In collaboration with the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD®, Harvard Undergraduate Rare Diseases (HURD) is excited to host HackRare, a hackathon focused on rare diseases.

Held in honor of Rare Disease Day® (February 28), the third annual HackRare Hackathon will take place over the weekend of February 28 - March 1, 2026 at Harvard’s Student Organization Center at Hilles (SOCH) in Cambridge, MA. Our goal is to bring together brilliant minds to explore computational solutions for rare diseases, leveraging the power of open science and genomic data.

Join us to deepen understanding and drive meaningful progress in improving the lives of those affected by rare diseases!

Requirements

Project Submission Guidelines

To be considered for any prizes, teams are required to submit the following two components:

  1. All code used in the development of their project.
  2. All materials they intend to use in their three-minute presentation. This may include, but is not limited to, a slide deck and a video demonstrating the functionality of their final product.

As stated in the submission form, the ground rules include:

  1. Only one submission per team is allowed.
  2. Once submitted, no edits or modifications can be made to project information or files.
  3. Please ensure all materials are final before submitting.

Please direct all questions to info@hackrare.org.

Hackathon Sponsors

Prizes

$6,000 in prizes
Genomic Diagnostics Grand Prize
$2,000 in cash
1 winner

Therapeutic Targets Grand Prize
$2,000 in cash
1 winner

Symptom Management Grand Prize
$2,000 in cash
1 winner

Devpost Achievements

Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:

Judges

Sammi Tang

Sammi Tang
Astellas Pharma

Kurt Christensen

Kurt Christensen
Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute

Hadley Stevens Smith

Hadley Stevens Smith
Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute

Hetal Viq

Hetal Viq
Target Cancer Foundation

Ram Aiyar

Ram Aiyar
Korro Bio

Ed Neilan

Ed Neilan
National Organization for Rare Disorders

Jessime Kirk

Jessime Kirk
GeneDx

Sarah Gladstone

Sarah Gladstone
Wolfram Syndrome Research Alliance

Kim LeBlanc

Kim LeBlanc
Undiagnosed Diseases Network

Padmaja Raman

Padmaja Raman
Family Advisory Council Boston Children's

Emma Nagy

Emma Nagy
Harvard University

Julieta Bonvin Sallago

Julieta Bonvin Sallago
UConn School of Medicine

Judging Criteria

  • Impact
    What potential for impact in addressing rare diseases does your project have?
  • Novelty
    Does your project approach the prompt with creativity and unique thinking?
  • Execution
    Does your project demonstrate concrete functionality in its state at the time of submission?
  • Feasibility
    How tractable would it be to implement your project?
  • Scalability
    Does your project address the challenges of accessibility on a broader scale?
  • Presentation
    Does your project clearly and persuasively communicate its impact?

Questions? Email the hackathon manager

Tell your friends

Hackathon sponsors

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.