We are back! Following AnimalHack 2025, 2024, and 2023, we are excited to welcome you to this year's edition: AnimalHack 2026.
Website: https://animalhack.org/
Discord: https://discord.gg/ZBbTxuxND2
Email: animalhack1@gmail.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/animal.hack
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/18105021/
AnimalHack is a student-led, international hackathon for anyone interested in animals, animal welfare, or human-animal relationships. Projects may focus on pets, service and assistance animals, farm animals, wildlife, or the environments in which animals live.
AnimalHack invites you to identify animal-related needs and challenges and develop a creative, technology-based solution.
AnimalHack is supported by Binnovative, a nonprofit organization in Massachusetts.
Event Overview
Format: Fully online
Entry fee: Free
Participation: Individuals and teams
Eligibility: Open to participants of all ages and technical backgrounds. No previous hackathon experience is required.
Project period: Participants may work on their projects at any time before the submission deadline.
Project submission deadline: 12pm on September 12 (Sat), 2026, EST
Presentation registration deadline: 12pm on September 12 (Sat), 2026, EST
Online project presentations: September 13 (Sun), 2026, EST
Awards: 15+ awards recognize projects across a wide range of categories.
Publication opportunity: Selected participants will be invited to publish book chapters about their projects in the Binnovative Innovation Book series.
Merchandise: Celebrate your AnimalHack experience with official merch! Purchases help support future AnimalHack events.
Expected Project Topics
Expected project topics include, but are not limited to:
* Improving animal welfare and quality of life
* Supporting pet owners, caregivers, veterinarians, and animal-service professionals
* Supporting animal behavior, enrichment, training, and human-animal communication
* Supporting animal shelters, rescues, and foster programs
* Improving animal adoption, matching, outreach, and post-adoption support
* Reuniting lost pets with their families and preventing animals from becoming lost
* Monitoring and improving the environments in which animals live
* Supporting responsible animal agriculture, husbandry, and aquaculture
* Advancing humane and sustainable food-system innovation
* Monitoring, tracking, conserving, and protecting wildlife
* Promoting safe and humane coexistence between people and wildlife
* Preventing animal abuse, cruelty, poaching, and wildlife trafficking
* Improving accessibility and support involving service or assistance animals
* Educating the public about animals, ecosystems, and responsible animal care
Solutions can take many forms, including apps, games, social platforms, web sites/services, devices, sensors, robots, computer vision, data analysis, predictive models, visualization, data collection and management, educational resources, and 3D modeling/printing.
Book Publication
We plan to publish a book that features selected projects presented at AnimalHack 2026. Award recipients and other selected participants will be invited to extend their project abstracts and publish them as book chapters through Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. For your reference, see the books published in the prior editions of AnimalHack:
* AnimalHack 2023 book
* AnimalHack 2024 book
* AnimalHack 2025 book
Organizers
* Naomi McCreary
* Hanna Suzuki (Co-chair)
* Alyssa Yasuhara (Co-chair)
* Rimi Yoshikawa
Requirements
Project Work
AnimalHack is a “flexible” online hackathon. You can work on your project at any time before the deadline.
Project Submission
Complete ALL of the following 3 requirements:
- Submit your project to Devpost by 12pm on September 12 (Sat), EST.
- Register your project presentation through the designated Google Form by 12pm on September 12 (Sat), EST.
- Deliver a project presentation online on September 13 (Sun), EST.
The deadlines are firm. No extensions will be given. To remain eligible for award consideration, all 3 requirements must be completed by the deadlines.
The form for presentation registration will be shared in the AnimalHack 2026 channel in Discord. You will be asked to provide:
* Presenter name and contact information
* Country of residence (time zone)
* Project title
* Project abstract (brief one-paragraph project description)
* Publicly accessible link to your project
The project link may direct to a code repository such as GitHub, a shared storage such as Google Drive, a live application, or another publicly accessible location. The link must provide evidence of your project’s actual outcome—not only a description or proposal.
We will use this link to verify the actual outcome of your work and confirm its relevance to AnimalHack. Please note that we will not schedule your presentation if we cannot access or verify your actual work.
Project Presentation
We will announce the schedule of project presentations (i.e. what time each presentation starts) by early morning of September 13 (Sun), EST. A Zoom link will be shared in the AnimalHack 2026 channel in Discord.
In our current plan, we will kick off at 10am on September 13 (Sun), EST. However, we may adjust this to accommodate presenters in different time zones.
You will have 10 minutes in total for your presentation, including approx. 3 minutes for QAs with the judges and other participants.
Prizes
Grand Prize
- Certificate of achievement
- Will be invited to publish a book chapter about the project (priceless achievement!).
2nd Place
- Certificate of achievement
- Will be invited to publish a book chapter about the project (priceless achievement!)
3rd Place
- Certificate of achievement
- Will be invited to publish a book chapter about the project (priceless achievement!).
Honorable Mention
- Certificate of achievement
- Will be invited to publish a book chapter about the project (priceless achievement!).
Excellence in Innovation Award
- Certificate of achievement
- Will be invited to publish a book chapter about the project (priceless achievement!).
Excellence in Research Award
- Certificate of achievement
- Will be invited to publish a book chapter about the project (priceless achievement!).
Excellence in Creativity Award
- Certificate of achievement
- Will be invited to publish a book chapter about the project (priceless achievement!).
Excellence in Entrepreneurship Award
- Certificate of achievement
- Will be invited to publish a book chapter about the project (priceless achievement!).
Excellence in Social Impact Award
- Certificate of achievement
- Will be invited to publish a book chapter about the project (priceless achievement!).
Excellence in Teamwork Award
- Certificate of achievement
- Will be invited to publish a book chapter about the project (priceless achievement!).
Emerging Talent Award
- Certificate of achievement
- Will be invited to publish a book chapter about the project (priceless achievement!).
Key Contributor Award
- Certificate of achievement
- Will be invited to publish a book chapter about the project (priceless achievement!).
Devpost Achievements
Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:
Judges
Yuma Karube
Banri Ouchi
Sarasa Ouchi
AnimalHack Advisory Board
Judging Criteria
-
Impact
How much impact (quality and quantity) can this project have? Does it solve a big problem or a small problem? Will it inspire or help many or a few? -
Creativity and innovation
How original is this project? Does it introduce a new idea, combine existing ideas in a creative way, or significantly improve an existing solution? -
Execution
How successfully is the idea developed into a functional, demonstrable, or well-supported outcome? -
Presentation
How clearly and effectively did the participant or team explain the problem, the importance of the project, the proposed solution, and the project’s results?
Questions? Email the hackathon manager
Invite others to compete
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.