Cosmo Hacks

Cosmo Hacks is a free four day online hackathon for high school students and graduate/college students aged 13+, taking place from
December 18 to December 21, 2026
.
Theme: Tech for Student & Community Life
Build a useful project that solves one clear problem for students, schools, or local communities.
Your project can be an app, game, website, tool, experiment, or another creative solution. Focus on identifying a real problem and building something that could make student or community life easier, better, or more effective.
Students can compete alone or in teams of up to four. Beginners are welcome, and participants will have access to workshops, mentors, sponsor resources, and support through Discord throughout the event.
Cosmo Hacks has more than
$500 in cash prizes and over $150,000 in sponsor benefits
, including software credits, API credits, cloud tools, domains, memberships, scholarships, workshops, and other resources.
All times are CST.
Day 1
3:00 PM
Cosmo Hacks officially opens
3:00 PM
Devpost submissions open
After 3:00 PM
Open building time
Day 2
10:00 AM
Opening Ceremony
12:00 PM
Momen Workshop
2:00 PM
Formaloo Workshop
6:00 PM
ProtoFlow Workshop
8:00 PM
Open Workshop
Day 3
10:30 AM
Defold Workshop
2:00 PM
Open Workshop
4:00 PM
Building with AI Workshop
6:00 PM
Doriax Engine Workshop
Day 4
12:00 PM
Submissions close
1:00 PM
Official judging begins
4:00 PM
Closing Ceremony and winners announced
Workshops are expected to last around 30 to 45 minutes.

Requirements
Your project should solve one specific problem for one real group of people. You may build an app, website, game, tool, experiment, or another type of project.
All projects must be submitted through Devpost by 12:00 PM CST on December 21, 2026.
Each submission must include a public GitHub repository containing your project code.
Each submission must also include a two to three minute demo video. The video should explain your idea, how you built it, and how the project works.
Your Devpost submission should explain the problem you are solving, what your project does, the technologies and tools you used, and the members of your team.
AI tools are allowed, but your team must understand the project and be able to explain how AI was used.
Your project must be your team's own work completed during Cosmo Hacks.
Projects will be judged on creativity, functionality, presentation, effort, and workshop participation.

Judging Criteria
Creativity and Originality
How original is the idea? Does the project solve a problem in an interesting or useful way?
Functionality
Does the project work as intended? How complete and reliable is the final product?
Technical Implementation
How well was the project built? Judges may consider the code, engineering, design choices, and difficulty of the implementation.
Impact and Usefulness
Does the project have a clear purpose? Could it be useful to real users or solve a meaningful problem?
Presentation
Can the team clearly explain what they built, how it works, and the decisions they made?
Workshop Participation
Participation in Cosmo Hacks workshops contribute to the final judging score.