PHILLY 250 MARITIME DEFENSE HACKATHON
Hosted on LumaFetched about 3 hours ago
Friday, March 27, 2026
to Sunday, March 29, 2026
•
2 days long
Tech
Event Type
in person
$50,000
Prize Pool
Organizers
Quality Score
Top engineering students, shipbuilders, warfighters and investors are converging on the 23rd St Armory in Philadelphia for a first-of-its-kind maritime defense hackathon. From March 27 to March 29, Albacore Inc. and leading maritime sponsors will convene 150+ elite builders for an intensive, mission-driven 48-hour sprint focused on the future of maritime defense.
This is not a typical hackathon. The event will include:
10 boats reserved for hacker teams to conduct experimentation withAll-expenses-paid trips to Ukraine for the top 3 teams and free hardware shippingUp to $50k in cash prizes for the winning team
Hackers will compete with solutions across three broad problem areas introduced by speakers at the event:
Problem Statements:
America’s Shipbuilding Industrial BaseMike Flanigan (Co-Founder & CEO, Seasats)Dante Vaisbort (Co-Founder, Albacore Inc.)Chris Dalke, (Founder & CEO, Zydro Marine)Others to be announced...Autonomous Maritime DefenseEveline Buchatskiy (Managing Partner, D3 Venture Capital)Cat Buchatskiy (Co-Founder, Snake Island Institute)Dorottya Zsiboracs (Strategy, STARK)Military end usersOthers to be announced...Maritime Domain Awareness and InterdictionRADM Ron Fritzemeier (Ret. US Navy C4I)Jeff Eggers (Managing Partner, R Squared)Others to be announced...
Problem statements are open-ended, and various solutions ranging from software, to full hardware platforms (e.g. boats) to subsystems (e.g. mountable sensing equipment), are within the anticipated scope of the event.
Event sponsors and participants include:
Leading early stage defense investors: RSquared, D3, Heliad, Reveille, Outlander, Alumni Ventures, and Z FellowsCorporations: JP MorganMaritime defense companies: Albacore Inc., Zydro Marine, Seasats, and STARK
Agenda:
Friday 3/27, 12:00pm: Registration opensFriday 3/27, 4:30pm: KeynoteFriday 3/27, 5:00pm: Problem statement introductionsFriday 3/27, 6:00pm: Hacking commencesFriday 3/27, 10:00pm: Overnight DJ set 1: dr pepprSaturday 3/28, 9:00am-3:00pm: Mentor office hoursSaturday 3/28, 10:00pm: Overnight DJ set 2: catcbfSunday 3/29, 11:00am: Hacking concludesSunday 3/29, 11:30am: Keynote commencement speechSunday 3/29, 12:00pm-3:00pm: DemonstrationsSunday 3/29, 4:30pm: Winners announcedSunday 3/29, 5:00pm: Event departures
A note on teams: You can register individually or with a team. If you are looking for teammates, we can pair you with others in complementary disciplines who are interested in the same focus areas as you.