What Happens at Arbor Foundry
People often ask us what happens at Arbor Foundry. Here is an overview of what happens during the hackfest and the benefits you get as an Arbor builder.
The Arbor Foundry
Arbor is a 48-hour development sprint. We run it to compress months of growth into weeks. Here's what happens during the two days of the Foundry:
The Goal
The overall goal of Arbor Foundry is to help student projects really take off. They arrive at the Foundry at all different stages. Some haven't even started working yet, and others have been launched for a year or more. But whatever stage a project is at when they arrive, our goal is to help them be in dramatically better shape 48 hours later.
Advice
During the hackfest, we host advice sessions with successful founders who built apps that succeeded. They share battle-tested wisdom, the reality of finding product-market fit, and what it takes to launch.
Building with AI
Learn how to build using advanced AI assistance. Discover how to leverage LLMs, prompt engineering, code generation, and rapid prototyping tools to turn weeks of manual coding into hours of strategic building.
Continuous Development
The core of the Foundry is deep, uninterrupted development. Teams work side-by-side, coding their systems, refining their interfaces, and preparing to demo a fully working project.
Event Schedule
Day 1 – 24th July 2026
Day 2 – 25th July 2026
Judging Criteria
Evaluation Parameters
Innovation & Creativity (25 Marks)
Originality of idea; novel approach to solving the problem.
Technical Implementation (25 Marks)
Complexity and quality of development; effective use of technology.
Practical Impact (20 Marks)
Real-world applicability; potential usefulness and scalability.
User Experience & Design (15 Marks)
Ease of use; design quality and accessibility.
Presentation & Demonstration (15 Marks)
Communication skills; clarity of explanation; demonstration effectiveness.