Name: TigerHacks 2026
Start: 2026-09-25T21:00:00.000-04:00
End: 2026-09-27T11:00:00.000-04:00
Location: TigerHacks 2026

About the challenge

TigerHacks 2026 challenges you to explore how technology can help people live healthier, safer, and more connected lives. From improving access to care and supporting mental wellness to advancing medical technology and strengthening communities, your project can address health in whatever way inspires you.

You do not need a fully formed idea or even a team to participate. Bring your curiosity, creativity, and willingness to learn. Throughout the weekend, you will collaborate with other students, receive guidance from mentors, and transform your idea into a project that could make a meaningful difference.

Get started

Choose a health-related problem that matters to you, gather your team, and start building. Explore the event tracks for inspiration, attend workshops to develop new skills, and connect with mentors whenever you need support.

Whether your idea helps one person or an entire community, every meaningful solution begins with a first step.

Requirements

What to Build

You are free to design any application or video game that you'd like, in any programming language engine, framework, etc., so long as it fits the health theme.

What to Submit

All teams will submit a ZIP file of their project alongside a Git repository (GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, LFS, etc). All teams will participate in a "science fair"-style judging environment where they will demo their project and talk about their work in an informal setting.

Hackathon Sponsors

Prizes

$5,200+ in prizes

+ other prizes

Developer - First Place

$1,600 in cash

1 winner

Developer - Second Place

$800 in cash

1 winner

Game Development - First Place

$1,000 in cash

1 winner

Game Development - Second Place

$600 in cash

1 winner

Beginner - First Place

$800 in cash

1 winner

Beginner - Second Place

$400 in cash

1 winner

[MLH] Best Use of ElevenLabs

1 winner

Wireless Earbuds
Deploy natural, human-sounding audio with ElevenLabs. Create realistic, dynamic, and emotionally expressive voices for any project, from interactive AI companions to narrated stories and voice-enabled apps. ElevenLabs will empower you to build rich, immersive experiences without the need for actors or complex audio production, using simply the power of AI.

Integrate fully autonomous audio experiences into your hack with ElevenLabs and give your project a voice, along with giving your team the chance to win some wireless earbuds!

[MLH] Best Use of Gemini API

1 winner

MLH Swag Kits
It’s time to push the boundaries of what’s possible with AI using Google Gemini. Check out the Gemini API to build AI-powered apps that make your friends say WHOA. So, what can Gemini do for your hackathon project?

Understand language like a human and build a chatbot that gives personalized advice
Analyze info like a supercomputer and create an app that summarizes complex research papers
Generate creative content like code, scripts, music, and more
Think of the possibilities… what will you build with the Google Gemini API this weekend?

[MLH] Best Use of Solana

1 winner

Ledger Nano S Plus
The world of development is evolving fast and Solana is leading the charge with a network built to handle all of your infrastructure needs. Forget high fees and slow confirmations, it’s time to build applications that are fast, efficient, and scalable.

Harness Solana’s core advantages like blazing fast execution and near-zero transaction costs to make your hackathon ideas become real world projects. With Solana, the possibilities are endless.

Create a game, social app, or consumer product that relies on instant, high-frequency transactions.
Design a sophisticated trading, lending, or decentralized exchange (DEX).
Build a prototype for supply chain, identity, or payments that can handle massive, real-world volume.
Show us how you can innovate with Solana for a chance to win some cool prizes for you and each member of your team!

[MLH] Best Use of Tiger Data

1 winner

Stream Deck Mini
Building high-performance apps under hackathon deadlines shouldn't mean spending half your weekend configuring complex databases or learning obscure query languages. Tiger Data extends PostgreSQL to give student developers an ultra-fast foundation for real-time data, time-series metrics, and complex analytics.

Why build with Tiger Data this weekend?

Standard SQL Power: Query massive datasets instantly using the SQL you already know, with no complex NoSQL aggregation pipelines required.

Unified Data Stack: Store relational user profiles and high-frequency metric streams side-by-side in a single database.

Instant Dashboards: Serve lag-free, real-time frontend charts using pre-computed Continuous Aggregates.

90%+ Data Compression: Store millions of events on free-tier cloud instances without running out of disk space.

Whether you’re building real-time IoT monitoring, AI-driven analytics dashboards, or financial prediction engines, show us how Tiger Data powers your project. The team that demonstrates the most innovative, impactful, and performance-driven use of Tiger Data will take home some great prizes!

[MLH] Best Use of Vultr

1 winner

Portable Screens
Vultr empowers hackers to bring their high-performance projects to life instantly; providing everything from the speed of one-click deployment and scalable cloud compute, to specialized Vultr Cloud GPUs that can power AI-driven applications. We want you to push the limits of what can be built when infrastructure is no longer the bottleneck!

Sign up for a Vultr account today and claim your free cloud credits! Take your next hack to the cloud with Vultr for a chance to win some awesome portable screens for you and your team!

[MLH] Best Use of Snowflake API

1 winner

Raspberry Pi 4
Play with industry-leading LLMs on a single account using the Snowflake APIs. Adding AI capabilities into your application can be as simple as a single CURL command to Snowflake’s REST API.

Build customized applications, RAG powered chat bots, or embed AI-powered features into your app in half the time with half the hassle. Get started for free with a special, student 120-day Snowflake trial and check out this repository for an example of the Snowflake REST API in action.