Despite most XR industry hotspots being located on the West Coast, the MIT Reality Hack has carved out its own niche as a vital gathering place for XR enthusiasts and innovators on the East Coast. Now marking its eighth year, this event has broadened its horizons with new networking and industry dialogue opportunities thanks to the EXPERIENTIAL Conference held simultaneously. Maria Rice, the Executive Director, sheds light on this year’s hackathon and its notable winners.
As penned by Maria Rice, who has been instrumental for eight years in leveraging MIT Reality Hack’s position as a leader in experiential tech, the hackathon and accompanying experiences are the crowning jewels of the field’s innovative endeavors. Hacking for upliftment, pivotal initiatives like the EXPERIENTIAL Innovation Conference, the Reality Scholars diversity program, and the Reality Hack Founders Lab were introduced under her watchful eye.
From January 23rd to the 27th, the MIT campus became a buzzing hub, hosting top-tier hackers, legacy tech figures, and startup trailblazers for what has become the quintessential hackathon in experiential technology. Sponsored by global players in XR, AI, and deep tech, the hackathon offered participants the tech arsenal to craft their prototypes, ranging from Meta Quest 3 to neurosensing equipment from OpenBCI.
This year, the buzz-worthy introduction of new hardware kits was impossible to miss. Maradin’s MEMS-based AR lenses, Haptikos’ haptic exoskeleton, and the Galea biosensing headset were among the tech marvels that empowered participants to push the boundaries of possibility.
Renowned for its dynamic spirit and mission-driven ethos, the MIT Reality Hack challenged 600 participants over five days to stretch their creative muscles, culminating in 78 pioneering XR and adjacent tech projects. Among the prize-winning creations were YEIGO, which assists mobility aid users in maintaining proper posture, CAREGIVR for immersive end-of-life care training, and Tac-Man, a VR sculpting haptic device.
The full list of 2025’s esteemed winners across various categories attests to the event’s high caliber innovations.
Coinciding with the hackathon was the EXPERIENTIAL Conference, an ambitious addition that aims to further the industry’s collaborative conversations. This inaugural event, ambitiously dubbed a ‘Davos of spatial tech,’ featured an array of deep-tech research and provocative debates framed around learning innovation and economic applications.
Backed by heavy-hitters like IEEE Spectrum and Qualcomm, EXPERIENTIAL sought to bridge the gap between groundbreaking ideas and market-readiness. Launching their brainchildren were startups like Limit Labs, introducing the genAI marvel RoomSeed, and Haptikos, debuting their haptic hand exoskeleton at accessible costs yet doubled precision.
Demos also spotlighted products from prominent names such as MIT spinout Three Space Lab, and AI offerings from AUR+A and Meta Intelligence from Taiwan.
Expanding Reality Hack’s inclusive tech narrative, the conference delved into academic insights and practical business discourses, kicking off with an engrossing discussion featuring industry icons Tim Bajarin and Anshel Sag, mediated by AR pioneer Dan Cui. Insights shared left a profound impact on the audience.
Celebrated by Qualcomm’s Ziad Asghar, who emphasized AI’s emergent role in XR and championed nurturing ideas from forums like MIT Reality Hack, the conference’s keynote set a spirited tone for future endeavors.
A pivotal panel on sustainable future initiatives saw experts from the United Nations, The World Bank, and others explore how experiential technology fosters economic empowerment and inclusivity across global markets. The insights shared underlined the transformative power of these technologies beyond the traditional bounds.
In an enthused statement, Ori Inbar, co-founder of AWE and Reality Hack collaborator, underlined the necessity for diversity in XR development as the key to achieving widespread adoption: “To truly conquer the mainstream, we need a spectrum of seasoned and new XR creators to craft spatial experiences that resonate universally.”
Looking ahead, those interested in the 2026 MIT Reality Hack and EXPERIENTIAL Innovation Conference are encouraged to reach out and be part of this unfolding narrative.
