Hack The Nest is Eastern Michigan University's first flagship hackathon.

Registration is open now at hackthenest.tech.

On November 14 and 15, 2026, up to 500 students will take over Eastern Michigan University for a 24-hour innovation sprint. Teams show up with an idea, or with nothing at all, and leave with a working prototype. No experience required, and that isn't a formality. A lot of our hackers will be writing their first real project that weekend, and the whole event is built around making that possible.

It's completely free. Meals, workspace, swag, and everything you need for the weekend are covered.

What's happening

The weekend runs Saturday morning through Sunday evening, with a 24-hour build window at the center of it. Around the building there's an opening ceremony, beginner-friendly workshops, mentors from industry on the floor the whole time, project demos, and a closing ceremony with awards. Sponsor engineers will be in the building at booths and in one-on-one sessions, so help is never far away. Four prize tracks are being revealed soon.

We're also planning a capture the flag competition running alongside the main build, so if security is your thing there's a track for you that doesn't require shipping a prototype. Beyond that, expect a merch table, food throughout, and a lot of space to meet people from other schools and other majors.

Who should come

Open to all college and high school students, whatever your major or experience level. Designers, business students, and first-time coders are just as welcome as senior CS majors. Teams can be up to four people, or come solo and we'll run a team-matching session so you can find one.

Why we're doing this

Hack The Nest is organized by a 20-person team led by five committee leads, all from GDG on Campus EMU. In under five months this group brought home 13 hackathon wins and represented EMU at Google I/O 2026. President Kelly's office is behind us alongside all the departments of the university. We're building this to put Eastern Michigan on the map as a hub for technical talent in the Midwest.

Bring a laptop, bring a charger, and we'll handle the rest.

Register at hackthenest.tech.