BR41N.IO Designers' Hackathon
BR41N.IO Designers’ Hackathon is a brainstorming and collaborative marathon designed to be a learning experience for developers, technologists, engineers, students, artists, and scientists who cram and build brain-computer interface (BCI) applications together in teams.
Who can participate?
Anyone can participate who has interests in BMI, BCI, robotics, AR, VR, machine learning, computing, sensors, human-machine interface systems, control, signal processing, big data, haptics, rehabilitation, and similar areas. Even better: it is for FREE. Participants do not have to be a BMI expert to participate on a team! Interdisciplinary teams with a combination of BMI and non-BMI skills are often successful in building solutions and producing working prototypes.
What’s in there for me?
Be creative, think outside the box. The BR41N.IO Designers’ Hackathon is fun and gets you to network and collaborate with other Geeks. The best projects will be awarded cash prizes (in USD):
BCI GAMING PROJECT:
- 1st BR41N.IO Prize: $ 600
- 2nd BR41N.IO Prize: $ 400
- 3rd BR41N.IO Prize: $ 200
BCI DATA ANALYSIS:
- 1st BR41N.IO Prize: $ 600
- 2nd BR41N.IO Prize: $ 400
- 3rd BR41N.IO Prize: $ 200
BCI PROGRAMMING & ARTS:
- 1st BR41N.IO Prize: $ 600
- 2nd BR41N.IO Prize: $ 400
- 3rd BR41N.IO Prize: $ 200
Annual BCI Award Ceremony
The International BCI Award, endowed with a total prize of USD $6000, is one of the top accolades in BCI research. The winner gets 3000 USD, the 2nd place 2000 USD and the 3rd place 1000 USD and a Gert Pfurtscheller bread knife. The BCI Award was created to recognize outstanding and innovative research in the field of Brain-Computer Interfaces.
Twelve projects are usually nominated before the winner is announced at the BCI Award Ceremony. Make sure to submit your BCI project to the BCI Award 2026. You just need a 2-page description of your work and a short video showing your BCI research and projects. Submission deadline is as a rule 1st of September (2026).
The BCI Awards Ceremony will be broadcast at the BMI Workshop on October 6th 2026 and will be accessible online.
BMI PhD Forum
Are you a PhD student interested in showcasing your ongoing doctoral research to BMI/neurotech experts to obtain invaluable feedback and advice? If you answered yes, then the BMI Workshop PhD Forum is the place for you! The Forum is open exclusively to currently enrolled PhD students working on a wide spectrum of topics covering BMIs, neurotechnology, and neuroscience in general.
To have your presentation considered for the Forum, you will need to submit a 1-page abstract (+ 1 page with only references, totalling 2 pages (page size: US Letter or A4), please use this template) describing your research project, current progress, and future work. **Abstracts will not appear on IEEEXplore.**
Please submit your abstract PDF to [email protected] by August 21, 2026. Decisions will be announced by September 1st. For any questions, please address PhD Forum Chair Prof. Dr. Xiang Zhang (please include [BMI PhD Forum] in your email subject).
The PhD Forum is open to all paid registrants of the BMI Workshop / SMC 2026 conference.
Further BMI Special Events
.. will be announced here soon. Stay tuned for the official release, as we will provide all the necessary information to help you prepare for an engaging and informative experience. Thank you for your patience, and we can’t wait to share the program with you!