Hack for Humanity: Hartford-Micro Hackathon (w/ The AI Collective)
This fall, The AI Collective is bringing its new global hackathon initiative to Hartford: a fast-paced, six-hour, in-person AI "vibe coding" event where multidisciplinary teams build and pitch practical solutions to problems affecting Connecticut. It builds on Humans in AI Week this summer, where we surfaced real problems facing our local community. Now it's your turn to solve them.
📅 Wednesday, September 30, 2026 | 10 AM–8 PM
📍 UConn School of Business, 100 Constitution Plaza, Hartford, CT
You don't need to be a coder to jump in. We're building teams around superpowers, and yours counts!
Over 13 teams are building solutions across five challenges:
Where Help Doesn't Reach — map where social services are most needed to help drive change
The Last Mile of Food Access — build a tool that helps get food where it's needed most
Student Life Beyond the Classroom — create a searchable database for student resources, entertainment, and more
CTData.org, Made Conversational — make CTData.org more accessible through conversational interfaces
Open Challenge — bring your own Connecticut civic problem
📋 Full challenge details and hackathon guide: nisreencain.com/s/hack-details
Guest Judges:
Sen. James Maroney (CT State Senate)
Michelle Riordan-Nold (Executive Director, CTData.org)
Russell Goldenbroit (Customer Engineer, Google)
Thank you to our guest judges for lending their time and expertise to this year's teams.
Sponsors & Partners:
UConn School of Business
Major League Hacking (MLH)
Google
Launch Hartford
Thank you to our sponsors and partners for making this day possible.
Presentations start at 5 PM and are open to all, final awards at 7:30 PM.
Food and drink, engaging conversation, and incredible company will all be provided!
Important Dates:
September 18: Registration closes
September 19–20: Team formation
September 21: Team assignments sent by email with challenge category, teammates, and preparation materials
Week of September 21: Office hours and orientation. Teams connect before the day, get familiar with available tools, and ask questions.
September 30: Hackathon day
Awesome swag, food and drink, engaging conversation, and incredible company will all be provided!
Ready? Register as a Hackathon Team, Mentor, or Volunteer below.
Hackathon Team: Join a multidisciplinary team to build a working solution to a real Connecticut challenge. Already have a team? Bring them, register together.
Other ways to get involved:
Mentor: Serve as a domain expert available for team office hours during build time
Volunteer: Support the event on the ground: check-in, room logistics, and keeping the day running smoothly
Event Logistics:
As always, we'll provide food and drink, engaging conversation, and incredible company!
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Please be advised: Unfortunately, space is very limited at these community events and we can not always accept everyone we would like to. If you are not accepted to this event, please keep applying! We appreciate your application tremendously and we are looking forward to seeing you at a future event very soon!
The AI Collective is a global non-profit building the human layer for the AI era. We unite 200,000+ leaders, builders, and stakeholders across 100+ forums worldwide to democratize the frontier, build trust, and coordinate how society navigates the rapid acceleration of technological progress.
All attendees and organizers at events affiliated with The AI Collective agree to our privacy policy and are subject to our code of conduct.