Hackathon Overview:
Important Links and Points of Contact:
Requirements:
Project Work: InnovArt is a "flexible" online hackathon. You can work on your project anytime until 12pm on January 3 (Sat), EST (Eastern Standard Time in the US).
Project Submission: You are required to complete ALL of the following 3 requirements:
- Submit your project to Devpost by 12pm on January 3 (Sat), EST.
- Register your project presentation on a Google Forms page by 12pm on January 3 (Sat), EST.
- Give a project presentation online on January 4 (Sun), EST.
The deadlines are firm. No extensions will be given. Failure to meet the above requirements will disqualify you (and your team) in award judging.
A Google Forms link for presentation registration will be shared in the InnovArt 2026 channel of Discord. To register your presentation, you will be asked to submit:
- Your name and contact info
- Your country of residence
- Your project presentation title
- An abstract (short one-paragraph summary) of your project
- A publicly accessible link to your project placed on an online code repository (e.g. GitHub) or online storage (e.g. Google Drive). We will verify the actual outcome of your work with this link in the afternoon of January 3. Please note that we will not schedule your presentation if we cannot verify your actual work. You can submit a link to your project on Devpost; however, please make sure that your Devpost page references the actual outcome of your work.
Project Presentation: We tentatively plan to start project presentations at 10am on January 4 (Sun), EST, but we might slightly adjust it based on the locations (time zones) where participants reside. We will announce the full presentation schedule by early morning of January 4 (Sun), EST. A Zoom link will be made available in the InnovArt 2026 channel of Discord.
You will have 10 minutes in total for your presentation, including approx. 3 minutes for QAs with judges and other participants.
Prizes and Judging :
Certificate: Every participant will receive a certificate of participation.
Prizes: A panel of judges will select and announce prize winners at the end of the event. Prize winners will receive special certificates and will be recognized at Devpost's gallery page.
- Grand Prix
- 2nd Place
- 3rd Place
- Honorable Mention
- Excellence in Creativity Award
- Excellence in Research Award
- Excellence in Entrepreneurship Award
- Excellence in Social Impact Award
- Excellence in Art Advocacy and Curation Award
- Excellence in Team Work
- Emerging Talent Award
- Key Contributor Award
Book chapter publication: We will publish a book that features the projects presented at InnovArt 2026. Selected participants will be invited to extend their project summaries and publish them as book chapters. We are planning to publish this book through Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing.
Judging Criteria:
- Impact: How much impact (quality and quantity) can this project have? Does it solve a big problem or a small problem? Will it inspire or help many or a few?
- Creativity: How creative/innovative is this project? Is it something that hasn’t been attempted before, or is it an incremental improvement on something that already exists?
- Presentation: How well did the team/individual communicate this project? Was the presentation effective in telling the story of the project: why it is important, what challenge it addresses, and how it delivers a solution?
Judges:
- Calix Huang
- Leo Ren
- InnovArt Advisory Board
Organizers:
- Konomi Karube
- Naomi McCreary
- Hanna Suzuki (Co-chair)
- Alyssa Yasuhara (Co-chair)
- Rimi Yoshikawa (Co-chair)
Merchandise:
