Global AI Hackathon 2024

Overview

The Global AI Hackathon is a free, virtual hackathon hosted by MIT RAISE and the App Inventor Foundation that encourages people of all ages around the world to build AI apps for a cause. The goal of the competition is to develop an AI app using MIT App Inventor that aligns with one of the competition’s tracks and demonstrates creativity, social impact, and technical understanding of AI. We encourage participants to utilize Day of AI resources as a starting point for creating their AI apps.

Winners will be awarded flight and hotel to showcase their project at the MIT AI & Education Summit in Cambridge, Massachusetts on July 24-26, 2024.

Registration and submissions are now closed.

Tracks

There are two tracks in this year’s competition:

Climate & sustainability
Health & wellness

Think of a cause that is related to one of those tracks and identify a solution that utilizes AI in a responsible and ethical way to address that cause.

We strongly encourage submissions from class projects, the AP Digital Portfolio, and the Congressional App Challenge. However, please do not submit replicas of apps that have been previously submitted to an official App Inventor competition, such as the Summer Appathon, App of the Season, App of the Month, or the Coronavirus App Challenge.

Submission Requirements

To participate in the competition, you must have completed all of the following items by April 19, 2024:

Publish your app to the App Inventor Gallery or upload your app’s .aia file to Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.
Create a two-minute video
Create a Powerpoint or Google Slides presentation
Fill out the Registration Form once per team member
Fill out the Submission Form once per team
Fill out the Participation Survey once per team member

Please see below for detailed instructions about each item. Note that the submission form, registration form, participation survey, presentation, and in-app text must be in English. The video may be in any language, but must contain English closed captions or subtitles.

App Upload

You have two options for uploading your app: 1) you can publish your app to the App Inventor Gallery, or 2) you can upload your app’s .aia file to Google Drive, Dropbox, etc. If your app uses an extension, you must use the second option because the Gallery does not allow extensions. All text in the app must be in English.

App Inventor Gallery: follow these instructions to publish your app to the Gallery
Shareable Link: from your app, click Projects > Export Selected Project to My Computer. This will download an .aia file to your computer. Upload your .aia file to a file sharing platform of your choice (Google Drive, Dropbox, etc). Be sure to make the link publicly accessible.

Video

Create a 2-minute video that contains the following:

Description of the problem you chose to address
How your app addresses the problem
Demonstration of your app’s features
Demonstration of someone from the target audience interacting with the app
English subtitles or closed captions

The video can be in any language, as long as it contains English subtitles. Upload the video to a platform of your choice (YouTube, Google Drive, Vimeo, etc). You will be asked for a link to your video in the App Submission Form. Be sure to make the video publicly accessible.

Presentation

Create a copy of our presentation template using the platform of your choice:

Google Slides: follow these instructions to make a copy of the template
PowerPoint: follow these instructions to download the template and open the downloaded file in PowerPoint

Edit the presentation and enter information where it prompts you to. You will be asked for a link to your presentation in the Submission Form. Be sure to make the link publicly accessible. The entire presentation must be in English.

Registration Form

Every member of your team must fill out the Registration Form. Your team members may submit the Registration Form before or after the Submission Form, as long as everyone submits by the final deadline (April 19, 2024). The form must be filled out in English.

Submission Form

Every team must fill out the Submission Form, which is where you will submit your video, presentation, and link to your uploaded app. The form must be filled out in English and should only be submitted once per team.

Participation Survey

Every member of your team must fill out the Participation Survey. The survey should be filled out after completing your project but before the final deadline (April 19, 2024). The form must be filled out in English.

Judging & Prizes

Submissions will be judged on the following criteria:

Creativity: How novel is the app idea?
Design: Do the app’s aesthetics make it easy to use? How does the user interact with the app flow?
Technical skill: Does the app make use of well-designed technical and AI components? Is the code organized and commented?
Impact: Does the app have the potential to make a meaningful impact in the selected track area? Does the app use AI in a responsible and ethical way that enhances its impact?

Prizes

A total of four submissions will be recognized as winners, with one winner per category. All winners will receive a certificate from MIT RAISE and be featured in an official media release and social media posts from MIT RAISE, Day of AI, and the App Inventor Foundation.

Winners will also be awarded flight and hotel to join is in presenting their project at the MIT AI & Education Summit in Cambridge, Massachusetts on July 24-26, 2024. Prize winners are responsible for obtaining any visas required to enter the USA to attend the Summit. Each winning party may bring the following number of representatives to the Summit:

Category	Representatives	Total
Youth Individual	1 winning individual + 1 parent/guardian	2 representatives
Youth Team	1 representatives from the winning team + 1 parent/guardian	2 representatives
Adult Individual	1 winning individual	1 representative
Adult or Mixed Age team	1 adult representative from the winning team OR 1 youth representative from the winning team + 1 parent/guardian	1 OR 2 representatives