Worn: Smart Glasses Hackathon

​📋 Event Description

​Two days, one overnight build, and real smart glasses on your face. Join us at Cornell Tech with MicroLumin, the Shenzhen team behind the CES 2026 award-winning M6 display glasses, and build the first wave of apps for waveguide display glasses.

​This is a hands-on hardware hackathon for engineers and builders who would rather ship on real devices than talk about the future of spatial computing.

​Problem Statement

​Smart glasses are finally light enough to wear all day. What's missing is software that feels natural to use. Your challenge is to build anthropocentric interfaces: apps that start from how people see, move, talk and pay attention, not from how phones work. These should be things you'd actually keep on your face.

​The Challenge Theme

• ​Heads-up assistants that show the right info at the right moment

• ​Live captioning, translation and conversation memory

• ​Navigation and wayfinding without looking down at a phone

• ​Accessibility for low-vision, hard-of-hearing and neurodivergent users

• ​Hands-free workflows for field techs, clinicians, chefs and mechanics

• ​New input patterns: voice, ring, head motion and glanceable UI

• ​Making the glasses useful with AI on what the camera sees

​What to Expect

• ​MicroLumin AR glasses handed out to teams for the build

• ​SDK access and docs shared before the event so you can start early

• ​A workshop from Dr. Zhaoen Dai, MicroLumin's founder and CEO, on AR and where the AI industry is heading

• ​An overnight build from Friday evening into Saturday

• ​Teams of up to 4, or match with teammates at kickoff

• ​Food, caffeine and other builders who care about hardware

• ​Live demos on the device, worn by your team, in front of the judges

​Schedule

​Friday, Nov 20

• ​5:30 PM: Doors open, check-in, dinner

• ​6:15 PM: Welcome and kickoff with the organizers, Cornell Tech and MicroLumin

• ​6:35 PM: Challenge brief and a walkthrough of the MicroLumin SDK

• ​7:00 PM: Team formation: 30-second idea pitches, then a mixer to find teammates

• ​7:45 PM: Teams locked, hardware handed out, devices set up

• ​8:00 PM: Hacking begins

• ​9:00 PM: SDK help desk and mentor office hours open

• ​11:30 PM: Late-night snacks

​Overnight

• ​12:00 AM to 8:00 AM: Overnight build, with a quiet rest area for anyone who needs a nap

• ​All night: A MicroLumin engineer is online for live SDK support (it's afternoon in Shenzhen)

​Saturday, Nov 21

• ​8:00 AM: Breakfast and coffee

• ​9:00 AM: Morning check-in: each team shares where they are and what's blocking them

• ​10:00 AM: Workshop with Dr. Zhaoen Dai, MicroLumin's founder and CEO, on designing for AR and waveguide displays

• ​11:00 AM: Workshop: [Topic and speaker TBD]

• ​12:30 PM: Lunch

• ​2:00 PM: Code freeze, project submissions due

• ​2:15 PM: Demo expo: judges go table to table and teams demo on the device

• ​3:45 PM: Finalists announced

• ​4:00 PM: Finalists demo on stage: 3 minutes, worn by the team, plus 2 minutes of Q&A

• ​4:45 PM: Talk by Dr. Dai on AR and where the AI industry is heading, while judges deliberate

• ​5:30 PM: Awards

• ​6:00 PM: Hardware return and wrap

​Prizes

• ​TBD

​Judges

• ​TBD

​Who Should Attend

• ​Hardware Founders

• ​Engineers at companies like Meta, Amazon and Google who want to build on AR hardware

• ​iOS and Android developers

• ​Hardware tinkerers, embedded and computer vision engineers

• ​Product designers interested in spatial and glanceable UI

​Spots are limited and approval is required. You don't need prior AR experience, just the drive to build something real overnight.

​Sponsors

• ​MicroLumin: Shenzhen-based maker of AR display glasses, including the M6 series and several CES 2026 award winners. MicroLumin is providing the hardware and SDK support for teams.

​Hosts

• ​Somya Gupta: The face of the NYC startup ecosystem.

• ​Stephen Jin: Johnson MBA '27 at Cornell, board director at Gona Semiconductor, Angel Investing

• ​Waftech - Founded in 2007 and based in Penang, Malaysia, Waftech designs and manufactures wafer-handling and automation equipment for semiconductor manufacturing. Waftech delivers end-to-end, from R&D and design through manufacturing and after-sales service, and is ISO 9001:2015 certified. Waftech is a subsidiary of Gona Semiconductor, a Shanghai-headquartered equipment group.

• ​Olivia Iarmak: AI Quality Ops Lead at Meta Reality Labs working on Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, and co-founder of HQ Labs.

• ​Vishal Kharker: Lead Product Manager at RTX Fintech & Research, previously at Barclays and RBC Capital Markets.

​Info site: https://worn-hacks.com