• Judges including Chief of Air Force Major-General Kelvin Fan and Chief Defence Scientist Mr Tan Peng Yam selected the winners from over 60 teams; more than S$50,000 in cash prizes were awarded.
• One to three promising teams will be selected for a six-month NUS Defence Venture Lab incubation programme, with cash and in-kind support worth S$100,000.

SINGAPORE, Sept. 28, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Imagine directing unmanned ground vehicles in urban operations without using your hands. That is what NeuroMech is working towards with a brain-computer interface designed to give operators a new way to control unmanned systems. The team topped the two-day main challenge at the Singapore Defense Tech Hackathon (SDTH), finishing first among 39 teams that built working prototypes in 48 hours.

For MAELSTROM, winner of the three-month extended challenge, the ambition was just as bold: a micro-missile system designed to intercept enemy drone swarms, coordinated through a networked command system that keeps multiple units working together in real time. After three months of building, testing and refining its solution, the team finished first among 22 teams.

Both challenges also featured a unique "Lord of the Rings" Prize, which recognises teams that combine their technologies into a larger, integrated capability. The two-day prize went to Acoustics, DomeCommand and AEGIS, while the three-month prize went to SwarmBreakers and Sentinel.

The prizes were presented at the Pitch & Demo Showcase today by Major-General (MG) Kelvin Fan, Chief of Air Force, Republic of Singapore Air Force, and Mr Tan Peng Yam, Chief Defence Scientist, Singapore Ministry of Defence. More than S$50,000 in cash prizes were awarded across two challenge tracks.

Judging panel brings together defence and industry leaders

Teams were assessed by a panel of senior leaders from the Singapore Armed Forces, Singapore's defence science and technology community, and industry:

• MG Kelvin Fan Sui Siong, Chief of Air Force, Republic of Singapore Air Force
• Mr Tan Peng Yam, Chief Defence Scientist, Singapore Ministry of Defence
• Mr Timo Levo, Global Defence Lead, Accenture
• Professor Quek Tong Boon, Former Chief Defence Scientist, Singapore Ministry of Defence, and Former Chief Executive Officer, DSO National Laboratories
• Mr Mui Whye Kee, Group Technology Officer, Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA)
• Colonel (COL) Eugene Lim, Chief Systems Integration Officer, Singapore Army

A prize for building together

Alongside its main prizes, SDTH awards "Lord of the Rings" Prizes, unique to the hackathon, to two or more teams that combine their technologies into a larger, integrated capability. The prizes encourage start-ups developing individual sensors, effectors and software to combine their technologies into more complete solutions. Three-month teams that support winning two-day teams also receive Support Prizes.

Building a pipeline for defence technology innovation

More than 1,000 people signed up for the inaugural SDTH, with about 300 participants selected across its two tracks. The two-day main challenge featured four problems – Green Corridor, Creative Sensing, Interceptors and One Picture, Many Eyes – while the three-month extended challenge focused on the "Little Red Dome" and "Neo-Battalion" themes.

Opened on 25 September 2026 by Guest-of-Honour MG Kelvin Fan, SDTH was organised by NUSX, the entrepreneurial heart of NUS, with the European Defense Tech Hub (EDTH) and TUM Venture Labs as co-organisers.

The hackathon formed part of A5X, NUSX's global innovation and venture summit, and was supported by partners across government and industry, including the Republic of Singapore Air Force, the Singapore Army, the Digital and Intelligence Service, DSTA, DSO National Laboratories, ST Engineering, Accenture, Cognition, Shield AI and Enterprise Singapore. Investors supporting SDTH included Cap Vista, IQT, B Capital and OTB Ventures.

From hackathon to venture

For some teams, the Pitch & Demo Showcase may mark the beginning rather than the end of their venture journey. Promising teams from this year's hackathon may progress to the NUS Defence Tech Lab (DVL), NUSX's venture-building platform for dual-use technologies under Resilience, one of NUSX's four innovation tracks. One to three teams will be selected for DVL's six-month incubation programme, receiving cash and in-kind support worth S$100,000, technical and venture mentorship, milestone-based support and access to testbeds in Singapore and Europe.

Beyond incubation, selected ventures may progress to international validation, where DVL connects them with potential overseas customers, global venture capital investors and companies with production-scale capabilities, helping them move towards deployment, further investment and international growth.

"Across both the three-month and two-day tracks, we saw young people, driven by a shared interest in defence tech, use commercially available technologies to rapidly develop cost-effective defence systems. Singapore has the talent and potential to do this, if the need arises," said Professor Gary Ang, Professor of Practice for Defence Innovation and Applications, NUS, and founder of DVL. "The prizes are only the start. Through the NUS Defence Venture Lab, we will help the most promising teams become companies. And when those companies work together, as our "Lord of the Rings" Prize winners did, they can deliver the integrated capabilities that defence forces actually buy."

"At the Singapore Defense Tech Hackathon, we saw first-hand the appetite for defence innovation, with teams building working solutions to complex, real-world challenges at speed," said Dr Benjamin Wolba, Co-Founder, European Defense Tech Hub. "We are proud to partner with NUSX and TUM Venture Labs on this first Singapore edition. Its three-month extended challenge makes it distinctive, and we look forward to seeing these teams grow into companies."