Hack the Gong has been a relatively frequent and informal date on the University of Wollongong’s calendar. The stakes are higher at this weekend’s 2026 event.
The popular hackathon, at iAccelerate’s UOW Innovation Campus building, has a competitive field of more than 60 participants, among them students, developers and local tech workers. iAccelerate business development lead Rebecca Glover said the event was in “hot demand” after a two-year hiatus.
Glover, a self-acknowledged tech nerd, founder and CTO, believes the opportunities on offer at this weekend’s hackathon are enormous.
“We’re really trying to maximise the opportunity for people to grab hold of a real-world challenge and build something that can be taken and have a life beyond it,” Glover said, adding she’s consulted industry contacts to shape the challenge themes released ahead of the event.
The involvement of sponsors Wollongong City Council - with a $3000 prize attached to its Energy Fairness Challenge - and Scalapay, the wildly successful European buy-now-pay-later platform co-founded by UOW alum Johnny Mitrevski - adds a certain eight to that, she said.
“If we can help people see what talent we have here, especially if it ties to a real industry problem, that really gives people like council some ideas. But the other side of it is creating connections for people in the tech community. That’s a really big part of it.”
AI as a tool, not a shortcut
Participants can register with a pre-formed team or turn up solo and be matched on the day, Glover described the process as “fairly informal”. Judging criteria will reward practical, enterprise-ready thinking as much as raw build speed, with Glover keen to see artificial intelligence used “cleverly” rather than doing the heavy lifting for entrants.
“For the students coming to participate, they’re developing skills that will be really useful in a changing workforce,” she said, pointing to novelty prizes for teams that demonstrate good AI practice alongside other challenge prizes.
Beyond the build itself, Glover framed the event’s success in terms of regional visibility and connections - a chance, she said, to showcase the Illawarra’s tech talent to industry and to seed relationships between students, mentors (including the supportive Siligong Valley crew) and potential employers.
Oh yes, there’ll be pizza, too.
Event details
When: Saturday – Sunday, August 22-23, 2026, 8.30am–5.30pm
Where: iAccelerate, UOW Innovation Campus, Building 239
Entry: 18+ event; registration via Humanitix