Dates

Hack Atlantic runs for 24 hours on September 26–27, 2026 at UNB Fredericton.

  • Check-in and opening ceremony: Saturday, September 26, [time] AT
  • Hacking begins: Saturday, September 26, [time] AT
  • Submission deadline: Sunday, September 27, [time] AT
  • Judging: Sunday, September 27, [time]–[time] AT
  • Closing ceremony and winners announced: Sunday, September 27, [time] AT

All times are Atlantic Time. Late submissions won't be accepted.

Eligibility

  • Open to high school and university students.
  • Participants must be registered for Hack Atlantic and checked in on site at UNB Fredericton.
  • Teams can have 1–4 people. You can work solo, bring a team, or find one at the event.
  • Each person can be on only one team and submit only one project.
  • All participants must follow the MLH Code of Conduct.
  • Participation is free.

Project and Submission Requirements

  • Build it here. Projects must be started from scratch during the hackathon. You can use open-source libraries, frameworks, APIs and starter templates, but the core work has to happen during the event.
  • Submit before the deadline through the submission page. Include:
    • A project name and a short description of what it does
    • The problem it solves and how you built it
    • The names of all team members
    • A link to your code repository (GitHub or similar)
    • Screenshots, a demo video or a live link, if you have them
    • The prize categories you're entering
  • Hardware projects should include photos or a short video of the build working.
  • Unfinished is fine. Submit whatever you have. Every submitted project gets seen by the judges.
  • Demo it. At least one team member must be present for judging to demo the project.
  • Projects must be original work by your team. Plagiarised, pre-built or harmful projects will be disqualified.

Prizes

Specific prizes are coming soon.

  • Best Hardware Hack: for the best project you can hold, such as sensors, boards, robots or wearables. [Prize TBA]
  • Best Software Hack: for the best web, mobile, AI, game or tool project. [Prize TBA]
  • Best Use of Snowflake (MLH): for the best project using a free dataset, Cortex Code CLI or any Snowflake feature. [Prize TBA]
  • Side prizes: sponsor challenges and fun awards, announced at the opening ceremony. [Prize TBA]

A team can enter as many categories as it's eligible for. [Add or remove this depending on whether a team can win more than one prize.]

Judging Criteria and Winner Selection

Each project is scored equally on four criteria:

  1. Technical difficulty: how challenging the build was and how well it was executed.
  2. Creativity: how original the idea is and how it approaches the problem.
  3. Usefulness and impact: whether it solves a real problem and who it helps.
  4. Presentation: how clearly the team explains and demos the project.

How winners are chosen

  • A panel of judges from industry, sponsors and the UNB community reviews every submitted project during the judging period.
  • Teams demo to judges at their table or in an assigned slot. Plan on about [3–5] minutes, including questions.
  • Sponsor prizes are judged by that sponsor using its own challenge criteria.
  • Judges' decisions are final. Ties are broken by the judges' deliberation.
  • Winners are announced at the closing ceremony. Prizes are handed out on site or arranged afterwards by email to [email protected] contacts.