The Votes are in! RSVP for the Winners Announcement on Monday, Oct 5: https://luma.com/9t55d95u

The Houston Hackathon is an opportunity for people from all backgrounds and skillsets to come together and collaborate on projects to improve life in the Greater Houston area.

​Impact Hub Houston aims to empower people with the inspiration, connection, and resources they need to launch and grow solutions with scalable impact, for a more just and sustainable world. You are invited to take part in this annual opportunity to develop potentially transformative solutions for your own community, and receive support that could enable your solution to work for ALL of Houston.

The Challenges are LIVE! Click through the Gallery on Airtable to learn more: https://bit.ly/hh26challenges

Sign up here on Devpost to participate in Houston Hackathon 2026; and
RSVP on Luma for the Kickoff on September 25! (http://bit.ly/houstonhackathon2026)

​Why Join the Hackathon?

  • ​To make a difference in your community and turn ideas into action in just a week

  • ​To challenge yourself and learn new skills through working on real problems

  • ​To meet other interesting people who care about the greater good

  • ​To collaborate with local government, nonprofits, and startups

  • ​... And it’s just fun! Like summer camp for thinkers and doers. ✧｡٩(ˊᗜˋ )و✧*｡

​Anyone who wants to make a positive impact in our region is welcome to join us at the Houston Hackathon — no specific tech or design skills are needed to get started. You will learn more about the challenges and start forming teams during the kick-off.

​NOTE: This is a “civic” hackathon, focused on ideating, designing, and developing practical solutions to tackle some of Greater Houston’s even greater challenges. Project stakeholders will be there from the city, county, local organizations, and Houston's impact community — get ready to get engaged!

For Inspiration: Projects from Previous Houston Hackathons ...

Requirements

Please feel free to:

  • Tackle a new challenge,
  • Try a new approach to a challenge you've tackled before, or
  • Bring a solution you're currently working on and want to recruit some help for.

You don't need to have a finished prototype by the end of the hackathon period, as long as you have an actionable solution that addresses a challenge specific to the Greater Houston area.

Just make as much progress as you can on your solution, and prepare to share what you've accomplished and how you would like to move it forward after. 

You can use Impact Hub Houston's Project + Pitch Guide to help create your solution and slides — Click the button there to make a copy that you can view and edit.

Hackathon Sponsors

Prizes

4 non-cash prizes
Impact Hub Houston Fiscal Sponsorship
4 winners

Should a Winning Project Team choose to continue working on their solution and seek funding to support its development, they are invited to apply for Fiscal Sponsorship with Impact Hub Houston to enable them to access grants, sponsorships, and tax-deductible donations for their project!

Impact Hub Houston "Ideas to Impact" Scholarship
4 winners

Winning teams will get scholarships to participate in the next "Ideas to Impact" Accelerator cohort!

Impact Hub Houston Membership
5 winners

All Impact Makers are invited to become official Members of Impact Hub Houston! Learn more and apply at https://houston.impacthub.net

Google Career Certificate Scholarships
4 winners

The winning teams and People's Choice team will receive Google Career Certificate scholarships to further their career and skills development! (Info: https://bit.ly/impactupskill)

Devpost Achievements

Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:

Judges

Ellis Hubbard III

Ellis Hubbard III
The Roo App

Grace Rodriguez

Grace Rodriguez
Impact Hub Houston

Jesse Bounds

Jesse Bounds
Director, Office of Innovation & Performance

Joey Sanchez

Joey Sanchez
Cup of Joey

Tricia Vincent

Tricia Vincent
Launch Your Influence

Raphael Guzman

Raphael Guzman
Censibal

Wade Pinder

Wade Pinder

Judging Criteria

  • Progress
    Was the challenge well-researched? Was the solution well-designed? Did they form a strong team that can move the solution forward? Did they create an actionable plan or prototype?
  • Practical
    Can this solution be reasonably implemented? Will people be able to easily access and adopt it? Do resources already exist, or would resources be easy to secure, to sustain and continue improving it?
  • Potential
    How effective would this be at solving the stated challenge or need? Would people actually use it, and even pay for or fund it? Could this scale to serve other communities and/or address other challenges?

Questions? Email the hackathon manager

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Hackathon sponsors

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