Opportunity brief
Overview
THREWS ODYSSEY 2026 is an online research and innovation hackathon organised by Threws – The Research World.
The hackathon brings together students, developers, researchers and technology enthusiasts to build practical solutions to real-world problems across multiple domains.
Participants can choose a problem from one of the following tracks:
- Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning
- Medical & HealthTech
- Cybersecurity
- FinTech
- ClimateTech & Sustainability
- DeepTech & Scientific Computing
- Smart Cities & Social Impact
- Human-AI & Assistive Technology
- Web3, Privacy & Decentralised Systems
- Open Innovation
What to Build
Participants are expected to identify a meaningful problem and develop a working solution. Projects can be software products, AI/ML systems, research prototypes, cybersecurity solutions, data-driven applications or other technology-based solutions relevant to the selected track.
Projects should demonstrate a clear problem statement, a well-defined approach and a functional prototype. Participants are encouraged to research existing solutions and explain how their approach improves upon or differs from them.
Eligibility
- Open to college students, freshers, professionals, researchers and independent developers.
- Participants from any academic or technical background can apply.
- Participation is open to individuals as well as teams.
- Maximum team size: 2 members.
- Participants may choose any one of the available tracks.
Hackathon Process
- Register for THREWS ODYSSEY 2026.
- Select a track and identify a problem.
- Develop the solution during the hackathon period.
- Test and refine the project.
- Submit the project before the submission deadline.
- Submissions will be reviewed by the judging panel.
- Shortlisted participants may be invited for a final demonstration or presentation.
- Winners will be announced after the final evaluation.
Submission Requirements
Each submission must include:
- Project name
- Problem statement
- Description of the proposed solution
- Key features
- Technology stack
- Source code / repository
- Working prototype or demonstration
- Brief explanation of the implementation
- Dataset and external resources used, where applicable
- Results or evaluation, where applicable
A short demo video may also be requested for shortlisted projects.
Judging
Projects will be evaluated on:
- Innovation and originality
- Technical implementation
- Relevance and importance of the problem
- Quality of the solution
- Research, experimentation and use of data where applicable
- Potential impact and scalability
- Quality of the final demonstration
Rules
- Submissions must be the original work of the participating individual or team.
- Pre-existing projects may be used as a starting point only if substantial new work is carried out during the hackathon and clearly disclosed.
- Participants may use open-source libraries, APIs, datasets and development tools, subject to their respective licences.
- Use of AI coding and research tools is permitted. Participants must understand the work submitted under their name and be able to explain it during evaluation.
- All third-party resources must be properly acknowledged.
- Plagiarism, copied submissions, fabricated results or misrepresentation of work may result in disqualification.
- Each participant may be part of only one team.
- Projects must comply with applicable laws, licences and ethical standards.
- The organisers reserve the right to reject submissions that do not meet the eligibility or submission requirements.
- The decision of the judging panel will be final.
The objective of THREWS ODYSSEY is simple: find meaningful problems, explore better solutions and build something that can make a difference.
Build something worth discovering.