June 20–21, 2026 · Skillman, NJ
NJx AI Summer Hackathon 2026
The second NJx Hackathon challenged teams to think like founders: pick a real person or organization who needs defending, then ship a cybersecurity or AI-safety product they could adopt on Monday morning.
Dates
Jun 20–21, 2026
Venue
Venture X Skillman, Montgomery Innovation Hub
Participants
131 registered
Theme
Cybersecurity and AI safety
Format
24 hours, noon to noon
Eligibility
Students ages 14–28
Prizes
$2,000 in cash
Topics by
Russ Abdrakhmanov, neKey
Mission tracks
Four tracks. One rule: build for someone real.
Every team named a specific customer it could actually reach, such as a family member, a gamer, a senior, or a local nonprofit, and validated that the product would be used.
Privacy
“Secret Identity”
Return control of personal data to everyday people, from exposing data-broker records to removing them.
AI Defense
“Project Mythos”
Make powerful AI systems safe enough for real businesses and families to rely on, including deepfake and scam defenses.
Accessible Security
“Nobody Left Behind”
Build security that works for disabled and older users instead of locking them out.
Nonprofits & Everyday People
“Defenders of the Underdog”
Ship tools a no-budget, no-IT-staff organization could adopt this week.
Winning teams
Three products built in 24 hours.
Judges scored real value, customer fit, innovation, execution, and whether the concept was scalable and fundable.
1st place
ModGuard
Bergen County Technical High School, Paramus
A desktop app that deep-scans game mods and URLs, including the code inside mod files, for malware before a player launches the game, protecting millions of young gamers from account takeovers and infected mods.
2nd place
Snapkey
Rutgers University
Authentication reimagined for people overwhelmed by passwords: snap a familiar object to generate and later recover strong, unique passwords, using vision models under the hood.
3rd place
KinCode
Central Jersey College Prep Charter School
A defense against AI voice-clone scams that skips deepfake detection entirely, using one-tap verification between a senior parent and a trusted adult child, backed by private memory-based challenges.
After the weekend
From the hackathon floor to the NJx Venture Summit.
As first-place winners, the ModGuard team earned the opportunity to present their company to investors and business leaders at the NJx Venture Summit on July 8, 2026, just weeks after the hackathon.
The weekend also opened with the June Pre-Hackathon Game Night on Friday, June 19, presented by 1435 Capital, and ran on the same noon-to-noon format as the spring event.
Partners
Summer 2026 partners
Organizations that supported the NJx AI Summer Hackathon, including neKey, which co-developed the challenge topics.
Sponsor
Challenge partner
Montgomery Innovation Hub
Venue partner
Venue partner
Previous event
Fiscal sponsor
A nonprofit program, built in public for New Jersey students.
NJx Hackathon is fiscally sponsored by NJx Venture Summit NJ NFP Corp, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Contributions that support the program are made to the fiscal sponsor and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.