Annual Hackathon Draws 500+ Participants and $200K in Prizes
No.1 HackFest 2026, the university's flagship 48-hour coding marathon, shattered records this year with over 500 participants from 30 universities competing for $200,000 in prizes. Held in the Student Union and spilling into three adjacent buildings, the event has become one of the premier collegiate hackathons in the country.
The Grand Prize: GenoScan AI
The top prize of $50,000 went to Team GenoScan — a four-person squad from No.1 Education's Computer Science and Biomedical Engineering programs. Their project, GenoScan AI, is a machine learning platform that analyzes genomic data to identify markers for rare genetic disorders that are often missed by conventional diagnostic screening.
Using a combination of transformer neural networks and a curated database of over 4,000 rare disease genotypes, the team built a prototype that demonstrated 94% accuracy in identifying disease-associated variants in a test dataset — significantly outperforming existing commercial tools.
"We started with a personal motivation — one of our team members has a sibling with a rare genetic condition that took years to diagnose. We wanted to see if AI could shorten that journey for other families."
Three venture capital firms — including Andreessen Horowitz's Bio Fund — expressed interest in the project during the demo session, and the team is now exploring both startup and academic research paths for commercializing the technology.
Other Winning Projects
The hackathon awarded prizes across five categories:
- Best Social Impact: "FoodLink" — a logistics platform connecting surplus food from restaurants and grocery stores with community food banks in real time ($25,000)
- Best AI/ML Application: "StudyPilot" — an AI tutor that generates personalized practice problems based on a student's learning history and upcoming exam topics ($25,000)
- Best Hardware Hack: "AquaSense" — a low-cost IoT water quality monitoring system designed for deployment in developing communities ($25,000)
- Best First-Time Hackers: "CampusNav" — an AR-powered navigation app for new students to find their way around unfamiliar university campuses ($15,000)
- People's Choice: "MoodTunes" — a wearable that reads biometric data and auto-generates ambient music to reduce stress and improve focus ($10,000)
Sponsors and Mentors
This year's event was supported by title sponsors Google, Microsoft, and Amazon Web Services, along with 15 additional corporate partners. Over 80 industry mentors were on hand throughout the weekend, offering coding help, design advice, and business strategy coaching.
Several sponsors used the event as a recruiting opportunity, with on-the-spot internship offers extended to standout participants.
HackFest by the Numbers
Participants consumed 2,400 cups of coffee, 1,800 slices of pizza, and 600 energy drinks over the course of the weekend. The event's carbon footprint was fully offset through a partnership with the university's Sustainability Office, and all leftover food was donated to local shelters through FoodLink — one of the hackathon's own award-winning projects.
Planning for HackFest 2027 is already underway. If you are interested in participating, mentoring, or sponsoring, contact the Student Activities Board at hackfest@no1edu.net.