Hack:AI is now open for registrations

StemUp Foundation, the organization behind initiatives like Micro:bit SLUG and CoderDojo Sri Lanka, is organizing an inter-university and school hackathon, in partnership with UNDP and SLASSCOM. Dubbed Hack:AI, this hackathon hopes to drive social impact through data science and machine learning-based solutions.

In case you didn’t know, StemUp Foundation is a non-profit entity that aims to push students towards STEM degrees and careers. The initiative currently operates 30 rural IT centers covering 17 districts. To date, the foundation has catered to over 15,000 students and 500+ teachers.

What you need to know

Hack:AI 2021 will focus on a specific set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The idea is to work with industry players to find relevant problem statements and data sets for selected SDGs. Participants will work to offer solutions for these problem statements via data science and machine learning over a five-month period.

Following the registration process, Hack:AI 2021 will have a knowledge-sharing series facilitated in partnership with SLASSCOM and UNDP. Afterward, the teams will submit their initial solutions where five teams will be selected from each category. The program will then move on to the mentoring phase and to final solution submissions thereafter. This will be followed by a live demo day before announcing the winners.

The hackathon will have two categories, school (13 to 18 years) and university (19 to 25 years). The program will take the form of a datathon for university participants while it will be an ideathon for the school category. This means for school participants, working systems or prototypes aren’t a must-have. Judging will focus on problem identification, critical thinking, innovativeness of the solution, and the application of AI. Regardless, both categories will be given the same set of problem statements based on the following SDGs.

• Good health and well-being
• Quality Education
• Sustainable Cities and Communities
• Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
• Responsible Consumption & Production

How can I apply?

The hackathon will officially kick off on 29 October and includes the following conditions for participants.

• Each team should have a minimum of three members and not exceed five
• No member should represent more than one team
• Every member of each team should be a part of the same university/school
• School participants need permission from the respective school’s Principal

For more information, you can visit the Hack:AI website. Here’s team ReadMe wishing all participants the best of luck!