On April 10, 2026, New Mexico State University witnessed a milestone in student-led innovation. Fifty-five students representing majors ranging from computer science and nursing to civil engineering, mechanical and aerospace engineering, and mathematics, converged in Science Hall for Hack NMSU, the university's first interdisciplinary hackathon. 

Organized by the Computer Science Student Association and backed by the NMSU Computer Science Department, the NMSU FinTech Lab powered by Nusenda Credit Union, and the Mike Hunt Construction Sprints through the Hunt Center for Entrepreneurship at Arrowhead Center, the event challenged teams to conceive, build, and demo a working product in just seven hours. 

The event drew broad participation across NMSU's colleges, reflecting a central thesis of the organizers: that the most impactful technology solutions emerge when technical expertise meets real-world domain knowledge from fields like healthcare, finance, and infrastructure. 

Hack NMSU was the brainchild of Rupak Dey, a graduating senior in computer science and founding president of the CSSA. As his final semester approached, Dey envisioned the event as a way to establish a lasting entrepreneurial culture within the department, a resource he wished had existed when he was a freshman. 

"This is something really personal to me. I wanted to accomplish this before I graduate so we could live a legacy of hosting something like this and promote entrepreneurship at NMSU," Dey said.

Despite being first-time organizers, the CSSA officers are all full-time students and delivered a smooth, well-executed event. Participants received seven hours to develop a minimum viable product and presented it before a panel of judges. The format mirrored real-world startup sprints, giving students hands-on experience with the pressures and creativity demanded by the technology industry. 

"We are students, not professional event planners," Dey said. "But everything went according to plan, everything was done on time. The support we received made it possible for us to just focus on the event itself." 

The competition awarded prizes across an overall ranking and four thematic tracks, celebrating both technical excellence and domain-specific innovation. 

The first-place finish by Team Hamter illustrated the hackathon's core vision. The winning team's project addressed a real challenge in everyday nursing practice — an idea that emerged directly from team member Matthew Mendoza's experience as a nursing student alongside computer science students Renae Hunt and Victoria Treviño. Dey highlighted this outcome as the clearest proof of why interdisciplinary collaboration matters in technology development. 

"The CS students were the engine of every project here. What made it special was pairing that technical foundation with real problems from other fields. Hamter stood out as a team because they had both — and that combination is unstoppable," Dey said.

Hack NMSU was made possible through the partnership of two key institutional sponsors whose late commitment proved decisive in the event's scale and success. 

"Seeing students from nursing, engineering, math, and computer science come together to build real solutions in a single day is exactly the kind of entrepreneurial energy the Hunt Center for Entrepreneurship exists to support. Hack NMSU demonstrated that innovation doesn't live in one department — it lives at the intersection of disciplines. We are proud to have been part of this inaugural event through the Mike Hunt Construction Sprints, and we look forward to watching this tradition grow," said Carlos Murguia, director, Hunt Center for Entrepreneurship, Arrowhead Center at NMSU 

"The NMSU FinTech Lab, powered by Nusenda Credit Union, is committed to preparing students for the future of financial technology and entrepreneurship. Hack NMSU was a perfect expression of that mission — students using cutting-edge tools to tackle real problems, across disciplines, under real constraints. Nusenda Credit Union's support of this event reflects our shared belief that the next generation of innovators is being built right here in Las Cruces," said Carlos Cuesta, program director of NMSU FinTech Lab.

With 55 participants, Hack NMSU ranks among the largest student competitions in the NMSU Computer Science Department's history and, by Dey's assessment, after attending a comparable event in Albuquerque, one of the largest hackathons in the Southwest region. 

University leadership attended the event's inauguration and expressed interest in continuing the initiative. Faculty, department leadership, and student participants all provided strongly positive feedback. Notably, many first- and second-year students were among those who completed working projects — an outcome Dey called one of the most meaningful results of the day. 

"The fact that we had a lot of freshmen and sophomores who were able to build a working project very early in their CS journey — I think that's a very good outcome. I hope we get to keep the legacy we were able to initiate," Dey said.

As Dey prepares to graduate, the CSSA and its partners are exploring plans to make Hack NMSU an annual event, building a permanent fixture in NMSU's entrepreneurship and innovation calendar.

The full article can be seen at https://newsroom.nmsu.edu/news/nmsu-students-build--code-and-showcase-projects-at-inaugural-hack-nmsu/s/7bf856a4-f1e1-4831-a1ef-ced257bb6423