State Capacity Ecosystem / Events / Hackathons

Hackathons

Build events are how this community proves what it can do: put practitioners, researchers, advocates, and technologists in one room and leave with working tools. This is every hackathon we have run and everything coming up. Open a past hackathon to see what got built.

Past & upcoming hackathons
HACKATHON · NYC · ABOUT 80 BUILDERS State Capacity Hackathon: Public Engagement Tools for community boards and the public's voice September 30, 2026 WINNER · RUNNERS-UP · HIGHLIGHTS Budget Requests (winner) Hearts & Minds (runner-up) In the Zone (runner-up) BoardOS Mamdani, Fix This
September 2026 · NYC
State Capacity Hackathon: Public Engagement
About 80 people at the CUNY Graduate Center built against two scoped themes: tools that make community boards run better and tools that let government hear from residents at scale. Budget Requests won. Hearts & Minds and In the Zone were runners-up. All three were invited to the CUNY PIT Lab pop-up at the Oculus.
About 80 builders · 5 judges View event →
HACKATHON · NYC · 80+ BUILDERS A Civic Tech Build Night AI for inclusive rapid prototyping in government June 24, 2026 20 TEAMS · 20 TOOLS · HIGHLIGHTS 311 teaching video game Procurement record search Transit reliability MCP (1K+ dl) Civic data index NYC business health map
June 2026 · NYC
A Civic Tech Build Night
One evening of agentic AI for government service delivery. 80+ people split into 20 teams and built 20 working tools in under two hours, with practitioners, researchers, and advocates building alongside the technologists.
20 tools · 80+ builders View event →
The kinds of hackathons we run

Hackathons come in two sizes, each with its own job:

Large hackathons

Big, open build events that show what this community is capable of when it gets in one room.

Build

Targeted hackathons

Smaller builds working directly with a single agency on one specific problem, where focused effort drives real impact.

Build

Want to sponsor, host, or co-organize an event? If you have a venue, an agency partner, or a problem worth a room full of people, reach out and we'll build it with you.

Sponsors Checklist → Get in Touch → For agencies →