Hyundai Motor Group's Singapore hackathon draws 91 students to tackle climate adaptation
Hyundai Motor Group's Singapore innovation center asked 91 students to turn bold ideas into car-based and community responses to extreme heat, floods and poor air quality.
- 91 students
- 25
- 9
- more than 300
What Happened
Hyundai Motor Group Innovation Center Singapore (HMGICS) and Hyundai CRADLE Singapore have co-organized the annual Hackathon for five years, asking students to apply the same human-centered thinking the facility uses in manufacturing to real-world problems. The 2026 edition drew its largest cohort yet and its most demanding brief, under the theme "Go Green: Climate Adaptation." It ran as part of the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment's Go Green SG 2026, in partnership with Temasek Foundation and with support from the National University of Singapore (NUS). Over two months, students took on one of two problem statements: reimagining multi-purpose community spaces that also help residents cope with extreme heat, and smart car-based solutions that turn vehicles into mobile safe spaces during heatwaves, floods and air quality emergencies.
91students
Aged 14 to 23, forming 25 teams from nine local and international schools over two months.
- Toured the smart farm at HMGICS and took a VR tour through a smart factory
- Visited the National Environment Agency's Centre for Climate Research Singapore to see how weather and climate data feed national planning
- Studied at Gardens by the Bay how infrastructure design and cooling systems can reduce on-site heat
“We've been doing the Hyundai Motor Group Hackathon since 2022. It's always been a platform to allow young people to embolden themselves, to develop ideas and translate them into solutions to meet real-world problems.”
HMGICS and Hyundai CRADLE Singapore begin co-organizing the Hyundai Motor Group Hackathon; more than 300 students have taken part since.
Students spend 13 weeks designing ways to improve the passenger experience for people with diverse needs, building prototypes with 3D printers and laser cutters at the National Library Board's MakeIT spaces.
The 2026 finale is held for the first time at Temasek Shophouse, with judges scoring each team on relevance, feasibility, creativity and impact.
The public can see this year's ideas at an exhibition at Temasek Shophouse (Banyan Cove).
- Community spaces challenge, first place: Team HeatSync, ITE College Central
- Community spaces challenge, second place: Team Ephemeral, River Valley High School
- Car-based challenge, first place: Team License to Chill, German European School Singapore
- Car-based challenge, second place: Team WD-40, School of Science and Technology
- Special awards for innovation, user experience and feasibility: three teams from UWC Southeast Asia's East campus and Boon Lay Secondary School
Mentors from HMGICS, Hyundai CRADLE and NUS work alongside each team from first sketch to final pitch, but the ideas stay the students' own. HMGICS does not claim any of this year's winning concepts will be protecting drivers from a flood next monsoon season, and notes that a two-month student challenge is not an R&D program. Organizers describe the real outcome as the moment students realize they can actually build something that changes the world. Since 2022, more than 300 students have taken part, and HMGICS plans to bring in more local and international schools in the years ahead.
Previously from Kia
Hyundai Motor Group has run several other student and talent initiatives in the weeks before this hackathon. In September 2026 it opened a student Ideathon and a faculty research forum across its seven-university Hyundai CoE network in India, with about INR 10 lakh in prize money for finalists. It also concluded a two-week Urban Innovation Leadership Program in Seoul with Saudi Arabia's Misk Foundation on September 18, deepening a partnership that began with a 2024 MoU. On September 17 it opened the two-day HMG Tech Talent Forum 2026 in Silicon Valley, pitching careers in AI, robotics, autonomous driving and batteries to global technology talent.
- Hyundai Motor Group launches India student Ideathon and research forum with INR 10 lakh prize
- Hyundai Motor Group and Misk Foundation wrap up two-week Urban Innovation Leadership Program in Seoul
- Hyundai Motor Group opens HMG Tech Talent Forum 2026 in Silicon Valley to recruit global tech talent
Background drawn from MotorClaw's earlier coverage of Kia's official releases.
Why this matters
The hackathon is Hyundai Motor Group's community and education outreach in Singapore, where climate adaptation has been declared a national priority. It gives students aged 14 to 23 hands-on exposure to real-world problem solving, and HMGICS plans to bring in more local and international schools in the years ahead.
Terms in This Story
- HMGICS
- Hyundai Motor Group Innovation Center Singapore, the group's innovation and smart-manufacturing facility in Singapore.
- climate adaptation
- Adjusting infrastructure, systems and behavior to reduce the damage caused by current or expected climate effects such as extreme heat, floods and poor air quality.
- digital twin
- A virtual replica of a physical asset or process, used to simulate and test changes before they are applied in the real world.
- Go Green SG
- A sustainability campaign in Singapore run by the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment.
Summarised from the linked release; details can be imperfect — always verify against the original source.