Come solo, leave with a team
Saturday starts with everyone naming real problems out loud. Pick the one that bugs you and find the people who want to fix it too.
MC² Summit Hackathon · Oct 24–25, 2026
Build something your community will actually use.
Two days in East Windsor, NJ. Find a real problem on Saturday morning, build it with mentors beside you, and demo a working product to the judges on Sunday afternoon.
no team yet? you'll find one here ✦
Challenges revealed in
Sat, Oct 24, 10:15 AM ET
- Where
- MC² Works + Labs, Building 2 Map
- Teams form
- Sat, Oct 24, 10:15 AM
- Demos
- Sun, Oct 25, 2:00 PM
- days of building
- 2
- awards to win
- 14
- Grand Prize
- $400
- people per team
- 1–4
every project is in the running for 10
split across the team
or come solo
why come?
Come for the problem. Stay for the people.
Learn from people who've shipped
Lightning talks from Muslims building now, a Mentor Studio on Saturday and founder office hours on Sunday morning.
Demo something real
On Sunday afternoon you show a working product to the judges and the whole room. Not slides. Pitch coaching comes first.
Keep going after Sunday
Teams picked for the MC² Accelerator get funded to take their idea to market, plus desk time, a mentor and a demo day. The most venture-ready team also wins $100.
the good stuff
Fourteen ways to win
Every project is automatically in the running for ten awards. Pick up to three pitched challenges and you're in the running for those too.
best overall
$400
Grand Prize
In prizes, split across the team. Strong on every judging criterion, not just one.
$150
2nd Place
$100
3rd Place
for the ones who keep going
Most Likely to Become a Venture
$100 + Accelerator slot
Funding to take it to market, desk time at MC² Works + Labs, a mentor from the Summit speaker list and a follow-up demo day.
sealed until kickoff
4 pitched challenges, $100 each
- Something your masjid community would use every week.
- Help Quran learning stick.
- Win back the hours lost to scrolling.
- Help a kid who has fallen behind catch up.
Real problems we hand to teams, revealed Sat, Oct 24 at 10:15 AM. Take on up to three. Nobody gets a head start.
- Most Impactful HackThe project most likely to improve real lives.$75
- Most Innovative HackSomething genuinely new.$75
- Most Technically Complex HackThe hardest engineering problem, solved well.$75
- Best Hardware HackMake something physical work.$75
- Best User InsightThe team that learned the most from real people.$75
- Ihsan AwardDoing the work beautifully, with care.$75
- Best Use of GitHubA repository a stranger could pick up on Monday.$75
Prizes are split evenly across the winning team.
the weekend
Two days, start to demo
Saturday is for finding the problem and building. Sunday is for finishing and showing it off. Submissions close at 1:00 PM; demos start at 2:00 PM.
Your ticket covers
- Food on both days
- Mentors and founder office hours
- A shot at every award
- Goodies for hackers (details soon)
Timing follows the Summit schedule and may shift a little.
- 9:00 AMWelcome and check-inDoors
- 9:30 AMRihla Lightning Talks: Muslims building nowTalk
- 10:15 AMIdentify a real problem and form teamsMilestoneChallenges are revealed and submissions open.
- 11:00 AMBuild Sprint I: turn the idea into a planBuild
- 12:30 PMDhuhr, food and suhbaFood
- 1:15 PMMentor Studio: feedback and office hoursMentors
- 2:15 PMBuild Sprint II: make it workBuild
- 4:00 PMTeam checkpoint share-outsTalk
- 4:30 PMDay one closeDoors
first hackathon? good.
Help is built into the schedule, so nobody gets stuck alone.
Mentor Studio
Saturday afternoon office hours: bring your plan, leave with sharper feedback.
Product and storytelling
A short skill talk on Sunday morning about turning a build into a story judges remember.
Founder office hours
Sit down with founders and mentors before the final push.
Pitch coaching
Practice your demo once with a coach before you present.
how it's judged
Five things the judges look for
Every judge watches every demo in one room and scores each project from 0 to 10 on five criteria. Scores are adjusted per judge, so a strict judge and a generous one count the same. Then the panel decides each award together.
- 1
Technicality
Is it functional, and does it justify the hackathon time?
- 2
Originality
How new is the idea or approach?
- 3
Practicality
Is it useful and accessible to real users?
- 4
Aesthetics
Is the UI/UX intuitive?
- 5
Wow factor
Does something make it stand out?
where
MC² Works + Labs
Building 2, 379 Princeton Hightstown Road
East Windsor, NJ
A workspace built for people starting things, a short drive from MCGP. Look for Building 2, the entrance with the big "2" over the door.
Directionsgood questions
Questions
How do I sign up?
Get a hackathon ticket through the Summit checkout. It covers both days, food, mentors and a shot at every prize.
Do I need a team?
No. Come with one or form a team on Saturday morning when everyone identifies problems together. Teams are one to four people.
Do I need to know how to code?
It helps, but it isn't required. People who understand a problem well, designers and storytellers make teams stronger, and mentors are in the room both days.
Can we use AI tools?
Yes, fully. You don't have to disclose them. You do have to explain what you built when the judges ask.
Can we start before the weekend?
Think about ideas as much as you like. Code, designs and assets start at kickoff on Saturday. Open-source libraries and public APIs are fine.
What are the challenges?
Open awards that every project competes for automatically, and pitched challenges that we set and teams can opt in to. The prizes page lists them all with a one-line description; the full challenge text is revealed on Saturday morning.
Can we build hardware?
Yes, and there's an award for it. MC² Labs doesn't supply components, so bring whatever your idea needs.
How do we submit?
Scan the QR code on the poster in the room. Each team gets a private link to edit its submission until the deadline at 1 PM on Sunday.
What should I bring?
A laptop and charger, your phone, and any hardware your idea needs.
see you in the Garden State
Saturday, Oct 24. Bring a laptop and a problem worth solving.
MC² Works + Labs, Building 2, 379 Princeton Hightstown Road, East Windsor, NJ
Get your ticket