HackTVM'26: Access Point

Everyone deserves a way in

Organized by The School of the Good Shepherd's Hack Club TVM, HackTVM'26 is the Second Edition of Trivandrum's first inter-school hackathon. It gives student innovators a direct inroad to the tech industry by challenging them to build working technology that solves real-world challenges.

Overview

Date: October 10, 2026
Venue: The School of the Good Shepherd
Eligibility: Grades 8 to 12
Entry Fee: ₹1200 per team(after screening)
The Opportunity: ₹10,000 development grant for finalist teams and tech-internships, along with cash prizes, for top 3 winners

Access Point

If a system or space stands between a person and their independence, it's broken. You're here to build the sledgehammer

Access Point challenges students to design working technology that closes real, everyday gaps in accessibility and inclusivity. Modern design optimizes for an "idealized default user", treating edge cases as an afterthought. We are here to shift that dynamic.

Building for accessibility and inclusivity forces you to confront some of the most demanding problems in product design and engineering. Every system must be leaner, faster, and remarkably resilient, with zero room for error.

The Hackbook

Further specifics on the theme, along with research context and reference material will be released on October 3rd in the form of The Hackbook. It will provide additional context with guidlines, recommended tools and APIs, judging criteria, etc.

Event Format

Most hackathons end when the timer hits zero. We give you the funding and the runway to actually finish what you started.

The Hackathon — 10 Oct 2026

A 7-hour sprint where teams conceptualize, design, and build a solution to any one of the problem statements presented to them.

Development Phase — 11 to 30 Oct 2026

Top 5 teams from Phase I will receive a ₹10,000 development grant and 3 weeks to refine their prototypes and work on their final pitch.

Demo Day — 31 Oct 2026

The top 5 teams present their finished products to a panel of industry judges. The top 3 teams will be offered internship opportunities with partnership companies along with cash prizes worth ₹30,000.

Itinerary

07:00 to 08:00

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Registrations

08:00

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Hackathon Start

08:00 to 08:30

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Ideation Time

08:30 to 10:30

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Component Desk Window

15:00

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Hackathon Ends

15:15 to 16:15

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Lunch Break

15:15 to 18:45

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Judging

19:00 to 19:45

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Valedictory

What You Can Win

Top 5 Finalists

₹10,000 development grant per team to build out your prototype

Top 3 Winners

Cash prizes of ₹15,000, ₹10,000 and ₹5,000 and project-based internships with our partnered tech companies: Hex20 Space, NeST Digital Pvt. Ltd. & Quinoid Business Solutions Pvt. Ltd.

All Participants

Official certificates, direct tech industry exposure and mentor feedback

How We Judge

Concept & Vision: Idea originality and a realistic roadmap to scale it
Theme Alignment: Real-world impact solved from the user's perspective, not assumptions
Technical Execution: Working code or hardware that you can defend in technical Q&A