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Meet the winners of the Meta Global AI Developer Hackathon

Meta Global AI Developer Hackathon winners across the Indie track, Startup track and bonus awards.
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Meet the Meta Global AI Developer Hackathon winners, watch their demos, and explore the code behind projects built with Muse developer tools and models.
By Maya PerryNov 11, 2026 — 11 min read
TAGSMeta Global AI Developer Hackathon, Muse models, Meta Model API, Muse Code

From turning a webcam into a musical instrument to helping construction inspectors document what needs fixing, the winners of the Meta Global AI Developer Hackathon brought AI into problems builders know firsthand.

Held virtually from October 26 to November 4, 2026, the Meta Global AI Developer Hackathon brought developers together to tackle problems from their own fields and test ideas at the edge of what AI can do. More than 34,000 developers applied, with only 20,000 approved to participate.

Participants had ten days to build, test and iterate with Muse developer tools and models. Every project incorporated Meta's models. Builders used the Muse Spark series, Muse Wonder, Muse Image, Muse Voice Transcribe, and Segment Anything Model 3.1 through Meta Model API, ran Meta's open-weight models Muse Glimmer and Muse Spark Open, and the Muse Code coding agent. That build window gave teams time to test their ideas, work through failures and refine their demos beyond a first prototype.

Two themes guided the work:

Build for your world: Bring Meta's models into your domain. Solve a problem you know firsthand, free up time and mental space, and make something possible that wasn't before.

Push the frontier: Use Meta's models to tackle challenges in software, robotics, manufacturing, energy, materials and beyond. Give a machine a new capability, accelerate a scientific experiment, or unlock a better way to understand and control a physical system. Show us what becomes possible when these models meet the real world.

The winners emerged from a field of more than 5,300 impressive project submissions across the Indie track and Startup track, with bonus awards recognizing standout work.

What makes these projects worth exploring is how they were built. Some pair AI reasoning with code that checks every proposed action. Others adapt open weights to specialized tasks or keep the finished experience running locally. Below, meet the winning builders, watch their demos, and explore the code behind their projects.

Meta Global AI Developer Hackathon winners across the Indie track, Startup track and bonus awards.

Indie track

1st place: ControlAnything

Built by Bektour

ControlAnything turns objects around you into interfaces you can control with your hands. In a Meta Quest 3 passthrough app, a user selects an object and describes what a gesture should do. An agent on their laptop then writes a device connector, deploys it, tests it and repairs failures before returning augmented-reality controls or a hand-motion program. The demo includes controlling an OP-1 Field synthesizer over USB-MIDI, a DJI gimbal over Bluetooth and Instagram Reels with hand swipes. SAM 3.1 through Meta Model API identifies the objects, while Muse Spark 1.3 handles the coding and tool-use loop. Muse Voice Transcribe captures spoken requests, and Muse Image creates stickers for a virtual pet. Muse Code can run the agent loop through an optional MCP connection and powers the connector workshop.

Watch the demo | Explore the GitHub repository

2nd place: Gatekeeper

Built by Linus Baumberger

Gatekeeper tackles a risk shared by developers and coding agents: installing a malicious software package. Its npm security toolkit monitors new releases, investigates suspicious packages without executing them, and adds an installation guard that can block known malware on a developer's machine.

Its analysis is designed to be inspectable. Model verdicts must cite the code they rely on, and software checks validate the investigator's claims. Muse Spark Open reviews flagged packages, Muse Spark 1.3 through Meta Model API supplies a second opinion and powers the investigator, and a fine-tuned Llama Guard 3 filters packages. The demo also shows the guard protecting Muse Code while it installs dependencies, extending package-safety checks to an AI-assisted workflow.

Watch the demo | Explore the GitHub repository

3rd place: David Barry, BasementReady

Built by David Barry

BasementReady starts with a familiar homeowner question: could this basement become a second living unit? A phone walkthrough becomes a measured 3D scan, proposed layouts, and a guide to potential changes, with draft permit materials for a conversion in Ontario. The tool screens the space; the city still decides whether a project can be approved. SAM 3.1 through Meta Model API tracks features such as windows, stairs, ducts and beams. Meta's open weights models MapAnything and DINOv2 help reconstruct the space without LiDAR. Muse Wonder interprets the walkthrough, and Muse Spark explains the results of code-based building checks and answers questions. Muse Voice Transcribe captures the homeowner's voice notes, while Muse Image produces clearly labeled, virtually staged views of the proposed finish. The result connects a video of the actual space to plans a homeowner can review.

Watch the demo | Explore the GitHub repository

4th place: Aurora, Nemesis

Built by Divyansh Agrawal

Nemesis lets robotics developers test how a robot behaves when conditions get difficult. Describe a slippery surface, add an unexpected push, or upload a photo of a real environment, and the platform recreates those conditions in a physics simulation. Developers can then retrain the robot on the failures they find. Muse Wonder translates descriptions into validated simulation instructions and runs an Autopilot mode that searches for weaknesses. Muse Spark 1.3 reviews footage of falls and compares behavior before and after retraining. SAM 3.1 identifies elements such as steps and ramps in uploaded photos, and Muse Voice Transcribe enables spoken requests. A self-hosted Muse Glimmer option replaces the reasoning models with open weights. Before deployment, retrained policies must pass checks on both the targeted failure and normal movement.

Watch the demo | Explore the GitHub repository

5th place: Video2URDF

Built by Joshua KIM

Video2URDF turns a short video of a moving object into a simulation model a robot can use. Rather than asking a developer to guess a drawer's travel or a laptop lid's hinge, it measures the object's parts and motion, then exports the geometry and joints in robotics formats. A Muse Spark agent through Meta Model API identifies the parts and calls tools to fit their motion. SAM 3.1 segments and tracks those parts through the video. The generated model is replayed over the original footage so the agent can revisit a poor fit instead of simply declaring the job finished. The project also supports Muse Spark Open and Muse Glimmer as alternative agents, with open-weight segmentation options. Additional paths use SAM 3D Objects for meshes and MapAnything for experimental depth estimation from ordinary video.

Watch the demo | Explore the GitHub repository

Startup track

1st place: Consai, Punchwalk

Built by Luciano Bogomolni

Construction projects often end with a walkthrough and a long list of defects to fix. Punchwalk turns that inspection into a documented punch list. An inspector films with Ray-Ban Meta glasses or a phone, explains what's wrong, and points to the issue. Each item includes a photo, the relevant moment in the video, the inspector's words, and a proposed fix with the responsible trade.

Muse Voice Transcribe creates timestamped transcripts, while SAM 3.1, supplied with clips through the Meta files API, follows pointing gestures and outlines defects. Muse Spark Open writes and verifies the entries against their photos. On a return visit, it compares new footage with the original evidence to review claimed fixes. Items without enough visual support wait for human review. The submitted demo processes uploaded footage; direct live capture through the Wearables Device Access Toolkit is a future step.

Watch the demo | Explore the GitHub repository

Consai announced as first-place winner of the Startup track.

2nd place: Formwright

Built by Roman Fomin

Formwright helps people design small devices that do not already exist on a store shelf. A request for a leak alarm or plant sensor becomes a schematic, circuit board, enclosure, and firmware, with a route to production through Axo, the builder's existing 3D-printing business.

Muse Spark 1.3 selects components, creates the device design, inspects renders and writes firmware. Muse Spark Open acts as an independent critic, while SAM 3.1 supports measurements and visual checks. Muse Wonder assists with difficult designs, with Muse Image, Muse Voice Transcribe and Muse Spark 1.2 contributing additional capabilities. Code-based checks cover the board, enclosure, and firmware. In the demo, those checks catch incorrect components and wiring, then send the problems back to the agent to fix.

Watch the demo | Explore the GitHub repository

3rd place: ORCA by IssueLab

Built by Dodzi Agbenorku

When independently designed building or machine components occupy the same space, someone has to resolve the clash. ORCA goes beyond listing those conflicts. It proposes changes to the actual 3D model, tests them with geometry checks, and presents verified options for a person to approve.

Muse Spark through Meta Model API examines rendered views and model measurements, then proposes edits. Muse Spark Open handles bulk triage, while Muse Wonder takes a longer second attempt when the initial search finds no verified fix. Muse Image visualizes a checked design option, and Muse Voice Transcribe enables spoken requests. Muse Code can connect through ORCA's MCP server to run workflows using the same checks. The user reviews the before-and-after model, and the server checks the change again before applying it.

Watch the demo | Explore the GitHub repository

4th place: Voluma Bio, Voluma

Built by Jimmy Yao and Andrew Tang

Voluma helps scientists turn micro-CT scans into traceable 3D measurements. Agents segment bones, identify regions and landmarks, perform measurements, and validate their work. Researchers can inspect the scan in slices or 3D and request corrections, with a record of the files and regions behind each result. It is a research tool, not a medical device. Muse Wonder through Meta Model API coordinates the work and runs specialist agents that write and execute Python. Those agents choose slices, boxes, and points for SAM 3.1, using its tracking across scan slices to label a volume. The team fine-tuned the open weights of Meta Segment Anything Model 3.1 to identify a growth-plate structure the base model did not detect in their scans. Muse Spark supported development tests and a comparison baseline. The project shows how agent workflows and specialized open weights can work together in a scientific task.

Watch the demo | Explore the GitHub repository

5th place: Kroonen AI, Glimmer Scope

Built by Robin Kroonen

Glimmer Scope gives developers a way to inspect and steer concepts represented inside Muse Glimmer. Robin trained sparse autoencoders, tools that separate model activity into interpretable features, across nine layers of the open-weight model. The result is a browsable atlas and a demo where selected features become controls for changing how Muse Glimmer responds. Muse Spark 1.3 through Meta Model API labels features from examples of where they activate and evaluates whether steering changes the subject of a response while preserving readable language. Muse Glimmer itself is the subject of the analysis and runs the interactive demo. Turning up a character feature, such as a pirate captain, changes the response without adding a system prompt or fine-tuning the model. The project also exports steering directions for use with a quantized Muse Glimmer model.

Watch the demo | Explore the GitHub repository

Bonus award winners

Most viral project: Adrian, Playtest Agent

Built by Adrian Ferguson

Playtest Agent addresses a problem familiar to solo game developers: a build can reach players before anyone has thoroughly tested it. The agent plays from screenshots, chooses keyboard, mouse, or touch actions, and reports behavior that appears wrong. It then replays the same inputs on fresh copies of the game to check whether the issue repeats. Muse Wonder through Meta Model API is the player, while Muse Spark reviews repeatable reports using replay images and game-state evidence. Reports need supporting evidence, not just a yes from the judge. A local mode running on Muse Glimmer offers an open-weight alternative for the player and reviewer. The demo spans a purpose-built test game, chess, and other games. The builder also documents misses and false reports, recognizing that replay and an AI judge are useful checks rather than proof on their own.

Watch the demo | Explore the GitHub repository

Best build on open weights: Tessa

Built by Rushikesh Barve

Tessa searches public NASA TESS data for signals that could indicate planets around nearby red stars. Repeating dips in a star's brightness can have many explanations, so the project combines measurement tools with an agent that investigates the evidence and records its reasoning in a case file.

A fine-tuned, self-hosted Muse Glimmer is the core investigator. Its training examples came from Muse Spark Open investigations of historical signals with known outcomes, filtered to retain correct conclusions without invented numbers. Muse Spark 1.3 writes plain-language notes and powers Ask Tessa, while Muse Wonder supplies a second opinion on candidates. The project publishes predictions for future transits so observations can test them. Its results remain planet candidates, not confirmed discoveries; telescope follow-up is still required.

Watch the demo | Explore the GitHub repository

Best agentic use-case: oqed

Built by Ignacio Searles

oqed looks for faster machine code in the parts of a C or C++ program that consume the most runtime. It builds and profiles a project, asks models to propose replacement assembly, and keeps only candidates that pass correctness tests and outperform compiler baselines. Muse Spark through Meta Model API generates candidate variants using the source, compiler output, bottleneck reports, and the history of previous attempts. Muse Wonder takes on stalled searches with deeper analysis, and Muse Spark Open is supported as an alternative generation tier. Assembler errors, crashes, and counterexamples feed back into the next attempt. Small functions can also receive a symbolic proof of equivalence. On subsequent builds, oqed rechecks replacements against the current source and falls back to compiler output when necessary.

Watch the demo | Explore the GitHub repository

Best creative build: Team Synthexis

Built by Noa Katana

Synthexis turns a webcam into a controller for music plugins in FL Studio. A producer can describe a mapping in English or German, such as opening a filter when they open their hand, then perform it with hand, finger, head or facial movements. FL Studio records the result as automation in the track.

SAM 3.1 supplied segmentation masks for training compact vision models, and SAM 3D Body added difficult hand poses. Muse Spark Open labeled plugin controls and generated training sentences for a small language parser. Those teacher models helped create the lightweight models shipped inside the plugin, rather than requiring a cloud model to watch every performance. The finished experience runs locally on a Mac, keeping camera images on the user's machine and making familiar music software playable in a different way.

Watch the demo | Explore the GitHub repository

Keep building

Congratulations to every winning builder, and thank you to everyone who submitted a project.

The hackathon may be over, but you can keep developing your project or try something new with Meta developer tools and Muse models, including Meta Model API and Muse Code.

Looking for inspiration?

Explore the hackathon project gallery to see what other developers built, and make sure to cast your community vote there, too.