HackFW: MADE Challenge

Overview

The HackFW: MADE Challenge is the flagship hackathon of Fort Worth, Texas, organized by Fort Worth DAO. The initiative aims to create a sustainable innovation flywheel for the city by engaging youth and the workforce in hands-on technical product development within data and software engineering. This hackathon focuses on real-world challenges and provides industry mentorship, with the goal of building a local pipeline for technical talent, increasing exposure and inclusivity in tech, and establishing Fort Worth as an emerging tech hub. Participants are required to focus their submissions on techno-industrialism, specifically on solutions that aid manufacturing and supply chains. This includes developing AI-first tools, process improvements, data infrastructure, and embedded systems. Submissions must be shippable systems that a plant, supplier desk, or railroad could actually run, emphasizing product-like development and maintainability. Teams must attend an in-person Demo Day for judging.

What to build

Participants must pick one industrial surface (e.g., a plant, a supplier desk, or a railroad) and ship a system that could actually run in that environment. Submissions should focus on techno-industrialism, helping manufacturing and supply chains through AI-first tools, process improvements, data infrastructure, or embedded systems. Specific areas include: * AI for Manufacturing: Computer vision and robotics for plant floors, tracking parts, defects, unsafe motion, and stalled work. Examples include overhead cameras for monitoring, in-process quality control, safe robot/drone VSLAM, and generative CAD for manufacturable geometry. * Supplier Relationship Management: Systems that integrate supplier graphs, order lines, and payments. Examples include knowledge graphs for relationships, API-first MES/ERP or adapters for sharing production/order status, and modern payment rails (including stablecoins) for vendor operations and settlement. * AI for Transportation: Computer vision for track and railroad maintenance. Examples include track geometry, fastener, and surface inspection from cameras, defect detection, and predictive maintenance to generate work orders. * Tokenized Industrial Real Estate: Marketplaces for warehouses, factories, and industrial sites. Examples include organized property records, comparable industrial fit data, tokenized interests linked to ownership, detailed deal history, and accessible platforms for humans and AI agents. * Open Forum: Solutions for overlooked industrial or civic problems at the intersection of technology, manufacturing, and AI that are not covered by the other tracks. Submissions should be working prototypes with a clear operator.

Prizes

Key dates

• Deadline2026-10-30T11:00:00-05:00

How to enter

1. Register at https://hackfw.devpost.com
2. Join the talent network at https://talent.fwtx.city

Submission requirements

• Name the problem track (AI for Manufacturing, Supplier Relationship Management, or AI for Transportation) your submission addresses.
• Provide a public GitHub link for the working solution.
• Include a brief video demo of the system running end to end.
• Confirm every participant is registered in the Fort Worth DAO Talent Database at https://talent.fwtx.city.
• Every team must attend Demo Day in person for judging. Event link: https://luma.com/ygyxb4yy.
• Ship the solution like a product, with ergonomic code.
• Teammates, judges, and a plant engineer should be able to clone, run, and maintain the code.
• Prefer a thin end-to-end path (capture, decide, act) over a pile of notebooks.
• Include a README, environment setup, and a demo that boots.

Judging criteria

• Technical & Product Acumen: Submission must demonstrate technical and product strength.