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LaunchHacks: Indian American teens run the largest US high school hackathon
LaunchHacks, currently in its fifth year, attracted over 1,550 participants this summer, an over tenfold increase since its founding in 2020.
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Staff Reporter - Wed, 13, Aug 2025
- 23:17 EDT
- 41
The LaunchHacks team. / Courtesy Photo
One of the largest high school hackathons in the US is organized by two San Francisco Bay Area-based Indian American highschoolers. In its fifth year, LaunchHacks attracted over 1,550 participants this summer, an over tenfold increase since its founding in 2020. Organizers Shreyans Jain and Rishaan Desai, rising 11th graders, have managed to solicit an impressive value of $140,000 in prizes over the years, sponsored by high tech companies including Google, Desmos, NordVPN, etc.
“LaunchHacks blew our minds about how large it has become. Looking around for hackathons specifically for highschoolers on Devpost and online, I am yet to find any with more than 400 high school participants,” says Rishaan Desai, President of LaunchHacks.
LaunchHacks is fiscally backed by the non-profit, Hack Club a 501(c). Hosted on Devpost, the platform that ‘powers most of the world’s software competitions (hackathons)’, young developers compete in this virtual hackathon that opens for 48-72 hours every summer, from all over the world. Shreyans Jain, the Director of LaunchHacks says, “We have had participants from over 40 countries including the US, Canada, Netherlands, Israel, France, Turkey, India, UK, Russia, Mexico, Denmark, etc.”
It is not only the passion and talent of competitors but also the expertise of the judges and mentors that has raised the profile of LaunchHacks. The young leaders are proud of the quality of judges they have consistently attracted. Highly accomplished executives at prominent tech firms, the judges go through participating projects to mentor competitors and choose winners. Launchhacks chose 20 judges from the 350 applications it received from industry professionals this year. “Our judges hold senior roles like Directors and VPs at top 500 companies like Apple, NVIDIA, Google, Microsoft, AMD, NASA, and more,” shares Shreyans Jain, a student at Crystal Springs Uplands School.
The work includes hours of communication within the team, with judges and participants and setting up processes which allow adhering to strict rules of the hackathon. The team assesses developers to ensure that only high schoolers participate as the attractive prizes tend to also entice college students.
LaunchHacks website / Courtesy PhotoThe meaningful themes and technical prowess of many of the winning entries make up for the rigor involved. A student at Basis Independent Silicon Valley school, Rishaan Desai shares, “One participating entry that has impressed me is LaunchHacks IV’s 3rd place winner, MeravaLens. The project uses a custom-built AI model to create actionable insights that can help activists and policymakers improve the environment. This was especially impressive because the team of just 3 high schoolers from Bulgaria were able to build such a sophisticated platform in the span of one weekend.” Shreyans Jain says, “A project that is impactful and one of our winners this year is Eduverse VR, which uses generative AI technology to create STEM lessons in the VR world.”
Even though Devpost does not keep data beyond their platform to compare sizes of events, LaunchHacks has ‘organically grown to be the largest high school hackathon in the US’. With a mission to inspire creativity and innovation through technology, the young organizers plan to use social media and marketing to expand LaunchHacks to 2,500-3,000 participants by next summer.
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