HACK — HARD MODE

Registration & Location

Key Details

Dates Friday 6 – Sunday 8 March 2026

Location MIT Media Lab – 75 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142
Building E14

Individual Registration

Where Ground floor, main entrance (follow the signs)

Opens 6:00 PM Friday — bring a form of ID

Early Early check-in available from 3:00 PM

Team Registration

Teams must have a minimum of 4 people
Teams register by 23:59 on Friday March 6th
Submit your team via the link that will be shared on Discord

⚠ Friday Evening — Don't Miss It

The event begins on the 3rd Floor of MIT Media Lab. After 9 PM we move to the Hackathon space on the 6th Floor.

All event info and rules are covered
Equipment and kits handed out
Teams are formed
Sponsor workshops begin

Saturday & Sunday

All events take place on the 6th Floor of MIT Media Lab
Hacks must be finished by 2:59 PM Sunday — judging starts at 3:00 PM sharp
Each team gets 2 minutes to present

What to Bring

Bring your laptop, chargers, and any personal tools. Each team gets a Hacker Bag with core components, plus access to our Parts Bank, 3D printers, and fab labs.

View Inventory List

Workshops

Hands-on sessions to get you up to speed on hardware, tools, and APIs — highly recommended! Workshops start Friday night and continue Saturday morning.

When	Who	Where	Description
Fri 20:30–21:15	GigLabs	Room 240	Future of work: "What if anyone could be a scientist just by putting on a pair of glasses" Limited to 7 teams
Fri 20:30–21:15	VIAM	Room 341	Build your own VIAM Rover Limited to 10 teams
Fri 20:30–21:15	Tenstorrent	TBC	Ready to push the limits of AI in an open hardware ecosystem? Get under the hood of Tenstorrent hardware to bring up, optimize, and deploy models — whether you're a low-level architecture geek or an application builder. Hack with us, experiment, and use our products to shape the future of open-source AI! Open to All
Sat 10:00–10:40	IFM	Auditorium 633	An introduction to K2 Think V2, one of the most capable open reasoning models, with a short demo and guidance on integrating it into your project. Participants receive exclusive API access to K2 Think V2. Open to All
Sat 10:45–11:25	Qualcomm	Auditorium 633	TBC

Event Schedule

6:00 PM

Check-in & Badge Registration 1F – Main Entrance

Bring a form of ID. (Early check-in available from 3:00 PM if needed.)

7:00 PM – 7:15 PM

Welcome to HARD MODE 3F Atrium

7:15 PM – 7:30 PM

Speaker Block #1 – AHA + Welcome to Media Lab 3F Atrium

7:30 PM – 7:45 PM

Speaker #2 – AI × Hardware + Design 3F Atrium

7:45 PM – 8:00 PM

Logistics 3F Atrium

8:00 PM – 8:10 PM

Info Session and Orientation 3F Atrium

8:15 PM

Team Forming + Hacker Bag Handout 3F Atrium

6 zones — one per track. Team registration opens.

8:30 PM – 9:15 PM

Workshop: VIAM — Build a Rover Room 341

8:30 PM – 9:15 PM

Workshop: GigLab — Future of Work Room 240

8:30 PM – 9:15 PM

Workshop: Tenstorrent — Open Hardware AI TBC

9:00 PM

6th Floor Opens 6F

Teams can head upstairs and claim one table as their workspace.

11:59 PM

Team Registration Deadline

All teams must be registered before midnight.

8:00 AM

Doors Open 6F

9:00 AM

Breakfast 6F – Food Area

9:00 AM – 12:00 PM

Hacking Session #1 6F – Workspace

10:00 AM – 10:40 AM

Workshop: IFM — K2 Think V2 6F – Auditorium

10:45 AM – 11:25 AM

Workshop: Qualcomm 6F – Auditorium

12:30 PM – 1:30 PM

Lunch + Keynote: Marc Raibert & SPOT 6F – Auditorium

1:30 PM – 7:00 PM

Hacking Session #2 6F – Workspace

7:00 PM – 8:00 PM

Dinner 6F – Food Area

8:00 PM – 12:00 AM

Hacking Session #3 6F – Build Space

10:00 PM

Snack Drop 6F – Food Area

8:00 AM

Doors Open 6F

9:00 AM

Breakfast 6F – Food Area

9:00 AM – 2:59 PM

Final Build Sprint 6F – Workspace

2:30 PM

Slide Deadline 6F – Workspace

2:59 PM

EVERYONE STOPS BUILDING 6F – Workspace

Tools down. No further changes to projects after this point.

3:00 PM – 5:00 PM

Demos & Judging 6F – Workspace

Each team has 2 minutes to present.

3:00 PM – 5:00 PM

Team Portraits 6F – Cloak Room

Get your portrait taken after your team is judged.

5:00 PM – 5:30 PM

Judge Deliberation 6F – Auditorium

5:00 PM – 5:30 PM

Teams Clean-Up 6F – Workspace

5:30 PM – 6:00 PM

Awards & Closing Ceremony Main Stage

6:00 PM – 7:00 PM

Clean Up All Areas

Judging Criteria

Core Criteria

Impact / Vision — Does this solve a real problem? Does it have a compelling future?
Innovation — Is the approach genuinely novel?
Human Flourishing — Does it make people's lives meaningfully better?
Design / UX — Is it thoughtfully designed and easy to engage with?
Prototype Quality — Does it work? How complete and polished is it?

✦ Bonus Points

Discretionary points for something that genuinely surprises the judges — the "wow factor" or "I've never seen that before" reaction.

Prizes

Grand Prizes

$50K SAFE venture prize
Track winner prizes — $500 per winning team

Sponsor Prizes

Details to be posted. Prizes from:

Teams

Teams are 4–6 people. You can team up beforehand via Discord or during the team formation session Friday night.

Communication

We use Discord for day-to-day communication and email for major announcements.

#get-help

Post questions here for fast responses from the team and fellow participants.

@hardmodeagent

Tag this bot for automated help and quick answers.

@organizers

Escalate to a human organizer for anything urgent.