Worn: Smart Glasses Hackathon

📋 Event Description

Two days, one overnight build, and real smart glasses on your face. Join us at Cornell Tech with MicroLumin, the Shenzhen team behind the CES 2026 award-winning M6 display glasses, and build the first wave of apps for waveguide display glasses.

This is a hands-on hardware hackathon for engineers and builders who would rather ship on real devices than talk about the future of spatial computing.

Problem Statement

Smart glasses are finally light enough to wear all day. What's missing is software that feels natural to use. Your challenge is to build anthropocentric interfaces: apps that start from how people see, move, talk and pay attention, not from how phones work. These should be things you'd actually keep on your face.

The Challenge Theme

Heads-up assistants that show the right info at the right moment

Live captioning, translation and conversation memory

Navigation and wayfinding without looking down at a phone

Accessibility for low-vision, hard-of-hearing and neurodivergent users

Hands-free workflows for field techs, clinicians, chefs and mechanics

New input patterns: voice, ring, head motion and glanceable UI

Making the glasses useful with AI on what the camera sees

What to Expect

MicroLumin AR glasses handed out to teams for the build

SDK access and docs shared before the event so you can start early

A workshop from Dr. Zhaoen Dai, MicroLumin's founder and CEO, on AR and where the AI industry is heading

An overnight build from Friday evening into Saturday

Teams of up to 4, or match with teammates at kickoff

Food, caffeine and other builders who care about hardware

Live demos on the device, worn by your team, in front of the judges

Schedule

Friday, Nov 20

5:30 PM: Doors open, check-in, dinner

6:15 PM: Welcome and kickoff with the organizers, Cornell Tech and MicroLumin

6:35 PM: Challenge brief and a walkthrough of the MicroLumin SDK

7:00 PM: Team formation: 30-second idea pitches, then a mixer to find teammates

7:45 PM: Teams locked, hardware handed out, devices set up

8:00 PM: Hacking begins

9:00 PM: SDK help desk and mentor office hours open

Saturday, Nov 21

8:00 AM: Breakfast and coffee

9:00 AM: Morning check-in: each team shares where they are and what's blocking them

10:00 AM: Workshop with Dr. Zhaoen Dai, MicroLumin's founder and CEO, on designing for AR and waveguide displays

11:00 AM: Workshop: [Topic and speaker TBD]

12:30 PM: Lunch

2:00 PM: Code freeze, project submissions due

2:15 PM: Demo expo: judges go table to table and teams demo on the device

3:45 PM: Finalists announced

4:00 PM: Finalists demo on stage: 3 minutes, worn by the team, plus 2 minutes of Q&A

4:45 PM: Talk by Dr. Dai on AR and where the AI industry is heading, while judges deliberate

5:30 PM: Awards

6:00 PM: Hardware return and wrap

Prizes

TBD

Judges

TBD

Who Should Attend

Hardware Founders

Engineers at companies like Meta, Amazon and Google who want to build on AR hardware

iOS and Android developers

Hardware tinkerers, embedded and computer vision engineers

Product designers interested in spatial and glanceable UI

Spots are limited and approval is required. You don't need prior AR experience, just the drive to build something real overnight.

Sponsors

MicroLumin: Shenzhen-based maker of AR display glasses, including the M6 series and several CES 2026 award winners. MicroLumin is providing the hardware and SDK support for teams.

Hosts

Somya Gupta: The face of the NYC startup ecosystem.

Stephen Jin: Johnson MBA '27 at Cornell, board director at Gona Semiconductor, Angel Investing

Waftech - Founded in 2007 and based in Penang, Malaysia, Waftech designs and manufactures wafer-handling and automation equipment for semiconductor manufacturing. Waftech delivers end-to-end, from R&D and design through manufacturing and after-sales service, and is ISO 9001:2015 certified. Waftech is a subsidiary of Gona Semiconductor, a Shanghai-headquartered equipment group.

CASTGNY: Since 1992, providing platform for learning, networking and mentoring for technology professionals and entrepreneurs.

Olivia Iarmak: AI Quality Ops Lead at Meta Reality Labs working on Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, and co-founder of HQ Labs.

Vishal Kharker: Lead Product Manager at RTX Fintech & Research, previously at Barclays and RBC Capital Markets.

Info site: https://worn-hacks.com