about this event
Build physical AI applications with real robot arms.
About the Event: Viam and MongoDB are excited to host a two-day, hands-on hackathon for curious, ambitious builders who want to go deep on physical AI. You'll get a real robot arm and support from Viam experts throughout. No prior robotics experience is required, just an interest in physical AI and some software experience. Space is limited! Apply through this page. Applicants will be accepted on a rolling basis.
What You'll Build: Working in a team of 2-3, you'll build an end-to-end robotics application using Viam and a real robot arm. Each team will have access to: UFactory xArm or Universal Robots arm with a two-finger gripper attachment (feel free to also bring your own SO-101), a Linux compute machine, a RealSense D435 or Orbbec Astra 2 camera (fixed to arm), webcams, a free Viam account, and a MongoDB Atlas cluster for storing and querying your robot's data: sensor readings, grasp attempts, run logs and embeddings. We'll provide a variety of objects for your robot to manipulate. You are encouraged to bring anything required for the project you have in mind. Please bring your own laptop. In your application, please summarize what project you have in mind. Ideas from past events: training a VLA, playing chess, mixing a cocktail, quality inspection, drawing a picture, puzzle insertion, manipulating a robot arm using computer vision and hand gestures.
Build with MongoDB Atlas: Robots produce a lot of data, and the best teams use it. Every team gets MongoDB Atlas to give their robot a memory. Some ideas: Log every attempt (poses, gripper force, camera metadata, success or failure) and query it to tune your approach between runs. Use Atlas Vector Search to match what the camera sees against known objects, which helps with the recycling sort or open-track ideas. Store task plans, scene descriptions or past outcomes so an LLM-driven robot can retrieve context before it acts. Build a live dashboard of your benchmark runs. Using Atlas isn't required, but strong, creative uses of it will stand out to the judges.
Prizes: We'll award prizes to a total of three teams. Each member of a winning team will take home SO-101 pre-assembled robot kits, including: a leader arm, a follower arm, and a camera + Viam credits. Gold: SO-101 arm + $5,000 in MongoDB Atlas credits and $5,000 in Viam credits. Silver: SO-101 arm + $2,500 in MongoDB Atlas credits and $2,500 in Viam credits. Bronze: SO-101 arm + $1,000 in MongoDB Atlas credits and $1,000 in Viam credits.
Please bring your own laptop. We recommend taking our free online course Viam 101 (est time: 45-90mins) ahead of time. Even if you only go through the first lessons, it will help you get the hang of things quickly.
Schedule — Thursday, October 29: 9:00 AM Check-in and breakfast; 9:30 AM Kickoff: Welcome & crash course on building with Viam and MongoDB; 10:00 AM Teams and hardware; 10:30 AM Hacking begins; 1:00 PM Lunch; 6:00 PM Dinner; 9:00 PM Hard close: Robots power down, doors close (no overnight hacking). Friday, October 30: 9:00 AM Doors open, breakfast; 9:30 AM Hacking resumes; 12:30 PM Lunch; 3:30 PM Demos and drinks; 5:00 PM Awards; 6:00 PM Event concludes.
What Skills You Need: No robotics experience required, but you should be comfortable with: Coding — Python, Go, TypeScript/JavaScript, or C++; Linux — using SSH and running basic terminal commands; JSON — reading and editing configuration files; Git — basic workflows so your team can build together. Bonus: knowing how to plug in a pre-trained vision model (like YOLO or OpenCV) to help the robot see and identify objects (not required). Bonus: some familiarity with MongoDB or document databases (not required, and mentors can help you get started).
Before the Event: We recommend taking our free online course Viam 101 (est time: 45-90mins) ahead of time. Even the first few lessons will help you get the hang of things quickly.
How to Join: Space is limited! Apply through this page. Applicants will be accepted on a rolling basis. We'll select a curated group of ambitious software developers and send official confirmations to accepted participants. Attendees must be approved in advance to participate.
Presented By — Viam: The robotics software platform we'll use to configure, control, and deploy models to your robot. Viam makes it easy to get a robot up and running quickly. MongoDB: The developer data platform for storing, searching and analyzing your robot's data, including vector search for AI-powered retrieval.
tracks
Recycling Sort
Use Atlas Vector Search to match what the camera sees against known objects, and let the robot sort them accordingly.
Open Track
Bring your own project idea — for example training a VLA, playing chess, mixing a cocktail, quality inspection, drawing a picture, puzzle insertion, or manipulating a robot arm using computer vision and hand gestures.
when
Robot Hackathon: Harnessing Physical AI & Data — Day 1
9:00 AM check-in and breakfast; 9:30 AM kickoff with a welcome and crash course on building with Viam and MongoDB; 10:00 AM teams and hardware; 10:30 AM hacking begins; 1:00 PM lunch; 6:00 PM dinner; 9:00 PM hard close — robots power down, doors close (no overnight hacking).
◍ Robotics Center of Silicon ValleyRobot Hackathon: Harnessing Physical AI & Data — Day 2
9:00 AM doors open with breakfast; 9:30 AM hacking resumes; 12:30 PM lunch; 3:30 PM demos and drinks; 5:00 PM awards; 6:00 PM event concludes.
◍ Robotics Center of Silicon Valleytickets
| tickets | price | Fee | Status | description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| General Admission | Free | None | Available | Free to attend, but space is limited. Apply through the event page; applicants are accepted on a rolling basis and attendee approval in advance is required. |
prizes
| # | PRIZE | price |
|---|---|---|
| Gold | SO-101 pre-assembled robot kit (leader arm, follower arm, camera) + MongoDB Atlas credits and Viam credits | $10,000 in credits ($5,000 MongoDB Atlas + $5,000 Viam) |
| Silver | SO-101 pre-assembled robot kit (leader arm, follower arm, camera) + MongoDB Atlas credits and Viam credits | $5,000 in credits ($2,500 MongoDB Atlas + $2,500 Viam) |
| Bronze | SO-101 pre-assembled robot kit (leader arm, follower arm, camera) + MongoDB Atlas credits and Viam credits | $2,000 in credits ($1,000 MongoDB Atlas + $1,000 Viam) |