontier of AI and Supercomputing, building teams and technologies that transform how enterprises and research organizations solve their most complex challenges. My career has taken me from scaling early-stage innovation at a startup that turned unicorn to driving global adoption of AI and High-Performance Computing at HPE.

LinkedIn
Jay MalveFounding Engineer at Normal Finance

8x Hackathon Winner. Building Flick—the Deterministic TypeScript Framework for AI Agents.

LinkedIn
Katherine WhiteCTO @ Maia Women's Health

Technology is my passion. Leadership is my strength. I work at the intersection of engineering and strategy, building products that matter and teams that thrive. My focus is simple: create clarity, build momentum, and deliver results that scale.

LinkedIn
Sophia SteinCustomer Solutions Engineer, gTech Users & Products (gUP)

As a Solutions Engineer at Google, Sophia designs and implements internal software for account recovery and AI optimization. She scales this expertise across the company by delivering organization-wide trainings on Refactoring with AI and Prompt & Context Engineering. Prior to Google, she was a consultant at McKinsey and a web application engineer at an edge compute startup. She studied Computer Science at CU Boulder and Columbia University.

Dawson BotsfordCTO @ Haraka · Software Founder & Consultant @ Dark Triangle

My purpose is to program and lead socially impactful teams. I do this by building beautiful web apps and crypto applications. I love Ethereum, JavaScript, and React.js. Let's help more people.

LinkedIn
Ava MattieSoftware Engineer, Google Cloud Platform
Kyle PformerSoftware Developer at Compa
Lilly JonesPhD, Associate Scientist III at CIRES Earth and ESIIL Labs in the SEEC

Dr. Lilly Jones is an Associate Scientist III at CIRES Earth and ESIIL Labs in the SEEC. She is also an educator with 20 years of Python experience and expertise in Earth and environmental data science, machine learning, and geospatial analytics. She teaches the Earth Data Science Certificate program at CU Boulder and leads interdisciplinary teams on projects applying predictive modeling and cloud/HPC workflows to wildfire, hydrology, and geospatial challenges.

LinkedIn
Li LeeElectrical/Software Engineer @ Google

Li Lee is a software engineer at Google. Her professional experience includes fintech (banking integrations), hedge funds (trading algorithms and risk modeling), semiconductors (chip architecture and design), and speech recognition. She holds B.S., M.Eng., and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from MIT.

LinkedIn
Andy AustinFounder of Adsora

Andy Austin is a performance-first growth marketer and founder of Adsora, where he leads paid acquisition and growth strategy across high-intent, direct-response categories. He has managed $20M+ in paid media profitably across multiple verticals and scaled Adsora to a $6M annual run rate in three years.

LinkedIn
Andrew HomeyerCofounder, landingsite.ai

I've started and sold companies, built engineering teams, and shipped products that people actually use. Right now I'm building Landingsite.ai to help people make awesome websites with AI. Let's build something people want!

LinkedIn

Mentors

TBD

FAQ

About the Team

The World Cup Hackathon is organized by HackCU—a student-run organization at the University of Colorado Boulder. Our team brings together leadership, logistics, tech, finance, marketing, and workshops to create an unforgettable hackathon experience.

Ready to Join?

Register now and secure your spot at World Cup Hackathon 2026

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