2026 National Security Hackathon | Registration Now Open
$50,000+ in cash prizes! Build technology for real DoW stakeholders! Opportunity for follow on contracts!
Hey everyone!
I’m excited to announce that registration is now open for the third annual National Security Hackathon, taking place May 1-3 in San Francisco!
This year, we’re proud to be formally partnering with the US Army FUZE team, Stanford DEFCON Technology and National Security Student Network, and UC Berkeley’s new Defense and Dual Use Technology Club to bring together the brightest minds across defense, academia, and industry to tackle the challenges that matter most.
$50,000 in cash prizes is on the table across four critical challenge tracks:
Sensor Analysis and Integration
Edge Deployments and Drone Operation
Mission Command and Control
Digital Defense and Cybersecurity
Something special about this hackathon: because we are using Army prize challenge authority to award prizes, hackathon winners will be able to win follow on prototyping OT contracts from DoW following the event, as the hackathon counts as a competitive process. This event is a real opportunity to connect with DoW stakeholders to build needed technology that can lead to long term contract opportunities.
Here’s what’s happening:
Hackathon Kickoff Event – May 1 @ Stanford
Hackathon Weekend – May 2-3 in SF
Shield Capital is proud to co-host this event alongside Cerebral Valley, Palantir, IQT, DCVC, OpenAI, Scale AI, Armada, Deloitte, TENEX, Shack15, and Skyrun.
If you’re a builder, coder, designer, student, engineer, or analyst looking to apply your skills to problems that actually matter—this is your moment. Please forward to anyone in your network who may be interested in joining!
🇺🇸 Register now here.
Hope to see you there. Please reach out with any questions or comments.