Mega Hackathon Hack the North is Underway

Baristas, therapy dogs, and 2:00 am workshops about CockroachDB.

Welcome to Hack the North, the student hackathon that offers users the chance to develop with VR and wearable technology and has produced at least one commercially viable startup.

It’s happening this weekend at the University of Waterloo Engineering School, and developers from across Canada and the world are attending:

Waiting to leave @FlyYYC for @HackTheNorth #excited #HackTheNorth

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— Jesse Farebrother (@JesseFarebro) September 16, 2016

We're in Canada!!! 🇨🇦 #hackthenorth pic.twitter.com/xgFW4PtIcv

— Wilhelm Klopp (@wilhelmklopp) September 16, 2016

Carleton and uOttawa is on the bus! #HackTheNorth here we come! pic.twitter.com/SFEyVSm5oT

— Elisa Kazan (@elisakazan) September 16, 2016

What Happens at a Hackathon

A hackathon is a short, intense event where people form small teams and try to build a working project from scratch before the clock runs out. Teams usually start with nothing more than an idea, then spend the weekend designing, coding, testing and, often, not sleeping. At the end, they demo what they’ve made to judges, and the best projects win prizes.

For students, the appeal goes beyond the prizes. A hackathon is a chance to try new technology, like the VR headsets and wearables on offer here, to meet engineers from real companies, and to see whether they enjoy building something under pressure. For sponsors, it’s a recruiting ground full of people who’ve just proved they can ship.

Inside the 36 Hours

Hack the North claims to be Canada’s premier hackathon with over 1,000 participants. It runs continuously for 36 hours from Friday evening to Sunday morning. Industry leaders from 500px and Y Combinator will be on hand.

For tired coders up all night, there are many opportunities for screen breaks: Morning yoga on Saturday, and a chance to cuddle with therapy dogs.

The sleep-deprived can also attend talks on topics such as Node.js and Cockroach DB, as well as soft skills such as team formation and ideation.

From Weekend Project to Startup

One of the 2014 winners of Hack the North was Eric Dolan, founder of Neutun Labs — a startup that develops seizure-tracking technology.

Dolan’s winning 2014 project, Pebilepsy, was based off data tracking and wearable devices, as it allowed users’ Pebble smartwatches to track their epilepsy symptoms. Neutun Labs is derived from this technology, and has since been accepted into 500 Startups.

Great work Neutun Labs! Super psyched to have been selected as a top 50 company! Any shares or support would be grea…https://t.co/ivkRKyO0GX

— dolan (@ericwdolan) September 8, 2016

Getting into 500 Startups was a meaningful step. The Silicon Valley accelerator, founded in 2010 and since renamed 500 Global, invests in early-stage companies and runs programs that help them grow, so a weekend project making it there shows how far a good hackathon idea can travel.

“We’ve made continuous efforts to bring opportunities to students they wouldn’t have elsewhere,” said Ashna Mankotia, Co-Marketing Director at Hack the North. “For example, bringing ‘Y Combinator Office Hours’ to Hack the North in 2015 and again this year.

“Hackers have the rare opportunity to have one-on-one meetings with some of the most connected people in the industry.”

Y Combinator is one of the best-known startup accelerators in the world. Its office hours are short one-on-one sessions where founders can get direct advice from YC partners, which for a student with a half-formed idea is a rare chance to test it on an experienced investor.

Check back later for more details about the winners.

Some of the 2016 Projects

Hack the North 2016 ran from September 16 to 18 in the University of Waterloo’s Engineering 5 building, and its Devpost page listed $46,050 in prizes. The projects marked as winners in the event’s project gallery show how much the hardware on offer shaped what got built:

• Third Sense, a virtual reality haptic feedback vest with software to go with it.
• Duo, a remote-controlled pair of hands with VR integration.
• Project Open Heart, a VR open-heart surgery simulation with Amazon’s Alexa acting as a virtual nurse.
• nanoTransit, a Web Bluetooth transit beacon system that lets riders get bus information without installing an app.
• HeyKanye, which generated hip-hop lyrics using statistical models and Microsoft Azure.

Hack the North Since 2016

The event has kept going, and adapted along the way. During the pandemic it moved online: Hack the North 2020++ ran virtually from January 15 to 17, 2021, and Hack the North 2021 was online too, in September 2021.

It returned to the University of Waterloo campus for Hack the North 2022 in September 2022, and the 2025 edition took place from September 12 to 14, 2025, still billing itself as Canada’s biggest hackathon. The organizers describe Hack the North as a student-run organization whose mission is to give students of all experience levels the mentorship and resources to turn their ideas into reality.

What It Means for Student Founders

Most hackathon projects don’t become companies, and that’s fine. The real value is the practice: picking a problem, scoping it to fit a weekend, and getting something working in front of other people.

But Neutun Labs is a reminder that the rare exception does happen. If a weekend project solves a real problem, like helping people track epilepsy symptoms, it’s worth asking what it would take to keep going on Monday. Use the mentors, the sponsors and the investor office hours while you have them. Few other settings put that many helpful people in one building.