The three winners — out of over 1,300 participants selected by over 50 judges — tackled remote health rehabilitation services, physical therapy technique, and waste recycling:
The six-week event, which ran from March 3 to April 14, 2025, saw a record level of participation—1,313 individuals registered for the hackathon, marking a 42% increase from the inaugural competition in 2024. Participants came from 86 countries and regions worldwide, with 60% living in developing nations. The top countries represented were the United States, India, Brazil, Singapore, and Indonesia. The competition brought together a remarkably wide range—from 5 to 77 years old—with a median age of 17.
Project submissions spanned across all seventeen UN SDGs, with SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-Being) and SDG 4 (Quality Education) being the most frequently addressed. Among the AI technologies used in submitted apps, chatbots were the most popular, followed by NLP (Natural Language Processing). Approximately 13% of projects—including two of the winners—went beyond mobile apps by including hardware components in their projects, such as IoT (Internet of Things) sensors and microcontrollers.
The winners will join us this July at the MIT AI + Education Summit.
Read the full announcement at appinventorfoundation.org: Participants Worldwide Tackle UN SDGs in Second Annual AI Hackathon
