Eligibility

  • Participation is open to individuals age 18 or older. Minors age 13–17 may participate only with written parental or guardian consent and must be accompanied by a legal guardian during in-person hours.
  • Participants must be legally permitted to receive prizes in their country of residence. Employees, contractors, and immediate family members of TwelveLabs, GeoSTL, T-Rex, Overture Maps Foundation, AWS, and Assured Consulting are ineligible for cash prizes but are welcome to participate as mentors or non-competing demonstrators.
  • No export-controlled or classified information may be used, referenced, or produced in any submission. All datasets and tools used must be publicly available or properly licensed for use by the team.

Teams

  • Teams may consist of 1–4 participants. Each person may participate on only one team.
  • All teammates must be registered on this DevPost page and listed on the submission.
  • Pre-formed teams are welcome. Solo participants may join a team at Saturday's team formation session.

Competition window

  • Hacking begins Saturday, April 25, 2026 at 11:00 AM CT and submissions close Sunday, April 26, 2026 at 1:00 PM CT.
  • Code and assets created before the competition window opens may not be used in submissions, with the following allowed exceptions: open-source libraries, public datasets, pre-existing developer accounts, and boilerplate templates. When in doubt, disclose in the README.
  • Teams may continue working remotely overnight Saturday. The venue reopens Sunday at 9:00 AM.

Submission requirements

  • Every submission must include a working demonstration, technical documentation, validation report, and mission impact brief (see the Submission Requirements section above).
  • Every submission must use TwelveLabs Marengo and/or Pegasus as a core component.
  • Every submission must be entered in exactly one of the four challenge tracks. Submissions without a track selection will not be judged.
  • Submissions must be delivered via DevPost by 1:00 PM CT Sunday, April 26, 2026. Late submissions will not be evaluated.
  • Demo videos must be 3–5 minutes. Longer videos may be skipped after the five-minute mark during judging.

Intellectual property and open source

  • Teams retain full ownership of the code and intellectual property they create during the hackathon, subject to any pre-existing licenses of dependencies they use.
  • Track 1 exception: Submissions to the Geospatial AI for Automated Mapping track must be released as open source under Apache 2.0, with any derived data released under CDLA 2.0, as a condition of Overture Maps Foundation sponsorship. This is disclosed in the Track 1 brief.
  • By submitting, participants grant the organizers a non-exclusive right to publish the team name, project name, demo video, and project description on event recap materials and sponsor blog posts.

Use of sponsor services

  • AWS Bedrock credits are provided for hackathon use only. Participants are responsible for any charges that exceed the credited amount.
  • TwelveLabs API access is provided through Bedrock or direct API keys issued at check-in. Rate limits apply and will be posted in the hackathon Discord.
  • Participants must comply with the terms of service of every tool, API, and dataset used in their submission.

Judging and prizes

  • Submissions are evaluated against the rubric for the track they entered. Rubrics use weighted 1–5 scoring; see the rubric PDF in Resources.
  • Each track is judged independently. Prize winners are selected per track.
  • Judges' decisions are final.
  • Prizes are awarded to teams, not individuals. Teams agree on their own prize split.
  • In the event of a prize recipient's ineligibility or refusal to accept, the next-ranked submission in that track may be selected.

Code of conduct

This is an in-person event. All participants, mentors, judges, staff, and sponsors agree to follow the Hack Code of Conduct (hackcodeofconduct.org), summarized here:

  • Treat every participant, mentor, judge, sponsor, and staff member with respect.
  • Harassment, discrimination, and unwelcome behavior of any kind are not tolerated. This includes offensive verbal comments, intimidation, stalking, harassing photography or recording, sustained disruption of talks or events, inappropriate physical contact, and unwelcome sexual attention.
  • Be mindful that participants come from many backgrounds and experience levels. Help each other.
  • If you experience or witness a violation, contact any organizer immediately. Reports will be handled confidentially and promptly.
  • The organizers reserve the right to remove any participant from the event, revoke submissions, or disqualify teams for violations of this code, with no refund of travel or accommodation costs.

Health and safety

  • T-Rex Innovation Center building rules, including security check-in and emergency procedures, apply at all times.
  • Participants must not sleep in the venue. The venue closes Saturday at 6:00 PM and reopens Sunday at 9:00 AM.
  • Food, drink, and restroom facilities are provided. Notify an organizer of any dietary restrictions or medical needs during check-in.

Event changes

The organizers reserve the right to change, suspend, or cancel any aspect of the event (including schedule, prizes, tracks, or rules) for reasons including force majeure, venue issues, or safety concerns. Material changes will be posted on this DevPost page and in the official hackathon Discord.