Boston's first robotics+physical AI hackathon

$15k of real robot hardware,
30 real-life participants,
2 days of real fun.

Details

When

Aug. 1-2, 2026

Where

FabLab Kendall, Cambridge, MA

Theme

Cooking with robot arms

Apply

Apply on Luma

Each team gets a robot arm and leader arm -- more details in the Hardware section below..

The goals: 1. Have fun; 2. Learn something new; and 3. Build something awesome! Or at least somewhat edible 😋

Teams should include at least one person familiar with hardware, software, or robotics.

We’ll also have at least $1,000 in prizes, and all food is included.

Our main goal is not just competition -- it's to build Boston into the forefront of the robotics + physical AI community.

Hosted by

Hardware

Seeed Studio is providing the robot hardware. Approximate inventory (subject to change):

reBot Arm B601 RS

One robot arm per team. Features 48V QDD motors with a 2.5 kg payload, so not a plastic arm :]

reComputer Jetson Orin Nano, 8GB

Edge compute for inference, one per team.

USB camera

Overhead and wrist cameras

Leader arm for reBot

For teleoperations and imitation learning.

Schedule

Subject to change.

Saturday, Aug. 1

10:00 AM

Intro tutorial - Setting up the hardware & software stack

12:01 PM

Opening ceremony

1:00 PM

Lunch and office hours

Form teams, mentors available for setup.

2:00 PM

Hacking begins

6:15 PM

Intermission: Dinner

10:00 PM

Hacking ends for the day

Sunday, Aug. 2

10:00 AM

Doors open, breakfast bites

12:01 PM

Lunch

3:00 PM

Science-fair style demos and judging

Judges will go around to tables for demos.

4:00 PM

Final submissions

Github, project documentation, and one-minute video submitted online

4:15 PM

Awards

4:30 PM

Light snacks and social

5 PM

That's a wrap!

Judges

Meet the judges.

Sayam Dhingra

Senior R & D Engineer, Autodesk

Leads research on agentic robot arm control for machine tending at Autodesk's Boston Technology Center.

Charis Georgiou

Founder & CEO, Minoic Intelligence

Builds automated rockbreakers that make quarry operations safer and more efficient.

Erika Tsutshumi

Director of Integrations, Elemental Machines

Creates data collection solutions for biotech & pharma labs.

Yuki Yamada

Solutions Architect & Customer Success Lead, Walden Robotics

Moved from professional kitchens into robotics: first in the Dexai Robotics culinary robotics lab, then deploying industrial truck unloading robots with Pickle Robot, and now on the Product team at Walden Robotics.

Charles Yong

Founder and CEO at Vassar Robotics, Vassar Robotics (YC X25)

A mechanical, electrical, and software engineer who likes rigorous calculations, rapid prototyping, and—when possible—sleep.

Credits and Inspiration

Thanks to

The Simple Platform