Nepal Hackathon · Kickoff Sunday 30 August, 09:00 NPT
On 26 August 2026 a catastrophic flash flood tore through Rasuwa and the Bhote Koshi–Trishuli river system, devastating communities and critical infrastructure. Nepal’s responders and experts are already at work. Nepal Hackathon helps people, expertise, technology, data, compute and funding organise around what those teams say is useful — in real time and asynchronously, for the emergency now and the work that comes after.
Registration open
Kickoff ran Sunday 30 August, 09:00 NPT
Registering now puts you on the list for the next programme.
What is being builtLatest coverage
Read more coveragePublishers’ own words and figures, not ours, and unverified by us.
What this is
Nepal’s responders and experts are already at work. Nepal Hackathon helps them draw on engineers, scientists, mappers, satellite data, AI, cloud infrastructure, funding and other resources from around the world — for the emergency now and the work that comes after.
Satellite scenes waiting to be turned into damage maps. Gauge readings, weather records and melt signals sitting in separate systems. Drone footage arriving faster than anyone can process it.
Hydrologists, mappers, engineers, translators and software people — in Nepal and outside it — rarely end up working on the same thing. Each event puts them there, and keeps a record of who works on what.
Compute, satellite tasking, connectivity and funding are far easier to unlock together than one team at a time. Doing that collectively is a large part of what a platform is for.
Known data sources, known contacts, known gaps, and people who have already worked together. That is what makes the second event faster than the first.
Teams in Nepal explain what is happening, what is already under way and where additional help would actually be useful. New contributors organise around those needs.
Engineers, scientists, mappers and software teams work alongside access to compute, satellite imagery, connectivity, equipment and funding.
Teams work in real time and asynchronously. Some focus on urgent needs; others build for the future on warning systems, risk mapping, recovery and longer-term resilience.
How it works
Four steps, and the last one is the point. Most of what gets built at a hackathon dies on Monday. Here it does not, because somebody is already waiting to use it.
Responders, researchers, engineers, drone operators and institutions in Nepal explain what is happening, what already exists, where the gaps are and what additional help would actually be useful.
Tell us what you know and how much time you have. We match engineers, scientists, mappers, designers and other contributors to problems where their skills can be useful — before the work begins.
Teams use the event to move quickly together, then keep going across countries and time zones. They might map, analyse data, process imagery, build tools, find resources or work through longer-term technical problems.
If the work is valuable, it does not stop when the event ends. Nepal-side teams and contributors can keep it moving, with additional funding, compute, technology and expertise brought in as needed.
Ground rules
They apply to every event, and to anything built at one.
Work is scoped by the people already doing it. If you arrive with a solution looking for a problem, we will point you at the list instead.
Anything we publish names where it came from, when, and how confident we are. Work that cannot say what it is based on does not go out under our name.
We do not publish hazard ratings or evacuation guidance for particular settlements. A wrong number next to a village name moves people, and that call belongs to the authorities who are accountable for it.
A prototype nobody in Nepal can run is a weekend spent on yourself. Find the owner early and build something they can actually keep.
No missing-person lists, no casualty records, nothing that names or locates someone affected. This holds for prototypes as firmly as it holds for the site.
Take part
Two minutes. It goes to the Nepal-side Problem Leads so they can match you to a team before the kickoff — and it puts you on the list for whatever we run next.
Who is joining
Live from the registration list. Names show only for people who asked to be listed, so expect fewer faces than the count beside them.
Nischal Kafle
Climate science · AI and engineering · Product and design
Product and design · Communications · Fundraising · Field operations in Nepal
Data and GIS · Drones and remote sensing · Translation (Nepali or other languages of Nepal)
AI and engineering · Product and design
Data and GIS · AI and engineering · Product and design · Cloud and compute
Data and GIS · AI and engineering · Product and design
Ganga Adhikari
AI and engineering
Jerry
Data and GIS · AI and engineering · Communications
Data and GIS · Drones and remote sensing
Data and GIS · Product and design · Communications · Fundraising · Private-sector partnerships
Data and GIS · Climate science · Drones and remote sensing
MIN BAHADUR KARKI
Data and GIS · Product and design · Communications · Field operations in Nepal
Data and GIS · Drones and remote sensing
Data and GIS · Drones and remote sensing
AI and engineering
Aadesh kumar jha
Climate science · AI and engineering · Cloud and compute · Private-sector partnerships
Data and GIS · AI and engineering · Cloud and compute
AI and engineering
Cloud and compute
Mamata Adhikari Adhikari
Product and design · Communications · Fundraising
AI and engineering
Pratyush Neupane
Data and GIS · AI and engineering · Translation (Nepali or other languages of Nepal)
Mizanur Rahman
Data and GIS · Drones and remote sensing
AI and engineering · Cloud and compute
Pradip
Cloud and compute
Sardul Bhattarai
Field operations in Nepal
Sahas shah
AI and engineering · Product and design · Translation (Nepali or other languages of Nepal)
Marina kc
Communications
Divyansh Giri
AI and engineering
Communications · Field operations in Nepal
AI and engineering
Shrija Shrestha
Data and GIS · Field operations in Nepal
Ayush Dhungel
Data and GIS
Rakesh Mahato
Field operations in Nepal
Data and GIS · Climate science · Drones and remote sensing
Data and GIS · AI and engineering
Ashim Poudel
Product and design · Fundraising
Basanta Raj Adhikari
Data and GIS · Climate science · Drones and remote sensing
Product and design · Drones and remote sensing
AI and engineering
Sachin Udas
AI and engineering · Economics · Communications
AI and engineering
Anup Khanal
Data and GIS · AI and engineering · Communications · Translation (Nepali or other languages of Nepal)
AI and engineering · Communications · Cloud and compute
Communications
Kristi Panta
Data and GIS · Product and design · Communications
Prabal
Product and design · Communications
AI and engineering · Cloud and compute
No photographs: a LinkedIn profile picture cannot be fetched from a pasted URL, only through a sign-in each person completes themselves. Initials are the honest stand-in.
Writing
What was built, what worked and what did not — written down by the people doing the work.
Flood Response Tech Projects30 August 20267 min read
A wave of homegrown technology is already responding to the Rasuwa–Bhote Koshi flood rescue portals, drone teams, satellite mapping, and missing-person registries built by Nepali institutions, companies, and volunteers within hours. Here's what's already been built, who's building it, and where more technical capacity can help.
Explainer29 August 20266 min read
A Nepal-led platform pairing local flood responders with engineers, satellite data, compute and funding from anywhere. What it is, how an event runs, and how to join the 30 August kickoff.
Explainer29 August 20264 min read
Nepal needs builders, not just donors. Seven problems worth building, three days, one registration link: nepalhackathon.org/register.
