Hackcult

HackCult '26 | National-Level Hackathon

Presented by Blithchron '27, IIT Gandhinagar, in strategic partnership with NxtWave

1. About the Hackathon

HackCult '26 is a national-level hybrid hackathon that challenges student innovators to develop practical, technology-driven solutions to real-world problems. Explore sustainability or digital heritage, collaborate with fellow innovators, and turn your ideas into working solutions.

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Organiser: Blithchron '27, IIT Gandhinagar

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Strategic Partner: NxtWave

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Mode: Hybrid

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Phase 1: Online

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Grand Finale: IIT Gandhinagar, Palaj, Gujarat

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Total Prize Pool: ₹30,000 in Amazon Gift Cards

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Registration Fee: Free

Track 1: Green Energy & Sustainability

Mission LiFE engagement tools, citizen energy tracking, and gamified carbon footprint platforms.

Track 2: Culture & Digital Heritage

Interactive 3D architectural twins, vision transformer OCR for historical manuscripts, and dynamic mapping for on-the-ground travel exploration.

2. Eligibility & Team Formation

- Open to currently enrolled university and college students. - Working professionals are not eligible. - Individual participation or teams of up to 4 members are permitted. - Cross-college and cross-year teams are allowed. - Team composition will be frozen once registrations close.

3. Benefits for All Participants

- $500 in Adaption Platform credits per participant for dataset generation, augmentation, and custom model training, including multilingual data across 242 languages. - Exclusive technical workshop on data optimisation and custom model training hosted by Adaption. - Certificates of Participation for valid Phase 1 submissions. - Certificates of Excellence for Phase 2 finalists. - Mentorship checkpoints with NxtWave experts during the online sprint.

4. Event Timeline

- 22 October 2026, 11:59 PM: Registration deadline - 23 October, 5:00 PM: Virtual inauguration and kick-off - 23 October, 6:30 PM: 48-hour coding sprint begins - 24–25 October: Mentorship checkpoints - 25 October, 4:00 PM: Phase 1 submission deadline - 2 November: Finalists announced - 14 November, 10:45 AM–1:15 PM: Technical booth demonstrations at IIT Gandhinagar - 14 November, 3:00–5:00 PM: Grand Finale stage pitches and jury Q&A

5. Submission Requirements

Phase 1: Online Screening

Deadline: 25 October 2026, 4:00 PM

Teams must submit:

- Public GitHub Repository: Complete codebase with commits from the hackathon window, a comprehensive README, architecture diagrams, and setup instructions. - Video Walkthrough: An unlisted YouTube video demonstrating the working features of the solution. - Pitch Deck: Problem overview, system architecture, database schema, and scalability potential.

The goal is to demonstrate a functional baseline solution with sound technical logic.

Phase 2: Offline Grand Finale

Date: 14 November 2026 | Venue: IIT Gandhinagar

Round 1 - Technical Booth Demonstration (10:45 AM–1:15 PM)

- Demonstrate a live application on deployed servers or mobile devices. - Showcase functionality using dynamic inputs rather than hardcoded dummy data. - Defend backend scalability, API performance, database design, and security.

Round 2 - Grand Finale Stage Pitch (3:00–5:00 PM)

- 5-minute presentation followed by 3 minutes of jury Q&A. - Demonstrate product impact, scalability, and readiness for real-world deployment.

6. Judging Criteria

Phase 1 - Online Screening

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Technical Execution & Code Quality: 40%

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System Architecture & Scalability: 30%

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UI/UX: 20%

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Innovation & Problem Fit: 10%

Phase 2 - Technical Booth Demonstration

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Live System Resilience: 35%

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Code Integrity & Originality: 25%

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Architectural Depth: 25%

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Domain Alignment: 15%

Phase 2 - Stage Pitch

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Product Impact & Scalability: 40%

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Clarity of Pitch: 30%

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Jury Defence & Q&A: 30%

Judging Panel: NxtWave experts, including senior developers, product managers, and mentors.

7. Rules & Guidelines

- Participation is completely free. - All core logic must be developed during the 48-hour coding sprint. - AI development tools, including ChatGPT and Copilot, are permitted; teams must be able to explain and defend their code. - Team membership is frozen after registration closes. - Track selection is not locked at registration. Teams must finalise their track choice during Phase 1 submission. - Travel, food, and accommodation for the offline finale must be arranged and funded by participants.

8. Contact & Support

For queries or assistance, contact:

Email: blithchron@iitgn.ac.in