A neon city at night: a skyline under a full moon, a glowing billboard strung between the towers, and a rain-slicked street lined with red neon below.

Presented by

Priority deadlineOctober 3, 2026

About the event

What is HackUTD

HackUTD is the largest 24 hour university hackathon in North America: a weekend-long event where students build apps, hardware and more. It is a venue for self-expression and creativity through technology. People with varying technical backgrounds, from universities all over the US, come together, form teams around a problem or an idea, and build something from scratch. Whether you are a frequent hackathon attendee or just getting started, we would love to see what you can make.

Pipework running beneath the city street.

A neon-lit subway platform, a train stopped at it with its doors closed.

1200+Hackers
30+Universities
200+Projects

Countdown

Until HackUTD 2026 · University of Texas at Dallas

--Days
--Hours
--Minutes
--Seconds

Day-of schedule, all times CT. Events are subject to change.

Day 1

Saturday, Nov 7

6:00amto 11:00am
Walk-ins
Optional
ECSW
8:00amto 10:00am
Check-in
Required
ECSW
Sponsor Fair
Company Events
ECSW Atrium
9:30amto 10:15am
Teambuilding
Optional
ECSW 1.355
10:00amto 11:00am
Extended Check-in
Required
ECSW
10:45amto 12:00pm
Opening Ceremony
Required
ATEC Auditorium
12:00pmto 12:15pm
Hacking Starts
Required
12:15pmto 1:30pm
Lunch
Food
ECSW Courtyard
1:30pmto 2:20pm
T-Mobile Fireside Chat
Workshops
ECSW 1.315
2:30pmto 3:15pm
PNC Workshop
Workshops
ECSW 1.365
3:00pmto 6:00pm
Afterlife Mocktail Bar
For Fun
ECSW Bird's Nest
3:00pmto 5:00pm
Orion Humanoid Robot
3:30pmto 4:10pm
8090 Workshop
Workshops
ECSW 1.355
4:20pmto 5:05pm
NMC Workshop
Workshops
ECSW 1.365
5:15pmto 6:00pm
EOG Workshop
Workshops
ECSW 1.355
6:10pmto 6:55pm
Goldman Workshop
Workshops
ECSW 1.365
6:45pmto 7:45pm
CapitalOne Switch Competition
Company Events
ECSW 4.210 (The Bridge)
7:00pmto 8:00pm
MLH Workshop
Workshops
ECSW 1.355
7:30pmto 9:30pm
Dinner Presented by AT&T
Food
ECSW Atrium
8:00pmto 9:00pm
Influencer Panel
For Fun
ECSW 1.355
9:30pmto 10:30pm
HackUTD Olympics Presented by T-Mobile
For Fun
ECSW 1.315
10:45pmto 11:45pm
Spacetime Bot Tournament
Company Events
11:00pmto 11:15pm
Initial Devpost Deadline
Required
11:30pmto 12:00am
Midnight Snack
Food
ECSW Atrium

Day 2

Sunday, Nov 8

12:00amto 1:15am
Karaoke
For Fun
ECSW 1.355
12:00amto 2:00am
Afterlife Ramen Bar
Food
ECSW Bird's Nest
7:00amto 10:00am
Coffee Cart
Food
ECSW Atrium
9:00amto 11:00am
Canvas Painting
For Fun
ECSW Bird's Nest
Puppy Petting
For Fun
ECSW
9:00amto 10:30am
Breakfast
Food
ECSW Atrium
11:45amto 12:00pm
Reminder: Submissions Due at 12:00
Required
12:00pmto 1:00pm
Lunch
Food
ECSW Atrium
1:00pmto 4:00pm
Judging
Required
ECSW and ECSS
5:00pmto 6:00pm
Closing Ceremony
Required
ATEC Auditorium
6:00pmto 7:00pm
SWAG DROP!!!
Required
ECSW Atrium

Enter up to three.

Presented by T-Mobile

Safe Signal

1stApple Mac Mini2ndNVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano Super3rdPlaud NotePin S

Challenge statement

Protect customers from scams and fraud in ways we haven’t thought of yet. You build: - Any approach: prevention, real-time protection, education, new security features - Scam detection is core piece, not the whole product - Go beyond classification: safeguards and customer-facing experiences - Clear next steps, honest confidence, privacy by design - Synthetic data: scam message and scenarios. No real customer data. We provide: - Synthetic message set - Scam taxonomy - Baseline classifier Judges look for: - Creativity - Impact - Usability - Security and privacy - Detection accuracy

Presented by PNC Bank

360° Financial Health Navigator

1stPlayStation 5 Slim2ndNinja Creami3rdApple AirPods Pro 3

Challenge statement

How could AI help someone see their whole financial picture, make sense of it & feel confident about their next move? Most people keep their money in many places: checking and savings accounts, CDs, IRAs, auto and personal loans, credit cards and mortgages. Yet few have one clear view of how they're actually doing or what to do next. This challenge invites you to reimagine how people understand and manage their financial lives. Your answer might be: - A conversational coach - 3+ Health Assessment Indicators - Forecast balances and financial obligation - “What if” simulator - Something no one has thought of yet!

Presented by 8090 Solutions

Legacy System Modernization

1stMic Mini Wireless Mics2ndMic Mini Wireless Mics3rdMic Mini Wireless Mics

Challenge statement

Build agents and tools that accelerate legacy system modernization. The world runs on software, and most of it is old, riddled with errors, and poorly understood. Medicare alone made $28.8 billion in improper payments last year, through claims systems built on millions of lines of decades-old code. Whole companies exist not because the original systems were well designed, but because the ones before them never quite worked. Build agents and tools that make this software easier to understand, improve, or replace.

Presented by Northmark Compute & Cloud

Keep the World Running

1stAirPods Max Gen 22ndApple Watch Series 123rdEcho Show 11

Challenge statement

Behind every AI model, streaming service, and cloud application is a data center—and a team keeping it running around the clock. A missed warning, an unclear handoff, or the wrong information at the wrong time can turn a small issue into a major disruption. NMC² challenges you to build a solution that helps data center teams stay one step ahead.

Presented by Toyota Financial Services

The Smartest Next Move

1st$500 Amazon gift card per team2nd$350 Amazon gift card per team3rd$150 Amazon gift card per team

Challenge statement

Toyota’s global vision is to lead the future of mobility, enriching lives around the world with the safest and most responsible ways of moving people. Toyota is the leader in making some of the best-selling, fuel efficient and top-quality automobiles in the world. As part of the hackathon, help Toyota customers answer one question: “Given my situation today, what’s the smartest next move for me and my Toyota?” - PERSONALIZE: Use a simulated customer profile, vehicle, and loan or lease details to generate relevant insights. - SIMPLIFY: Explain realistic options, payments, costs, assumptions, and trade-offs in plain language. - GUIDE: Guide customers to a clear next step: self-service, a follow-up, or an eligible offer. - VALUE: Show how the idea could improve retention, grow relevant revenue, or reduce service effort. Expectation: Build a Working Prototype • Prove it with Synthetic Data • Innovate Responsibly with AI • Reimagine the Customer Experience • Unlock Meaningful Business Value

Presented by Winstead PC

Cyber Incident Response Dashboard

1st$1500 per team2nd$900 per team3rd$300 per team

Challenge statement

Build a Cyber Incident Response Dashboard designed to act as a “command center” during, and after a Cyber Incident. Required components: 1. The system should be highly secure and should operate inside potentially compromised networks as an isolated system. 2. Access Control: Administrative ability to add individuals to the platform. 3. Incident Documentation: Ability to enter details of the incident in a manner that reflects the standards for cyber incident documentation. Account for real-time updating and status monitoring. 4. Scope definitions: Related to incident documentation, but specifically documenting the range of data that has been compromised and the status of the compromised data (locked for ransomware, exfiltrated, etc.) 5. Communications: Account for real-time communications within the system. What we’ll be judging: 1. Security: The assumption must be that the attacker has access to all internal systems. The system must be independently secure. 2. Ease of use: The team entering the system will be under stress and will not likely recall tutorials. The ability to operate in the system with little instruction is almost as important as security. 3. Creativity: Anything outside of the described objectives that enhances the functionality of the system.

Presented by EOG Resources

HackUTD: ZeroDay. The city of Avon needs you.

1stBambu Lab P1S 3D Printer2ndNinja CREAMi

Challenge statement

Avon never sleeps - and neither do the oil fields beyond its walls that keep the city running. Every barrel of oil produced also brings salt water that must be managed: collected in tanks, transported through pipelines, and treated for reuse. Most nights, the system runs seamlessly in the background, but tonight... something breaks. A pump fails, a tank nears capacity, and the system forecasts an impending shutdown to prevent a spill. If no one intervenes, Avon goes dark. Your job is to change that outcome. Build a console that gives night-shift operators the insight they need to act fast: identify what's failing, predict the time before it worsens, and determine the lowest-cost path to keep operations running.

Resources ↗

Presented by Goldman Sachs

DealPilot

1stApple AirPods Max 22ndApple HomePod Mini 23rd$50 Grubhub Gift Card

Challenge statement

Build 'DealPilot' - a comprehensive platform that automates and secures the entire lifecycle of commercial loan processing, leveraging AI/ML capabilities to detect hidden, cross-deal fraud patterns and achieve operational excellence.

Presented by StateFarm

The Worst Day, at Scale – Intelligent Catastrophe Response

1stBeats Studio Pro2ndRC Drone with UHD Camera and GPS3rdWireless Portable Monitor

Challenge statement

When a major disaster affects thousands of people simultaneously, how might we use AI and technology to identify those with the most urgent needs, coordinate assistance, and ensure no one is overlooked?

Presented by CBRE

Predict Before It Spreads

1stSony WH-1000XM5 Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones2ndKindle (latest model!)3rdKlik Retro Digital Camera

Challenge statement

Build an application that connects fragmented real estate data to predict operational failures, quantify business impact, or execute solutions before disruptions spread!

Resources ↗

Presented by Nvidia

Use Nemotron Beyond a Chatbot

1st2 RTX 5080 GPUs, $200 Brev Credits (per team)2nd1 RTX 5080 GPU, $200 Brev Credits (per team)

Challenge statement

In addition to using Nemotron, your project must include: - Beyond a Chatbot: Not just responding directly to prompts - Multi-step workflows: Agents that plan and execute complex tasks - Tool integration: Using external APIs and services intelligently - Real-world applicability: Solving actual problems

Presented by Capital One

Best Use of Nessie

1st$300 Giftogram for each member of the winning team

Challenge statement

Capital One challenges you to reimagine the banking experience by building an innovative application that leverages the Nessie API. Featuring access to mock financial data including accounts, merchants, bills, and peer-to-peer transactions, Nessie is your sandbox for solving real-world financial problems. We want to see projects that creatively integrate Nessie’s endpoints to empower users and improve their financial lives.

Resources ↗

Presented by Spacetime

Build on Spacetime

1st$2,048 per team2nd$1,024 per team3rd$512 per teamScrabbleBot 1st$1,024ScrabbleBot 2nd$512ScrabbleBot 3rd$256

Challenge statement

Build any app or game you want. To qualify, submit a public GitHub repo, and the majority of your backend must be built on Spacetime. Access code can be acquired by visiting our booth. ScrabbleBot Challenge (11pm Saturday!): Write a bot to compete in ScrabbleBot, our Scrabble-style auction game built on Spacetime. Bid on tiles, spell words, and outplay the other bots. To qualify, submit a public GitHub repo.

Presented by Photon

Best Use of Photon API

1st$400 cash + $300 in API credits + interview fast-track (per team)2nd$200 cash + $100 in credits (per team)Voice Call Winner$300 cash + $100 in credits (per team)

Challenge statement

Access here: https://app.photon.codes/sign-in?callbackURL=%2Fdashboard Promo code: HACKWITHPHOTON Full instructions, including documentation and examples, are in the resources link.

Resources ↗

Enter up to three.

FAQ

Can’t find what you’re looking for? Connect with our team at hello@hackutd.co

Ask a question

Can I participate if I have never hacked?
Everyone is welcome to come, and no experience is necessary to attend! We host workshops to introduce new hackers to industry programs and technologies, and we have a Beginner track for first-time hackers.
When can I apply, and what's the priority deadline?
Applications are open now! Apply by October 3rd to be considered in our first round of decisions. Priority applicants also get first consideration for travel reimbursement and get sent to sponsors early for on-site interview opportunities.
I got accepted! Do I need to do anything?
Yes! After getting accepted, you'll need to RSVP by the deadline to lock in your spot. If we don't hear from you we'll release your seat to someone else.
How big can a team be, and what if I don't have one?
Teams can be 1 to 4 people, and going solo is completely fine. We'll have a team building session at the start of the hackathon for anyone who needs help finding a team.
What do I need to bring, and can I sleep there?
You just need a laptop, charger, and a hacking spirit! ECSW is open all night and we have designated sleeping rooms with the lights off and silence enforced, as well as showers available at anytime. We suggest you bring a change of clothes, toiletries, and a pillow or blanket. We provide internet and free food/drinks throughout the event!
I have another question, or I want to volunteer or sponsor.
Email hello@hackutd.co or DM us @hackutd on Instagram! Mentor and volunteer applications open soon, so follow us to be notified.
Does HackUTD cover travel?
HackUTD does do partial and full travel reimbursement! Select the travel reimbursement option on your application to be considered. Apply by the October 3rd priority deadline for the best chance. Since funds are limited, we cannot guarantee everyone who applies travel reimbursement. Local airports are Dallas Lovefield(DAL) and Dallas Fort Worth International Airport(DFW). The DART silver line goes directly from DFW to the UTD Campus.

Does HackUTD accept walk-ins?
For people who don't get accepted but would still like to attend, we historically accept walk-ins. If there is extra capacity then walk-ins will be admitted on a first-come first-serve basis. We anticipate taking walk-ins again this year but it will be subject to venue capacity!
I have dietary restrictions or need an accommodation. Who do I talk to?
Tell us on your application and we'll make sure you're covered. For anything specific, email us at hello@hackutd.co and we'll sort it out before the event.
Who can participate?
Any currently enrolled student, undergrad or grad, from any school. Additionally, graduates less than 1 year out from their graduation date may apply. You don't have to attend UTD and you don't have to be a CS major. High school students are welcome if you're 18 or older by November 7th. If you're under 18, you'll need a guardian present at the event at all times and a signed parent or guardian form, which we'll send you if accepted.
How much does it cost?
HackUTD 2026 will be completely free to hackers!
When and where is HackUTD this year?
November 7th and 8th in the ECSW building at UT Dallas! The full schedule and parking details will be sent to attendees closer to the event.
What is a hackathon?
A hackathon is a competition where you and your team build a software project from scratch over the course of a weekend and compete against other groups for prizes. Sponsors also run workshops, events, and activities throughout the weekend to help you learn more about the field of technology!

FAQ

Can’t find what you’re looking for? Connect with our team at hello@hackutd.co

Ask a question

The HackUTD mascots: an octopus cat, a masked raccoon, a winged messenger, a hooded pig and a spotted panther.

FAQ

Can’t find what you’re looking for? Connect with our team at hello@hackutd.co

Can I participate if I have never hacked?
Everyone is welcome to come, and no experience is necessary to attend! We host workshops to introduce new hackers to industry programs and technologies, and we have a Beginner track for first-time hackers.
When can I apply, and what's the priority deadline?
Applications are open now! Apply by October 3rd to be considered in our first round of decisions. Priority applicants also get first consideration for travel reimbursement and get sent to sponsors early for on-site interview opportunities.
I got accepted! Do I need to do anything?
Yes! After getting accepted, you'll need to RSVP by the deadline to lock in your spot. If we don't hear from you we'll release your seat to someone else.
How big can a team be, and what if I don't have one?
Teams can be 1 to 4 people, and going solo is completely fine. We'll have a team building session at the start of the hackathon for anyone who needs help finding a team.
What do I need to bring, and can I sleep there?
You just need a laptop, charger, and a hacking spirit! ECSW is open all night and we have designated sleeping rooms with the lights off and silence enforced, as well as showers available at anytime. We suggest you bring a change of clothes, toiletries, and a pillow or blanket. We provide internet and free food/drinks throughout the event!
I have another question, or I want to volunteer or sponsor.
Email hello@hackutd.co or DM us @hackutd on Instagram! Mentor and volunteer applications open soon, so follow us to be notified.
Does HackUTD cover travel?
HackUTD does do partial and full travel reimbursement! Select the travel reimbursement option on your application to be considered. Apply by the October 3rd priority deadline for the best chance. Since funds are limited, we cannot guarantee everyone who applies travel reimbursement. Local airports are Dallas Lovefield(DAL) and Dallas Fort Worth International Airport(DFW). The DART silver line goes directly from DFW to the UTD Campus.

Does HackUTD accept walk-ins?
For people who don't get accepted but would still like to attend, we historically accept walk-ins. If there is extra capacity then walk-ins will be admitted on a first-come first-serve basis. We anticipate taking walk-ins again this year but it will be subject to venue capacity!
I have dietary restrictions or need an accommodation. Who do I talk to?
Tell us on your application and we'll make sure you're covered. For anything specific, email us at hello@hackutd.co and we'll sort it out before the event.
Who can participate?
Any currently enrolled student, undergrad or grad, from any school. Additionally, graduates less than 1 year out from their graduation date may apply. You don't have to attend UTD and you don't have to be a CS major. High school students are welcome if you're 18 or older by November 7th. If you're under 18, you'll need a guardian present at the event at all times and a signed parent or guardian form, which we'll send you if accepted.
How much does it cost?
HackUTD 2026 will be completely free to hackers!
When and where is HackUTD this year?
November 7th and 8th in the ECSW building at UT Dallas! The full schedule and parking details will be sent to attendees closer to the event.
What is a hackathon?
A hackathon is a competition where you and your team build a software project from scratch over the course of a weekend and compete against other groups for prizes. Sponsors also run workshops, events, and activities throughout the weekend to help you learn more about the field of technology!

HackUTD 2026: Zero Day, a 24-hour hackathon at The University of Texas at Dallas, November 7-8, 2026

What is HackUTD

Countdown

Schedule and challenge tracks

Day 1

Walk-ins

Check-in

Sponsor Fair

Teambuilding

Extended Check-in

Opening Ceremony

Hacking Starts

Lunch

T-Mobile Fireside Chat

PNC Workshop

Afterlife Mocktail Bar

Orion Humanoid Robot

8090 Workshop

NMC Workshop

EOG Workshop

Goldman Workshop

CapitalOne Switch Competition

MLH Workshop

Dinner Presented by AT&T

Influencer Panel

HackUTD Olympics Presented by T-Mobile

Spacetime Bot Tournament

Initial Devpost Deadline

Midnight Snack

Day 2

Karaoke

Afterlife Ramen Bar

Coffee Cart

Canvas Painting

Puppy Petting

Breakfast

Reminder: Submissions Due at 12:00

Lunch

Judging

Closing Ceremony

SWAG DROP!!!

Safe Signal

Challenge statement

360° Financial Health Navigator

Challenge statement

Legacy System Modernization

Challenge statement

Keep the World Running

Challenge statement

The Smartest Next Move

Challenge statement

Cyber Incident Response Dashboard

Challenge statement

HackUTD: ZeroDay. The city of Avon needs you.

Challenge statement

DealPilot

Challenge statement

The Worst Day, at Scale – Intelligent Catastrophe Response

Challenge statement

Predict Before It Spreads

Challenge statement

Use Nemotron Beyond a Chatbot

Challenge statement

Best Use of Nessie

Challenge statement

Build on Spacetime

Challenge statement

Best Use of Photon API

Challenge statement

Sponsors

Sponsors

FAQ

FAQ

Day 1

Walk-ins

Check-in

Sponsor Fair

Teambuilding

Extended Check-in

Opening Ceremony