We hacked the planet (and here's who won)
Hack Indy 2026 just wrapped, and it was a weekend worth talking about. Over 48 hours, Purdue University Computer Science Club, students, and Indy's tech community came together to build, compete, learn, and yes, consume an irresponsible amount of caffeinated drinks.
The energy was real, and the projects that came out of it were seriously impressive.
The Indy Hackers community showed up again this year too. Board members and community members got in the room alongside participants, hosting workshops on Claude AI agents, data privacy and ethics, and serving on the engineering and judging panels. Students came with questions and left with tips and ideas they could actually use. That's the kind of mentorship that sticks.
Students tackled everything from AI-powered fraud detection to gamified chore apps to voice platforms. And the range of problems they chose to solve said a lot about what this generation of builders actually cares about.
Here's who took home recognition:
Hack Indy Winners:
1st Passline: Banking ADA Compliance Tool
2nd Battle_Pong: 2 Player Pong Game
3rd Squid: Agentic AI Transaction Enforcer
Honorable Mention Banshee: Voice AI Platform
Major League Hacking (MLH):
Best Use of ElevenLabs: Mirror, Physical Therapy Tool
Best Use of Gemini API: Choremon, Gamified Chore App
Best Use of MongoDB: Com-Plan-ion, Event Planning Tool
Best Use of Vultr: FraudFence, AI Fraud Detector
Best Use of Solana: Squid, Agentic AI Transaction Enforce
Spotlight: Passline
First place went to Passline, and it's easy to see why it resonated with judges. Passline is a web app that lets business owners conduct their own ADA compliance audits without hiring an inspector. The owner fills out a short questionnaire about their property, which an AI model uses to generate a tailored rule set of the specific ADA standards that apply to their building. From there, they can audit individual spaces like entrances, restrooms, corridors, or stairwells by recording a short video. Passline analyzes that using depth estimation to measure door widths, clearance distances, grab bar heights, and more. When the audit is complete, the owner receives a structured report with a full list of violations, plain-language explanations, ADA citation references, and an itemized cost estimate to bring the property into compliance.
The students didn't just build something technically interesting, they built something with a real user in mind. That's exactly the kind of thinking this community wants to encourage, and exactly the kind of project that makes Indy Hackers support worth the effort.
It’s also one of the reasons Indy Hackers exists.
Get Involved
Events like Hack Indy don't happen without people who care enough to show up. If you want to be part of what's next, we'd love to have you. Join the Indy Hackers community and consider getting involved with our Community & Programs Committee, the team supporting events like this one. We're actively looking for people who want to help plan, organize, and support programming that keeps Indianapolis's tech community connected and growing throughout the year. Whether you want to host a workshop, help shape future events, or just be in the room where it happens, there's a place for you here.
Next Tuesday, April 28, we’ll talk about all this and more of our plans for 2026 at our open Board Meeting and Community Involvement Fair at Centerpoint Brewing downtown.
Show up on Tuesday, hang out, and come build with us.
Meetup. Of. The. Fortnight!
IndyPy Lightning Talks - May 5, 2026 7pm
E-gineering, 8415 Allison Pointe Blvd, Indianapolis, IN 46250
Join IndyPy on Tues, May 5 at 7pm ET for a hybrid meetup packed with short, high-energy Lightning Talks from the Python community. Expect practical tips, favorite tools, project lessons, AI experiments, and fresh ideas. Attend in person at E-gineering or join remotely via Zoom. Free and open to all.
Lightning talks like this meetup format from the fine folks at IndyPy are a great first step into speaking. If you have a topic idea, you can submit it here.
Upcoming Events
Code and Tea - April 26 at 4:00 PM
Fishers Code and Coffee - April 28 at 7:00 AM
Zionsville Code and Coffee - April 29 at 8:00 AM
Virtual Code and Coffee - April 29 at 8:00 AM
Carmel Code and Coffee - April 30 at 7:00 AM
Downtown Code & Coffee - April 30 at 7:00 AM
Code and Tea - May 3 at 4:00 PM
Fishers Code and Coffee - May 5 at 7:00 AM
Zionsville Code and Coffee - May 6 at 8:00 AM
Broad Ripple Code and Coffee - May 6 at 8:00 AM
Indy .NET Consortium - May 6 at 6:00 PM
Central Indiana Linux Users Group - May 6 at 6:00 PM
Carmel Code and Coffee - May 7 at 7:00 AM
Downtown Code & Coffee - May 7 at 7:00 AM
Indy Game Developers Social Hour - May 8 at 6:30 PM
Is there an event you would like to announce here? Let us know at [email protected] and we'll get it added to the calendar.
New On The Job Board
Tech Lead, Software Engineering at Remodel Health
Senior AI Engineer at E-gineering, Inc.
Senior Python Developer/DevOps Engineer at Six Feet Up
Senior Python Developer at Six Feet Up
Full Stack Web Developer at Level 12
Director of Support & QA Operations at Alleo
Staff Engineer / Senior Developer (Ruby, Elixir, Flutter) at SmartLogic
Sr. Data Engineer (Direct Hire-Indianapolis) at Anchor Point Technology Resources
The IndyHackers job board is free to companies and the community. Our goal is to help as many community members as possible land jobs they love at companies based here in Indiana, growing the community of hackers throughout the state.
If your company is hiring, post your job here.
If you're hunting for a job, the full job board is here or you can follow along in #jobs in our Slack. Or: Just reply to this email with what you're looking for.
One last thing …
Ideally, and almost always, non-profit board meetings are pretty boring affairs.
That said, we’ve been wanting to open ours up to the public for a while now. At least once, as an experiment.
We are a non-profit, run by a volunteer board of directors, and powered by and for our community.
It feels good to give that community as much transparency as we can on our inner workings.
This year, it’s especially important as Indy Hackers enters what we hope is a growth and maturation phase.
On Tuesday, expect to hear about our plans for the rest of the year - including how you can get involved in our various programs and subcommittees.
We have opportunities to help organize community events, or help us fundraise, or help manage our website.
Maybe even help write this newsletter if you wanna.
Also on the tentative agenda:
A major announcement to kick off our Race to $10k fundraising push (and some new sponsor-specific swag).
A robust discussion of what approaches we can take to cut down on the bots in our Slack - without tamping down our openness and hospitality
See ya Tuesday!
- Chris Vannoy
Board President, Indy Hackers
No, seriously, this is the last thing
Oh. Today is Friday and tonight is the annual Mira Awards put on by our friends at Techpoint.
We have two board members up for awards, and many of the Indy Hackers board will be there.
If you’re also attending, say “hey”.
And if you or your company are up for an award: Best of luck!
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