JANUARY 23–24, 2027

infrahacks

Build for 24 hours. Watch the sun rise.

Waterloo, Canada | Free & In person

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Be first to know when applications open.

Explore the event
The eventWATERLOO, CANADA · JAN 23–24, 2027

Build for the world
around you.

A free, in-person weekend for student builders who want to work on the things that keep a city running.

Housing · Transit · Energy · Construction

150–200student builders
24 hoursto make it happen
Freeto apply and attend
See how the weekend unfolds

Industry-written challenges

Industry-written challenges drop at kickoff, so everyone starts together.

Mentors on the floor

Get help from mentors, then share your work with industry judges.

AI-assisted builds welcome

AI tools are encouraged. Build software or explore the Design & Systems stream.

Built on a strong first edition.90+ hackers / 6 sponsors
The weekendJANUARY 23–24, 2027

From first idea
to final demo.

Two days together. One full day to build.

All times Eastern
Sat Jan 23

Opening ceremony

Meet the challenge briefs for the first time.

Sat Jan 23

Find your team

Meet other builders on the floor. Coming solo is welcome.

Sat Jan 23

Building begins

The 24-hour clock starts. Sponsor booths open.

Hour 0
Sat Jan 23

Industry panel

Hear from the people who work on the built world.

Sat Jan 23

Mentor office hours

Work through your toughest questions with sponsor mentors.

Sat Jan 23

The halfway point

Keep building into the night.

Hour 12

Bring a repo, a demo video under 3 minutes, and a write-up to the finish line.

Proposed schedule · final times confirmed with the venue.
Who gets in

We read for curiosity, craft, and grit.

We don't publish the challenge briefs ahead of time; they drop at kickoff, so nobody pre-builds. We read your application for how you think and what you've actually made. No pedigree required: first-timers are a huge part of the field. And you don't have to be a coder: a Design & Systems stream runs alongside the build stream, so planning, environment, and civil students compete with models and plans instead of code.

We look for
  • People who make things: code, hardware, zines, clubs, spreadsheets that got out of hand
  • Curiosity & taste: you notice problems before anyone hands you one
  • Grit: you teach yourself hard things and push through 3am walls
  • Kindness: the person who makes the room better
We don't care about
  • Your school, GPA, or résumé polish
  • Whether you've ever hackathoned before
  • A pre-baked project idea
  • Knowing the "right" tech stack
Typical details

The kind of thing that wins

Examples, not assignments. The real briefs drop at kickoff.

Build stream
  • The accessible route, not just the fast one: a transit tool that plans around stairs, snow, and broken elevators
  • A building that shaves its own peak: software that schedules power use around demand spikes
  • Hear the leak before the sinkhole: a cheap sensor and a model that flags failing water mains early
Design & systems stream
  • Know where the heat lands: a simulation of which blocks a heat wave hits hardest, and what shade would do
  • A street that floods on purpose: a block designed to absorb a storm instead of drowning in it
  • Density without demolition: adding homes to a block without erasing what's there
Prizes & perksMAIN TRACK + 4 SPONSOR CHALLENGES

Worth building for.

Compete for what you create in 24 hours. Leave with more than a finished project.

THE PRIZE POOL

Cash +
credits.

Across the main track and four sponsor challenges. The pool grows with every sponsor who joins.

Full lineup coming with applications

Categories, amounts and what each one wins will be announced together.

Help grow the prize pool
FOR EVERY BUILDER

Tools to get started

Sponsor-provided credits and tools, issued to every team at kickoff.

Fuel for the whole weekend

Five meals, plus snacks and coffee to keep you going.

People in your corner

Mentors on the floor, industry office hours, and fellow builders to learn from.

Applying and competing are free.
Sponsors

Put your name on a challenge

A recruiting pipeline, not a logo wall. Challenge sponsors name a challenge, write its brief with us, seat their judges, and meet every team that builds on it. Edition one drew 90+ hackers and six sponsors; edition two goes in person with 150–200 builders.

Get the sponsorship package
Join the crew2027 ORGANIZING TEAM

Help make
InfraHacks happen.

Help organize InfraHacks 2027, from sponsor outreach to the experience on the day.

FIND YOUR PLACE

  • Sponsorship
  • Marketing
  • Operations
  • Tech
  • Design
  • Community

No senior title required. Bring reliability, initiative, and a willingness to make things happen.

Apply to the team

About 5 minutes · Choose your top 2 roles

The people behind it

EXEC TEAM

  • Nishant Shah

    Founder & co-director
    Tech & finance

  • Joshua Zhang

    Co-director
    Outreach

  • Kairav Tupil

    Tech & logistics

  • John Ma

    Logistics & finance

  • Ali Hadi

    Partnerships

  • Shrey Jain

    Tech & logistics

Alongside around ten organizers across outreach, marketing, logistics, and tech.

Questions

Asked often, answered here

Who can participate?
Students who can make it to the venue in Waterloo for the weekend; applications are read for curiosity, craft, and grit, not pedigree. No infrastructure background needed: the briefs explain the domain, and every challenge is approachable from a general software stack.
I've never done a hackathon. Is this for me?
Yes. First-timers are a huge part of the field. Mentors are on the floor all weekend, and team formation happens right after the opening ceremony if you're coming solo.
Can I use AI tools?
Encouraged, not just allowed. Coding assistants, LLM APIs, generation tools: all fair game. You're judged on what you shipped against the brief, and on whether you can explain how it works.
What can I prepare beforehand?
Anything except project code. Environments, accounts, boilerplate, your team: all fine. Code written before the clock starts is grounds for disqualification; finalists walk judges through their commit history.
Do I need to bring hardware?
No. Most teams build software. If you own hardware and want to bring it, go for it; nothing about the event requires buying anything.
I'd rather design than code.
Good. The Design & Systems stream is for planning, environment, and civil students: physical models, urban-design concepts, infrastructure plans, judged on their own rubric.
Where exactly is it?
Waterloo, Canada: venue announced before applications open. The event runs on site from Saturday morning through Sunday afternoon, with overnight space to keep building.
What does it cost?
Nothing. Applying and competing are free, you're fed all weekend, five meals plus round-the-clock snacks and coffee, and sponsor-provided credits and tools are issued to every team at kickoff.

The city's waiting.

Applications open fall 2026. Drop your email and you'll be the first to know the moment they do, before we announce it anywhere else. Free, in person, 24 hours.

No spam, just a heads-up when applications open.