On campus
Campus hack days at UC Berkeley
Run with student groups: HKN in May and DiversaTech Consulting in October. AI and CS students from Berkeley and other Bay Area schools build next to engineers, designers and founders.
A builder-first AI community · Berkeley & the Bay Area
A room full of builders, shipping with AI.
The background video shows moments from our May 9 and October 17, 2026 hack days at UC Berkeley: team demos, the room building, winners and the group photo.
80–100builders in every roomCampus and off campus
273signed up for May 9100+ came, at UC Berkeley
½ · ½students and industryEngineers, founders, AI and CS students
9sponsors and partnersAcross our 2026 events
Past partners
- Glasser
- Fountain Ventures
- Entelligence AI
- InsForge
- Klarity Health
- Zeabur
- Retell AI
- PixVerse
- OpenSwarm
Judges have come from Google DeepMind, Google Labs, Amazon and YC-backed startups. Campus partners: HKN and DiversaTech Consulting at UC Berkeley.
What we do
We don't talk about AI. We build with it.
No panels and no slide decks. People show up, form teams of one to four, and get three hours to build with the newest AI tools. By five, the best teams are demoing live to judges from the industry.
- 1
Builder first
The day is planned around the people building: a clear brief, a three-hour build window, mentors in the room and one goal, a working project on stage.
- 2
Everything AI
Agents, models, voice, video, infra and dev tools. Every event is about building with AI, from the model to the product.
- 3
Demos, not decks
Top teams demo live and sponsors judge their own tracks. Judges have come from Google DeepMind, Google Labs, Amazon and YC-backed startups.
Off campus
Build days for people who ship
The same build-and-demo format for people who already ship for a living. About half of every room so far has been industry, and the off-campus days are built for them.
Track record
Two hack days in 2026. Both full.
Each one filled the room with 80–100 builders, sponsor tracks and live judging. Every clip below is cut from photos of that day.
Oct 17, 2026 · UC Berkeley
Build Something AI Cannot Do Alone
AI can write code, but it can't decide what's worth building. This one was about taste, creativity and judgment: the human side of building with AI.
- Sponsors
- Glasser (credits for every builder and a best-use track) · Fountain Ventures
- Judges
- Google Labs / DeepMind, Amazon and more
- Prizes
- Incubation opportunities, interviews, and coffee chats with founders and VCs
- Event page
- luma.com/hwh35iwm (opens in a new tab)
May 9, 2026 · UC Berkeley
Build Smth AI-Native Hackathon
273signed up
253approved
100+in the room
- Tracks
- Six sponsor tracks plus a general track: Klarity Health, InsForge, Retell AI, Zeabur, Entelligence AI and PixVerse, with OpenSwarm as a partner
- Judges
- Engineers from DeepMind, Google Labs and Amazon, plus YC-backed founders
- Event page
- luma.com/7i8crpqz (opens in a new tab)
How a hack day runs
Noon to seven. Idea to demo.
The real run of show from October 17. Sponsors demo their tools at kickoff, then judge their own track. Pick any step to jump to it.
Photos from Oct 17 and May 9
Run of show, October 17, 2026
1–4builders per team
3 hrsbuild window, 1:30–4:30
From the room
This is what it looks like.
Candid photos from our 2026 campus hack days. Select a photo to see it larger.
For sponsors
Put your tools in builders' hands.
An afternoon where 80–100 builders try your product cold, build something real with it and demo it on stage. Every partnership is shaped around what you want to learn.
AI infrastructure
Compute, inference, vector databases, deployment, observability.
Give every team credits and watch a full room deploy on you in one afternoon.
Model labs
APIs and open weights for text, voice, video and multimodal.
Set a challenge around your model and see what builders make with it, live.
AI products & dev tools
Agent platforms, coding tools, data APIs, deploy platforms.
Builders integrate your product with no hand-holding and tell you what's missing.
Investors and other partners are welcome too. Fountain Ventures backed our October event.
Real usage
Teams build on your product with what you bring, not just a logo on a banner.
The stage
A live demo at kickoff, office hours during the build, and judging your own track.
Honest feedback
What worked, what broke and what was missing, from people who tried you cold.
Talent
Meet engineers, founders and students while they build. Past prizes included interviews.
Content
Repos, demo videos, photos and a recap you can reuse in your own channels.
- 1
Shape your track
Pick the challenge, the judging criteria and the prize.
- 2
Equip builders
Credits, docs and a starter kit. We test it end to end before the day.
- 3
Show up
Kickoff demo, office hours, then judge your track and hand out the prize.
- 4
Get the recap
Every project on your track, with photos and feedback.
| Partner | Track prize or contribution |
|---|---|
| MayKlarity Health | Cash prize + a chance to ship the solution to real providers |
| MayInsForge | InsForge credits for the top three teams |
| MayRetell AI | Cash prize + API credits |
| MayZeabur | Cash prize for the best deployment on Zeabur |
| MayEntelligence AI | An interview (actively hiring) |
| MayPixVerse | Video creation API credits |
| OctGlasser | Credits for every builder + a best-use track |
| OctEvent prizes | Incubation opportunities, interviews, coffee chats with founders and VCs |
Contact
Let's build smth together.
Tell us about your product, what you'd love builders to make with it, and what you can bring. We'll shape a track around it.
Naichuan “Alex” Zhang
Co-organizer, Build SMTH
Message Alex on LinkedIn (opens in a new tab)Aria Chen
Co-organizer, Build SMTH
Message Aria on LinkedIn (opens in a new tab)A good first message: your product, what builders should make with it, what you can bring, and campus or off campus.