TechTO x Althra Hackathon: Vancouver

Build AI that remembers. 10 hours. From 9 am to 7 pm. Most AI hackathons hand you an API key and good luck. Ours hands you a memory layer that's #1 on the LoCoMo benchmark. Every hacker gets full access to Backboard.io - an AI API built for hackathon teams who want production-grade memory, state, and tooling without building infrastructure from scratch. What that gets you: One stateful API to 17,000+ LLMs - no key juggling, no rate limits to babysitLong-term memory at 90%+ on benchmarks - your demo will actually rememberRAG, web search, and custom tools all built inLLM routing and memory orchestration handled for you The theme: Build AI that remembers. On the day we celebrate mothers who remember everything for us - birthdays, allergies, fears, what you said you wanted three months ago - you build something that does the same. For your mom, for someone else, for yourself, for the world. A journaling AI. A personal assistant. A relationship coach. A family archive. A workplace agent that actually learns you. A coordinator for the mental load nobody sees. Whatever you want - as long as it remembers. The bar isn't memory as a feature. It's: what if your AI knew you the way someone who loves you does? Who this is for: high schoolers, university students, first-time shippers, and tech operators who want to build something stateful. All skill levels. If you've never shipped before, now is the time. Come solo or with a team - just bring your passion and curiosity! You leave with: A working AI app with persistent memoryDirect feedback from judges who've shipped real productsA project you can continue building on MondayA small group of builders you'll actually remember and can stay connected withAmazing cash prize up to $1,000 CAD and in-kind perks! Agenda 9:00am: Doors open, check in and breakfast 9:45am: Welcome and walkthrough + theme briefing 10:00am - 5:00pm: Hackathon time! Lunch will be provided at 12:00pm 5:00pm - 5:30pm: Judges calibration and voting + Pizza time (Your Moms are welcome to join!) 5:30pm - 6:30pm: Top 3 teams demo to the judge panel 6:30pm - 7:00pm: Awards & Celebration Thank You To Our Sponsor Backboard.ioKlue Judges Paul Chuang Li is a two-time AI founder. A Waterloo CS grad, he's currently CEO and Co-Founder of OpenBuilder (YC F25), an AI app builder for internal tools. Before that, he co-founded EasyCode, one of the earliest AI coding assistants, which scaled to 1.5M installs and answered 15M coding questions. Aaron Cullen is a YC backed AI founder. A Yale graduate, he is currently the CEO and Co-founder of Mendelia (YC P26), a care access platform for surgical practices. Before Mendelia, he joined Brellium as a founding employee and scaled their GTM function across multiple healthcare specialties. Raj is co-founder and CTO of Infinite (YC W25), a San Francisco fintech building AI native global payments infrastructure for businesses. Infinite ships stablecoin rails, virtual accounts, and agentic compliance tooling. A Waterloo grad and fellow Canadian, Raj is always looking to give back to the community.