Impact Hub Houston Announces Houston Hackathon 2026 Winners
KinSource takes first place as Houstonians turn real civic challenges into working solutions in a single weekend.
HOUSTON, TX (October 6, 2026) — Impact Hub Houston announced the winners of Houston Hackathon 2026, the annual civic hackathon hosted in partnership with the Mayor’s Office of Innovation and Performance. From September 24 to 27, Houstonians of every background and skill level came together at the Ion District with one question: What would it take to make this city work better for all of us? Over 260 people joined the kick-off, supported by 36+ volunteers and mentors to form teams and develop novel approaches to tackle some of Houston’s pressing challenges.
95 hackers registered and submitted 43 projects, with 22 qualifying to go on for judging against three primary criteria: Progress, Practicality, and Potential. KinSource, a free step-by-step planning tool for families moving or caring for an aging parent, earned first place. BlindSpot took second, Ride METRO third, and, after 233 public votes were cast, WalkCheck was named the People’s Choice. Promising solutions CleanConnect and CivicBoost received honorable mentions, and Houston Hacker A. Lester Buck III was recognized for his contributions to creating fasthouston.org — an open data exploration tool that brings together 7,218 datasets and layers from 16 sources into one place to make all local data easily searchable for analysts, community advocates, civic hackers, and future Houston Hackathons.
The Community Showed Up
Nobody had to be a coder or a designer to join. They just had to care. Teams took on real challenges brought by City of Houston staff and local organizations, and every project faced three honest questions. Is it making Progress, with solid research and a plan someone can act on? Is it Practical, something people can adopt and sustain? Does it have Potential to reach more people and solve more problems?
“Houston’s challenges are real, but so is the talent in this community. They really showed up this weekend. What impressed me most, though, wasn’t just what they created, but how they created it — many teams went out into their communities, talked to real people and listened, walked in their shoes, and then built their prototypes. Their solutions have real legs to move forward on. But a prototype is a promise, and promises need follow-through. Our winners now have the harder, potentially more rewarding work of getting these solutions out into the world and into the hands of the people who need them; and we at Impact Hub Houston are ready to support them.”
Grace Rodriguez, Executive Director, Impact Hub Houston
The Winners
- First Place: KinSource. A free, plain-language plan that tells Houston families what to do, and in what order, when a parent needs to move or needs more care. Every plan starts with free public help before any paid step. KinSource also earned first in Progress and first in Practical, and was built for the “Helping Families Manage Senior Parents’ Re-Housing” challenge, owned by Harbor Lane. Team: Karee Laing, Radica L., and Shahrukh Siddiqui.
- Second Place: BlindSpot. A trip planner that shows why Houston traffic is slow and re-routes around blocked rail crossings, congestion, and high-crash streets, using free public data from Houston TranStar, the City’s Train Watch sensors, and Vision Zero. Team: Deepika Miryala, Chris D., Agasthya Tatti, Jason Qian, Nathan Jithendra, and Zain Khan.
- Third Place: Ride METRO. A redesign of the RideMETRO app that opens with “Where to?” and labels every arrival as Live, Scheduled, or Tracking lost, so riders know which times to trust. The team cut the steps from opening the app to a usable map from 14 to 2, and earned first in Potential. Team: Mohammed Altaie, David Yang, Lawrence Castacio, Rikki Royd Casupanan, and Giovanni Joseph.
- People’s Choice: WalkCheck. Chosen by public vote. After Houston ISD school closures lengthened many children’s walks, WalkCheck maps the new route, shows where to cross, and pre-fills HISD and City safety request forms, in English and Spanish. Team: Junda Yin, Carsten R., and Murphy Amos.
- Honorable Mention: CleanConnect Houston. A map-first platform that lets volunteers and civic groups claim cleanup sites drawn from Houston’s 311 dumping reports, so no two groups show up at the same spot. Team: Mike Wing and Hiram Riddle.
- Honorable Mention: CivicBoost. A platform that helps residents turn local frustrations into structured proposals, build neighbor support, and send them to city channels. Team: Oleg Balakirev and Shahrukh Siddiqui.
The Prizes, Judges, and Partners
The four winning teams, including People’s Choice, receive support to keep building:
- Fiscal sponsorship from Impact Hub Houston, so teams can access grants, sponsorships, and tax-deductible donations
- Scholarships to the next “Ideas to Impact” Accelerator cohort
- Impact Hub Houston Membership
- Google Career Certificate Scholarships
The judges were Grace Rodriguez (Impact Hub Houston), Jesse Bounds (Director, Mayor’s Office of Innovation and Performance), Joey Sanchez (Cup of Joey), Tricia Vincent (Launch Your Influence), Raphael Guzman (Censibal), Ellis Hubbard III (The Roo App), and Wade Pinder (Mentor in Residence, The Ion).
Houston Hackathon 2026 was made possible by: City of Houston Mayor’s Office of Innovation and Performance; Rice Alliance and Ion District; Claude Community of Houston; Goodspero for capturing some memorable moments (viewable in the Houston Hackathon 2026 Photo Album at https://photos.app.goo.gl/WNmvQ4QjWi6nvmae8); Sarah Radwan & Functional Bodywork Therapies; Latinas in Tech Houston; The Quiet Rebel; and everyone who showed up and pitched in for the Pizza Fund: Maria, Julio, Jesse, Rikki, Morgan, Jessica, Nelson, Shantel, Radica, Mehrab, Ian, Aayan, Michael, Lawrence, William, Hoang, Deepika.
Join the Next Chapter
Houstonians who want to help these teams and the next ones can support the cause, become a member of Impact Hub Houston, and volunteer, donate, and/or subscribe to our newsletter to learn when the next hackathon happens in 2027!
About Impact Hub Houston
Impact Hub Houston is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit entrepreneurship accelerator and ecosystem facilitator based at the Ion District, 4201 Main St., Houston, TX 77002. It is part of the global Impact Hub network and exists to give people the inspiration, connection, and resources they need to launch and grow solutions with scalable impact, for a more just and sustainable world. Learn more at houston.impacthub.net.
