strAIght up! Hackathon 2026
1 week. From idea to demo. Build with AI.
157 young builders
A week of ideas, experiments and real products.
strAIght up! Hackathon brought together 157 young builders aged 15 to 25 to explore, experiment, and ship real products using AI — hybrid, with an in-person kickoff and finale at LorongAI, and a week of remote building in between.
Teams of 2 to 4 built usable projects from scratch over one week — kicking off with a day of workshops, mentors, and industry partners at LorongAI, building remotely from 19–24 April, then returning for live judging, demos, and an awards ceremony on 25 April.
Participants picked from 25 challenge statements across 5 themes — from AI agent trust and infrastructure, to work and income access, to health and longevity — several of which specifically addressed barriers to girls and young women building with AI.
JC and Upper Secondary students exploring AI, Polytechnic and ITE students building prototypes, university undergraduates and early founders, and young professionals in tech, design, or product all took part — an intense but friendly build experience, without overnight hacking.
From reveal to live demo in seven days.
Kickoff
In-Person @ LorongAI, One-North
Challenge reveal · Tech workshops (Codex, Replit, Figma Make) · Mentor sessions
Remote Build
Global / Remote
Teams built at their own pace with support from mentors, organisers and technology partners.
The Finale
In-Person @ LorongAI, One-North
Live judge demos · Networking · Awards ceremony
Two tracks. One finish line.
Participants got to choose from two different build tracks.
The Tech Track
For those who love the “how”: APIs, architecture, and robust code.
The Vibe Track
For non-tech visionaries who “vibe” products into existence using LLMs and rapid prompting.
The tools to turn momentum into output.
Five themes shaping what comes next.
Challenge statements were revealed at kickoff and distributed across five future-facing themes.
A. The Next 10 Years: Structural Shifts
One of five challenge areas explored by participating teams.
B. Work, Income & Capability Formation
One of five challenge areas explored by participating teams.
C. Attention, Agency & Coordination
One of five challenge areas explored by participating teams.
D. Health, Longevity & Human Sustainability
One of five challenge areas explored by participating teams.
E. Emerging AI Opportunity Space
One of five challenge areas explored by participating teams.
Meet the teams that stood out.
🏆 Best in Theme
$2,000 OpenAI credits per team · $2,000 Mobbin credits per team member · 1 year Mobbin Pro per team member · Hackathon t-shirt + flask per team member
Theme A · Structural Shifts — Fallback
Theme B · Work & Capability — Merit
Theme C · Attention & Agency — Seepdeek
Theme D · Health & Longevity — PetMe
Theme E · Emerging AI — Weave
🏆 Best AIF Award
$1,000 cash prize · $2,000 Mobbin credits per team member · 1 year Mobbin Pro per team member · Hackathon t-shirt + flask per team member
Theme D — Bloom
Theme E — Archway
🏆 Crowd Favourite
$2,000 OpenAI credits per team
Fallback
🎉 Social Media Challenge
$400 OpenAI credits
@moizhk.1
Three communities backing young builders.
Wavesparks
Asia’s launchpad for young founders.
We identify and support ambitious young builders before the world is paying attention. Through early accelerator programmes, venture-building sprints, hackathons, workshops, founder communities, and early funding pathways, we help ambitious young people turn early ideas into real ventures.
Lythe
Foundational conversational AI infrastructure.
Lythe is a research lab that builds foundational conversational AI infrastructure. We develop both the core infrastructure and agent orchestration, as well as d2c products.
NextBigThing
Youth-led, builder-first.
NextBigThing helps young builders move beyond ideation into building and launching real businesses. Started in 2023 at Hwa Chong Institution, it now connects youth with angel investors, industry veterans, and MNCs.
Sponsors
Ant International Foundation · IMDA · OpenAI · AWS · Stripe · Mobbin · Replit
Community Partners
Lorong AI · ACE.SG · SMU (Institute of Innovation & Entrepreneurship)
Seven days of learning, making and shipping.
Want to collaborate on the next one?
Need more info or want to collaborate on a similar event? Email us and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.