LUMA Pitch Competition 2026 is a 3-week virtual build competition for high school and middle school students across the US. Show us what you can build. STUDENTS ONLY
Round 1: Project Submission Submit a 5 minute video demonstration covering:
The Problem: What specific technical or social challenge are you tackling?
The Build: A walkthrough of your codebase, architecture, and the stack used.
The Demo: A screen share recording of the project functioning in real time.
Scalability: How is this project suited to handle more data or more users?
Round 2: Live Finals The top technical projects will advance to a Live Demonstration and Q&A. Finalists will run their code live for a panel of judges and defend their technical logic and architecture in a real time discussion.
Who Can Participate? Any high school or middle schooler student. Teams of 1 to 5.
Requirements
Submit a 5 minute video of your product make sure to hit all key points on this rubric!
Technical Execution (25%) Is the code clean, efficient, and well-documented? Does the project actually work, and did the team demonstrate a strong grasp of their tech stack?
Innovation & UX (25%) Did the team come up with an original or clever idea? Is the interface intuitive and the user flow seamless for the end user?
Business & Finance (25%) Does the submission include a realistic business model, revenue streams, and a clear path to financial sustainability?
Communication (25%) Did the video and live Q&A demonstrate a deep understanding of the product, its technical architecture, and its target consumers?
Prizes
First place
Participation prize - Wolfram
subscription worth $200 for all competitiors (given at the end)
Participation prize
subscription worth $50 for top 50 (given at the end)
Participation prize - Boot.dev
Judges
ekansh jain
Jash Vohra
Andrea Zanon
JetBlue, Data Science Manager
Sofia Toebak Bravo
Solai, Founder
Judging Criteria
-
Technical Execution (25%)
Is the code clean, efficient, and well-documented? Does the project actually work, and did the team demonstrate a strong grasp of their tech stack? -
Innovation & UX (25%)
Did the team come up with an original or clever idea? Is the interface intuitive and the user flow seamless for the end user? -
Business & Finance (25%)
Does the submission include a realistic business model, revenue streams, and a clear path to financial sustainability? -
Communication (25%)
Did the video and live Q&A demonstrate a deep understanding of the product, its technical architecture, and its target consumers?
Questions? Email the hackathon manager