Hackathon Logistics

Dates: Winter 2026 (Tentatively scheduled for January 31-February 1st)
Location: University of Washington, Seattle

Participants: 100 top interdisciplinary builders (selected via application)
Teams: Teams × 2-4 members

Judges: Industry professionals, faculty, and AI thought leaders

The Challenge: AI Across the Ages 

AI has revolutionized our present — but what can it teach us about our past, and how can it prepare us for our future?

Hack to the Future challenges students to design AI solutions that bridge the boundaries between disciplines and time.

The Three Tracks

The Three Tracks:

1️⃣ Bridge Builder — The Past: Connecting Divided Worlds

AI solutions that bridge unexpected gaps between disciplines that have historically rarely interacted (e.g., art and science, design and data, or culture and code).

“When disciplines collide, barriers dissolve.”

2️⃣ The Ignored Problems — The Present: Fixing What Actually Matters

Build AI for real people and overlooked challenges — current problems that don’t make headlines but do make a difference.

“The best AI solves real problems, not impressive ones.”

3️⃣ Collective Foresight — The Future: Preparing for What’s Coming

Create AI systems that predict, prevent, or prepare for the future — helping communities and industries anticipate social, ethical, and environmental shifts.

“See further together.”

Why Hack to the Future

• The Problem:
  AI literacy isn’t reaching undergraduates fast enough. Students are entering an AI-driven economy without the skills or access to adapt.

  Our Solution:
  Hack to the Future gives 100 of UW’s brightest interdisciplinary builders a stage to collaborate, prototype, and deploy AI solutions that create real human impact.

  Participant Backgrounds:

  • Computer Science & Engineering

  • Business & Entrepreneurship

  • Design & UX

  • Data Science & AI/ML

  • Domain Experts (Finance, Healthcare, Social Science, etc.)
    
    
    

  Why Sponsor Hack to the Future?

  📍 The Only One of Its Kind at UW

  • Mandatory interdisciplinary teams: Engineers + Designers + Domain Experts

  • Your brand reaches curious student innovators who think beyond code

  ⭐ Elite Talent, Curated Quality

  • Long-term network with application-based cohort = 100+ screened participants

  • Résumé bank access for sponsors

  • Discover product-ready projects suitable for recruiting & validation

  🌎 Expanding Network Reach

  • 7-university AI Student Collective international  network (UW, UCSD, UCSC, UCD, UCR, UTD, and Universidad Carlos III de Madrid)

  • Cross-promotion through AI Collective (100K+ community members)

Mentorship & Judging Opportunities

Not all partnerships need to be financial. We welcome professionals to join as mentors and judges.

• Mentors host feedback sessions for teams

• Judges evaluate final presentations and connect with top talent

Join Us

Help us build the future of AI, accessibility, and collaboratively

Have more questions? Contact us: