buildathon 2026

Buildathon is a six-week mechatronics hackathon run by UNSW RAMSoc. Teams work to a provided brief, get a hardware kit to start from, and have access to a component shop throughout the competition. It finishes with a presentation night in Week 6 where judges pick the winners.

The brief is announced on kick-off night in Week 1, and it changes each year. It is deliberately wide: you pick the problem you want to solve, and the judges look at how well your build actually addresses it. Past entries have ranged from water quality monitors and solar trackers to accessibility devices and bushfire sensors.

Anyone. University students of any degree and any year, and high school students too. You do not need to be studying mechatronics, or to have touched a microcontroller before. The weekly workshops start from the basics.

Between 2 and 6 people. You can register on your own and use the team browser to find others, or create a team and share your join code with people you already know.

Yes, and a good number of people do. Register on your own, then find a team either on the Discord, where there is a channel for exactly this, or in person at the Week 1 kick-off, where we run a team-forming session on the night. You can also browse existing teams from your dashboard and ask a captain for their join code.

$50 per team, not per person. Your team captain pays once through the dashboard after the team has at least 2 members. The fee covers your hardware kit and the shop credit you start with.

An ESP32 development board, a breadboard, an assortment of resistors and LEDs, and a USB cable. That is enough to get a working prototype going on night one. Anything beyond that comes from the shop.

A stall run at each session where you spend tickets on extra components such as motors, sensors and drivers. If you buy something and end up not needing it, you can trade the component back for a refund of its ticket cost.

Your team earns a ticket for attending a RAMSoc workshop, capped at one per week even if you come to both sessions that week. Additional tickets are raffled at the UNSW Founders workshops.

Yes. You just have to declare them. Submit an itemised list of any external components with your final build so the judges are comparing like with like.

Plan for more than two hours a week. The scheduled sessions are two hours, and most teams do work outside them, particularly in Weeks 4 and 5.

No, but the workshops are where you earn tickets and where the mentors are, so teams that show up consistently tend to build more. Build sessions in Weeks 4 and 5 are open makerspace time.

3D printing and laser cutting through the MCIC Makerspace, plus the usual hand tools and soldering equipment during build sessions.

Teams can only win one prize, with the exception of People's Choice, which can be won alongside another award.

Your build needs to be finished for the closing presentations on Friday of Week 6, 23 October.

Not at all. A good share of every cohort is in exactly that position. The workshops run from first principles, and mentors are on hand at every build session.