HEALTH AI
Healthcare is full of fascinating problems waiting to be solved. 150 students from diverse disciplinary backgrounds and a variety of universities descend upon NYC for a weekend of rapid proto-typing with guidance from industry experts using AI + XR to create the future. On Sunday teams demo their proof-of-concepts for awards and accolades.
March 6-8 2026
New York City, NY
36-HOURS OF INNOVATION.
WHY YOU, WHY THIS?
IF YOU'RE KEEN TO COLLAB.
You know that the success of healthcare relies on collaboration across medicine, science, engineering, business, research, and creative.
IF YOU'RE ITCHING FOR IMPACT.
You know that there's major improvement needed in today's healthcare and medical systems and you're going to lead the charge.
IF YOU LIKE SOLVING PROBLEMS.
You've fallen asleep dreaming of ways to improve process, procedure, diagnostics, treatment & workflow in healthcare & medicine.
IF YOU JUST 🤍 HACKATHONS.
A hackathon that's designed for curious, innovative, imaginative, young people interested in having a positive impact. Applying technology to human well-being.
ABOUT
A hacker utilizes whatever is available to solve problems, there is no time to reinvent the wheel. Using AI, APIs, LLMs, data + more, combined with sheer ingenuity and creativity, diverse teams of students work together over the weekend. Hackathon organizers provide the infrastructure to support teams: expert mentors, nutritious food, and an engaging atmosphere. With 10+ years of experience, the hackathon organizers know the resources, structure, and workshops necessary to elevate performance and outcomes.
The 2026 Health Hackathon is an in-person interdisciplinary event bringing together students from across degrees, majors, and schools! On Friday evening, teams comprised of medical, business, engineering, data science, developers, and design students create solutions to improve healthcare. From processes, procedures, diagnostics, treatment, etc using hardware &/or software technology. On Saturday, mentors provide feedback and guidance to teams. On Sunday, the hackathon culminates in a project showcase to an audience of peers, mentors, and sponsors.
A panel of judges selects winners and awards prizes to winning teams.
The focus of the hackathon is on improving healthcare. More information and resources are provided as a foundation to accelerate rapid prototyping. A pop-up maker space is also provided by our friends at Cornell Tech. Tech demo's, product trials, leaders in medicine, AI + XR subject matter experts make this an event you don't want to miss.
TUESDAY
March 3
5:30-7PM
Join this facilitated session to find a team from the 100+ participants from multiple universities. Everyone has an opportunity to share an idea.
Team Formation
WEDNESDAY
March 4
6:30-8PM
Join this facilitated session to find a team from the 100+ participants from multiple universities. Everyone has an opportunity to share an idea.
Team Formation
WEEKEND SCHEDULE
Hover over schedule events to learn what's recommended (★), what's mandatory, where to submit registration, team content and for mentors, access to our teams list + locations.
THURSDAY
March 5
5-6:00PM
Github, resources, apis, data, explanations, how-to's, and demos. Cloud credits, and data are given on Friday after you are on-site.
Tech Primer
FRIDAY
March 7
Check-in & Networking
4:00PM
Network, connect with your team, and get settled in for an amazing weekend.
Hackathon Intro + Kick-Off
5:00PM
MANDATORY
Dinner
6:00PM
Delicious, nutritious meal provided, including vegetarian options.
Location: Kitchen
Fast-Start Workshop
Bring your laptop, pen or pencil, and get ready to work with your team in this accelerated event.
7:15 - 8:45PM
MANDATORY IN-PERSON
SATURDAY
March 8
Breakfast Available
9:00AM
Delicious, nutritious meal provided, including vegetarian options.
Location: Kitchen
Pop-Up Fabrication Space: Ask project specific questions about physical prototyping, especially 3D printing + VR based workflows for fabrication. These consult hours are designed to support teams at any stage, from early concept translation to trouble-shooting prototype challenges presented by Niti Parikh
Workshops
9:30 - 10:15AM
AI - XR Workshop presented by Sandhya Sriram
Bridge2AI Workshop presented by Steven Bedrick
- Makerspace Workshop
- AI-XR Workshop
- Bridge2AI Workshop
Mentor Training
10:15 - 10:30AM
Mentors join us for this primer on 10th Flr.
Team Updates
10:30 - 11:00AM
MANDATORY IN-PERSON!
One member from each team will report on team's needs / areas of assistance. 10th Flr.
Lunch
12:30PM
Delicious, nutritious meal provided, including vegetarian options.
Location: Kitchen
Presented by Dr Roger Hartl. Learn about a recently completed surgory from the leading spinal surgery expert.
Lunch & Learn
Total AR for Lumbar: minimally invasive fusion
12:40 - 1:10PM
Mentor Training
2:15 - 2:30PM
Mentors join us in the 10th Flr for this primer.
Team Updates
2:30 - 3:00PM
MANDATORY IN-PERSON!
One member from each team will report on team name, one-liner and needs.
Pitch Workshop
Join Tushar + Alayna for a quick rundown on How to Pitch like a Pro and demo FAQs.
5:00 - 5:30PM
Dinner Available
6:00PM
Delicious, nutritious meal provided, including vegetarian options.
Location: Kitchen
SUNDAY
March 9
Breakfast Delivered
9:00AM
1st Round Demos Kick-Off
Room assignments will be released here by 9AM Sunday morning.
9:30AM
FULL TEAM
MUST BE PRESENT :)
Judges Prep
9:10-9:25AM
Bring a laptop or ipad and arrive promptly! We start on time.
Lunch Opens
11:00AM
Hackathon Retrospective
11:30AM
Bring your laptop!
We're doing a live-retro commonly used in Agile to recap a sprint, using Miro.
Winners Announced
2:10PM
Final Demos
FULL TEAM MUST BE PRESENT :)
12:05PM
Day Concludes
3:00PM
Everyone must leave. The hackathon has concluded.
2026 FOCUS AREAS & CHALLENGES
1
Personalized Point‑of‑Care Nutrition for Chronic Disease Prevention (U.S.)
● How might we use POC tools to detect nutrient deficiences & diet-related risks early, before chronic disease develops?
● How might we design simple, rapid, non-invasive POC nutrition tests that work reliably in clinics, pharmacies, & homes?
● How might we ensure POC nutrition solutions are accessible to at-risk groups such as rural communities, food-insecure households, older adults, children, and pregnant women?
● How might we make POC results actionalbe- integrating them into care workflows or apps that provide clear, personalized nutrition guidance?
● How might we create affordable, portable, and scalable POC nutrition technologies suitable for low-income environments while maintaining safety and accuracy?
2
Rethinking The Emergency Dept Waiting Room
In most emergency departments, patients check in, take a seat… and then enter a long period of uncertainty. Hours may pass while symptoms evolve, anxiety rises, and staff have limited visibility into how anyone in the waiting room is doing. Despite being full of undifferentiated, sometimes unstable patients, the waiting room remains one of the least monitored environments in emergency care.
This challenge invites you to imagine new ways AI could support patients and clinicians during this often‑invisible part of the care journey, while operating entirely outside the hospital’s electronic health record (EHR).
3
AI - XR for Transformative Healthcare
Embodied Intelligence: Where Artificial Intelligence Meets Extended Reality
Artificial Intelligence is reshaping clinical reasoning.
Extended Reality (XR) is reshaping human perception and interaction.
What happens when intelligence becomes immersive?
This challenge invites you to design AI-powered XR healthcare systems that move beyond dashboards and into embodied, interactive, explainable clinical experiences. Use any XR device of your choice (Meta Quest, Apple Vision Pro and HoloLens 2 devices available during the hackathon) and integrate a conversational AI layer to build solutions that transform prevention, diagnosis, patient engagement, or clinical training.
4
Bridge to Artificial Intelligence [Bridge2AI-Voice]
To produce your voice, your body uses input from many different parts of your body: your circulatory, respiratory, muscular, and nervous systems each play significant roles. This means that disruptions to those systems, from disease, injury, aging, or other stressors, all can affect your voice, and can do so in characteristic ways.
Voice is therefore a powerful modality for detecting and diagnosing a wide range of conditions and disorders… but voice also brings with it technical, social, ethical, and translational challenges.
The B2AI-Voice project is generating a robust large-scale, voice dataset to fuel discovery of voice as a biomarker of health. This track challenges you to use our data to push the boundaries of voice biomarkers: build novel classification models, prototype clinical tools, or explore new ways voice could transform screening, monitoring, and care delivery.
RESOURCES
BROUGHT TO YOU BY
WITH SUPPORT FROM
WEEKEND WORKSPACE
Expanded space for expanded thinking
Sun-drenched to keep you connected with nature
explore, innovate, and implement
Expanded space for expanded thinking
