AI Hackerdorm - We are a student-first community of builders

Greetings, Future Builders and Innovators!

We are thrilled to announce DORMATHON 2026: Malaysia’s Nationwide Hackathon — Build the Next Big Thing.

DORMATHON 2026 is a premier, 24-hour continuous hackathon bringing together passionate innovators in Malaysia—whether you are a student, working professional, self-taught developer, designer, or tech enthusiast. Join us to learn, innovate, and collaborate to build impactful solutions for real-world challenges.

Hosted simultaneously across AI Hackerdorm chapters, DORMATHON 2026 helps builders of all backgrounds the opportunity to transform bold ideas into working prototypes. Connect with developers and creators nationwide through collaborative work sessions, live project showcases, and virtual judging.

No matter where you are on your builder journey, bring your vision, form your team, and build the next big thing!

📅 Date: 9:00 AM Saturday, 10th October – 4:00 PM Sunday, 11th October 2026

⏰ Duration: 24-Hour Continuous Hackathon

📍 Venue: Held simultaneously at 3 AI Hackerdorm Chapters: Taylor’s University Lakeside Campus, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), and Swinburne University of Technology. Participants may select whichever venue most suitable for them. Participants do not have to be existing students or alumni of the campus to join.

💻 Format: On site

🎟️ Early Bird ENDED 3 October — RM10 per person 💳 From 4 October onwards, the registration fee returns to RM33 per person. This amount goes to supporting the food and materials for the event.

🏆 Prize pool: RM10K+ in value

⏳ Registration deadline: 8 October 2026

👾 Who may participate: Open to all (students and non-students)

🚀 Hackathon Tracks & Themes

Teams can choose one of two distinct tracks to build and compete in:

📌 Track 1: Predictive Model Track — Predict Early, Decide Better

Theme: How can AI spot problems before they become expensive, and help someone decide what to do about them?
Tooling & Access: Tool-agnostic. Teams are welcome to use their own tools or build without AI tools entirely. Optional limited credits for Kiro (must be claimed prior to 10 October) and Grafilab (provided on D-Day) will be available.

📌 Track 2: WorkBuddy Track — Agentic Solutions

Theme: How can AI help students and small businesses solve real business problems and operate more effectively?
Tooling & Access: Exclusive ecosystem challenge. Participating teams must build and present their end-to-end solution, presentation slides, and project documentation exclusively on Tencent WorkBuddy. Dedicated WorkBuddy credits are fully provided for this track.

(Note: Team leaders must submit their team's final track selection via the track confirmation form by 9 October 2026, 6:00 PM MYT).

⚔️ How the Competition Works: Local Pitching to Global Live Finals

DORMATHON 2026 features a two-stage hybrid judging process across all three host campuses:

Phase 1: Local In-Person Preliminaries Every team pitches live in person to an evaluation panel at their selected campus (Taylor's University, UPM, or Swinburne Sarawak).
Advancing to the Global Final: The Top 3 teams per track at each campus will advance—meaning 6 finalist teams per campus and 18 finalist teams total competing in the global round.
Phase 2: The Global Live Final Finalists pitch directly from their local campus stage, synchronized via a unified live video stream across all three universities. Judges and audiences from every campus will evaluate and witness the pitches simultaneously.

Judging Rubric: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iS33AuzV_eJrNv_JhvCjd7fTop7emZqu/view?usp=sharing

📅 Event Agenda

Day 1 — Saturday, 10 October 2026

Time	Activity
9:00 AM – 9:30 AM	Registration
9:30 AM – 11:00 AM	Opening & Briefing
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM	Team Preparation
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM	Lunch Break
1:00 PM – 7:00 PM	Project Building
7:00 PM – 8:00 PM	Dinner Break
8:00 PM – 12:00 AM	Project Building

Day 2 — Sunday, 11 October 2026

Time	Activity
9:00 AM – 9:30 AM	Submission Deadline
9:30 AM – 10:00 AM	Judging Process Briefing
10:00 AM – 5:00 PM	Judging, Demos & Lunch Break
5:00PM onwards	Winner Announcement & Closing

Key Event Objectives & Highlights

Connect Across Malaysia: collaborate, meet, and exchange ideas with builders, creators, and tech from different universities
Showcase Your Project: Show your project through live online demos to judges and mentors from participating campus.
Explore the Tech Community: Get introduced to hackathons, connect with other builders, and participated in the wider tech community.

Registration & Requirements

Open to Everyone: Open to all creators, problem-solvers, and tech enthusiasts—whether you are a student (diploma, undergraduate, or postgraduate), working professional, career switcher, or self-taught builder.
Limited spots are available at each campus due to limited space and electricity supply.

🌐 Tencent WorkBuddy Community & Builder Program

Tencent Cloud Community Builders is an official program for AI practitioners, developers and tech creators. It aims to develop local developer ecosystems by organizing tech events, sharing practical experience and generating long‑term community value.

Scan the QR codes below to connect directly with the Tencent WorkBuddy team, join developer channels, and apply for official community builder support:

Join Discord Community

Scan via Discord App

Community Builders

Scan to Apply & Build

Follow WorkBuddy on X

Scan via Camera / X

Community partners

Swinburne Computer Science Club
Google Developer Group On Campus UPM

Need Help or Have Questions?

For general registration support, please reach out to our team:

WhatsApp Support: +255 687 578 866 (Ammara Mahmood Somji) or +6281 2935 92667 (Marcelinus Dioki)
Email: team@aihackerdorm.com
Instagram: @aihackerdorm.taylors

Secure your spot now and join us for 24 hours of non-stop building, learning, and shipping!(>‿◠)✌

DORMATHON 2026: Malaysia’s Nationwide Hackathon — Build the Next Big Thing