LingHacks VIII is the eighth iteration of the world's first computational linguistics hackathon for high schoolers. Our goal is to expose students of all backgrounds to the field of natural language processing and inspire students to pursue computer science in their careers. ​LingHacks VIII is an invention competition where you come together with a team and build a software project that integrates computational linguistics and may or may not solve a scientific or social problem. LingHacks is a member of the Obama White House's CSforALL National Consortium and is the inaugural recipient of the AI4ALL Impact Grant.Â
Computational linguistics bridges the gap between simple rule-following computers and complex humans who can comprehend emotion and interpret ambiguity, which gives computers more humanistic abilities. Comp ling techniques also power tools used in biology, fintech, IT, and more. Computational linguistics intrigues people across a broad spectrum of artistic and technical interests.
You'll probably need some sort of laptop to build your project with. That's pretty much it, since LingHacks VIII will be virtual.
Computational linguistics, otherwise known as natural language processing, is the field of artificial intelligence that applies to the synthesis and analysis of language and speech. Things like machine translation technologies, voice assistants, search engines, and chatbots are all powered by computational linguistics tools. It's a fascinating synergy of scientific techniques applied to an elegant humanity that is part and parcel of our core human identities.
A hackathon is an invention competition and educational experience. Check out this video by MLH for an inside look at what happens at a hackathon!
In light of COVID-19 concerns, LingHacks VIII will be completely virtual (and free, as always) and will take place in the spring/summer of 2027. Sign up here to be the first to know when registration opens!
No experience is required! We will have workshops and mentors to help you gain skills in programming, machine learning, and natural language processing. Teams can be between 1 and 3 people, and you don't need to have a team or an idea beforehand. You must be in high school in the 2026-2027 or 2027-2028 school year. You are also subject to the MLH Code of Conduct.
Coming in 2027!
Past LingHacks prize winners have gone on to attend undergraduate institutions like Stanford, Harvard, MIT, Yale, Cambridge, Columbia, Carnegie Mellon, University of Pennsylvania, Georgia Tech, University of Maryland College Park, New York University, Harvey Mudd College, UCLA, and UC Berkeley, to work in technical roles at OpenAI, xAI, ServiceNow, AWS, PayPal, Box, New York Times, Bloomberg, Etsy, AMD, Apple, Microsoft, Coinbase, DRW, Tesla, Stripe, Infosys, Oracle, Cisco, Databricks, Google, Meta, Waymo, HP, Roblox, Capital One, IXL Learning, Aurora, Pfizer, Belvedere Trading, NASA, Sephora, Kaiser Permanente, King, Walmart, and SpaceX, and to found several startups and become Neo Scholar finalists.Â
A huge thank-you goes out to all of our sponsors, partners, mentors, volunteers, and judges for making LingHacks II possible. Check out the photos below for a peek at our second annual hackathon and get excited about LingHacks VIII!
Please reach out at sponsorship@linghacks.tech and check out our sponsorship prospectus below!