Whereas the XR trade’s main hubs are targeting the West Coast of the US, the MIT Actuality Hack hackathon has turn into a focus for XR builders and entrepreneurs on the East Coast of the US. Now in its eight 12 months, the occasion has expanded with new alternatives for trade dialogue and networking due to the concurrently held EXPERIENTIAL Convention. Government Director Maria Rice gives an outline of this 12 months’s hackathon and winners.
Picture courtesy Maria Rice
Visitor Article by Maria Rice
Maria is the Government Director of MIT Actuality Hack. For the final eight years, she has been instrumental in positioning the Hack because the world’s main experiential expertise neighborhood by way of the event of applications just like the EXPERIENTIAL Innovation Convention, the Actuality Students range fund, and the startup-focused Actuality Hack Founders Lab.
From January 23–27, a whole lot of high hackers-for-good—together with a roster of tech OGs and startup founders—descended on the MIT campus to attend the eighth annual MIT Actuality Hack, the premiere hackathon for experiential expertise.
The Hack was sponsored by a variety of worldwide gamers on the intersection of XR, AI, and deeptech. With AI improvement assist from Lambda Labs, contributors constructed practical prototypes utilizing Meta Quest 3, Snap Spectacles, Qualcomm’s RB3g2 robotics kits, ShapesXR, Cognitive 3D, and STYLY.
Picture courtesy Sean Chee
One of the crucial notable traits of this 12 months’s MIT Actuality Hack was the introduction of recent {hardware} kits, together with MEMS-based AR lenses from Maradin, a haptic exoskeleton from Haptikos, and an array of neurosensing gear from OpenBCI, together with the Galea biosensing headset.
Picture courtesy Sean Chee
With an unapologetic mission of hacking for good, MIT Actuality Hack is most memorably distinguished by the dynamic vitality generated by its contributors and organizers. The five-day occasion stretched the hacking abilities of some 600 contributors to the restrict, producing 78 revolutionary use instances and functions in XR and adjoining tech.
Picture courtesy Sean Chee
Profitable initiatives included YEIGO, an AR device for making certain that mobility aids (like walkers) are used with appropriate posture; CAREGIVR, an immersive platform for making ready households and caregivers for end-of-life care; and Tac-Man, a haptic enter machine for sculpting in VR.
Try the total checklist of the 2025 winners in all {hardware} and software program classes.
EXPERIENTIAL Convention Expands MIT Actuality with New Alternatives for Business Dialogue and Networking
Picture courtesy Sean Chee
Held alongside the MIT Actuality Hack occasion, world attendees offered on the first-ever EXPERIENTIAL Innovation Convention at MIT; a one-day occasion envisioned as a ‘Davos of the spatial tech trade’. Reducing-edge analysis into essentially the most difficult deeptech was demonstrated and debated inside the context of studying innovation, vertical functions, and world improvement.
EXPERIENTIAL Convention was sponsored by IEEE Spectrum, Qualcomm, and Helsinki-based pioneer Distance Applied sciences.
Partially to assist the ‘hack-to-market’ initiative of the Founders Lab (certainly one of Actuality Hack’s neighborhood subprograms), EXPERIENTIAL featured two thrilling firm launches:
Restrict Labs, based by the leaders of VR/AR MIT, launched RoomSeed, a groundbreaking genAI device knowledgeable by rigorous analysis.
Haptics firm Haptikos launched with a brand new hand exoskeleton that brings a way of contact to XR apps at a dramatically low worth level with twice the precision of earlier options.
Startup demos additionally included MIT spinout Three House Lab and AI merchandise from AUR+A, and Taiwan-based Meta Intelligence.
EXPERIENTIAL is formed by the mandate set forth to increase Actuality Hack’s inclusive expertise focus past hacking and into the zeitgeist in the direction of the promotion of creator economies. This system journeyed deep into the realms of each tutorial analysis and the enterprise market.
The convention kicked off with a hearth chat between two well-known names within the trade: Tim Bajarin, founding analyst and Chairman of Artistic Methods and Anshel Sag, principal analyst at Moor Insights & Technique, who expounded over the course of an hour on the state of the XR trade, as moderated by AR pioneer Dan Cui.
Picture courtesy Sean Chee
Bajarin additionally participated as a first-time choose on the Hack and wrote up his ideas on Forbes, calling his expertise “one of many highlights of my profession”, after 40+ years within the tech trade.
The EXPERIENTIAL keynote was give by Qualcomm’s Senior VP & GM of XR, Ziad Asghar who explored the rising synergy of AI capabilities in XR units, and the significance of occasions like MIT Actuality hack in incubating the concepts and expertise that drive quickly evolving industries.
Picture courtesy Sean Chee
Later within the convention a panel protecting World Initiatives In direction of a Sustainable Future, noticed MIT Senior Lecturer Ken Zolot average a dialog between keyholders representing the United Nations (UNICC), The World Financial institution Group, Inclusive AI Lab, and Qualcomm, and futurist & World VP at HTC, Alvin Wang Graylin.
Panelists shared how they leverage experiential expertise and hackathon initiatives to empower creator communities, drive financial development, and allow new, extra inclusive human experiences throughout industries and areas.
As famous by AWE co-founder and Actuality Hack accomplice Ori Inbar: “XR goes mainstream, however to completely obtain this purpose we want extra seasoned XR builders and newcomers of every kind to create numerous spatial experiences that matter to each single particular person on the planet. That’s the way you conquer the mainstream!”
Corporations considering taking part within the 2026 MIT Actuality Hack and the EXPERIENTIAL Innovation Convention could attain out to the convention by contacting me right here.
