Columbia x NYU Claude Builder Club Hackathon

One Sunday. 200 builders. Ship something real with Claude.

Co-hosted the Claude Builder Hackathon at Columbia Business School’s David Geffen Hall — a one-day sprint bringing together students from Columbia, NYU, and across NYC to build real products with Claude, the Claude Agent SDK, and Claude Code. 283 registered, rooms packed, and final demos ran on the main stage.

Role

Co-organizer alongside Ian Fong, Sophie Zhang, YiLin Choi, and Justin Kim — running logistics, kickoff, judging criteria, and finalist demos. Hosted by the Columbia Claude Builder Club, NYU Claude Builder Club, and the CBS AI Club.

What Happened

• 200+ builders from Columbia, NYU, and across NYC — technical and non-technical, undergrad and grad
• $3,000 in Anthropic credits + cash prizes across the Grand Prize and sponsor challenges
• $25 Claude API credits for eligible Columbia / NYU students, plus Claude merch and rolling mentorship
• Live office hours with Anthropic, Linkup, and Claude Ambassadors throughout the day
• Finalist demos in room 590, judged by big-tech technologists and founders

Tracks & Challenges

• Grand Prize — Best overall build with Claude
• Linkup Challenge — Best use of the Linkup search API

All winning teams received Anthropic API credits to keep building after the hackathon.

Judging Criteria

1. Problem Significance — well-defined and highly impactful problem
2. Creativity & Feasibility — original approach, technically functional and sound
3. Long-term Potential — solutions that scale and continue beyond the hackathon
4. AI Integration — how deeply and effectively Claude is integrated into the core system

Schedule

Sponsors & Partners

Anthropic | Affiniti | Eniac Ventures | Linkup | BizCrush

Context

This capped a semester of programming that started with the Claude Builder Club Spring 2026 Kick Off in February — taking the club from a 200-person workshop to a full-scale inter-university hackathon in under two months, and extending Columbia’s builder community into a cross-NYC network with NYU.