2026 AI for Good Hackathon
Dates: October 23 to 25, 2026
Build Solutions That Last at AI4Good
AI for Good is a high-stakes, 48-hour hackathon that brings together students, community members, and industry experts. This event is a critical launchpad. Without it, these urgent ideas would never surface. Together, we empower teams to build highly innovative, meaningful AI solutions that tackle critical social good initiatives.
Ready to Launch an Innovation?
Follow the Devpost site below to check the event schedule, read the competition rules, review the judging criteria, and register.
This hackathon is open, registration closes on October 23, 1 PM.
Why This Event Matters
Solve critical issues: Target high-stakes, real-world social challenges.
Spark unique innovation: Build solutions that wouldn't exist otherwise.
Bridge the gap: Connect brilliant student minds with industry leaders.
Move past prototypes: Launch pathways toward permanent community systems.
From Hackathon to Real-World Implementation
This event is much more than just a weekend coding competition. The impact doesn't stop at the closing ceremony. Winning teams will earn the exclusive opportunity to continue working with Florida Data Science for Social Good (FL-DSSG) to develop, scale, and transform their prototypes into fully implemented, production-ready systems that directly empower our community partners.
Fuel Real Community Impact: Sponsor the 2026 AI4Good Hackathon
We invite you to partner with us as a sponsor for the 2026 AI4Good Hackathon. This intense, transformative 48-hour event unites the brightest student minds from universities across Florida and Georgia to build innovative, real-world AI solutions for critical social challenges.
The hackathon will take place from October 23 to October 25, 2026, at The Link in Ponte Vedra. Your support is a vital launchpad for these ideas, directly fueling student innovation that would otherwise never surface.
See Your Dollars at Work: Sponsorship Impact Levels
Every contribution directly empowers students to build functional software that solves operational bottlenecks for local nonprofit and community partners. Choose a tier that matches your budget:
- $1,000 – $2,000 (Team Fuel): Funds crucial meals, snacks, and late-night refreshments to keep coding teams energized across 48 continuous hours.
- $2,500 – $4,500 (Brilliance Reward): Directly sponsors high-incentive award prizes for winning teams to validate their breakthrough solutions.
- $5,000+ (Community Legacy Partner): Finances the post-hackathon pipeline with Florida Data Science for Social Good (FL-DSSG) to scale student prototypes into permanent, production-ready systems for our community.
How to Submit Your Support
For Contributions Under $5,000: You can make an immediate, hassle-free impact online right now. Please use our secure DSSG Give Link below.
DSSG Give
For Partnerships of $5,000 and Above: Unlock custom corporate benefits, speaking opportunities, and prominent brand recognition. Please contact the DSSG Program Directors directly to coordinate your legacy sponsorship.
Program Directors
Hackathon Location
Venue:
425 Town Plaza Ave, Ponte Vedra Beach, FL 32081
The Link is an environment that fosters creativity, productivity, and human development. It is a premier coworking and event space with dedicated and floating desks, community spaces, lounges, and meeting rooms with amenities like fast Wi-Fi. The Link is equipped with state-of-the-art technology, including an immersive studio and video conferencing equipment, and hosts regular events for professionals and families, all contributing to its reputation as a community hub for work and play. The Link has facilities for showering and refreshing for event attendees.
The 2026 AI4Good Hackathon will be hosted at The Link, a premier innovation hub designed to inspire creativity, maximize productivity, and foster human development. This modern, multi-functional facility features dynamic coworking zones, dedicated workstations, collaborative lounges, and state-of-the-art meeting spaces perfect for rapid development.
Attendee Comfort & Amenities
To ensure you stay sharp and focused throughout the intense 48-hour development window, the venue provides the following on-site amenities:
- High-Speed Connectivity: Reliable, high-capacity Wi-Fi is available throughout the building to support heavy data processing and seamless AI development.
- Fuel & Catering: Complimentary food, snacks, and beverages will be fully provided to all registered participants throughout the entire event.
- Overnight Option: Participants can choose to stay overnight at the venue to keep working or rest without leaving the building.
- On-Site Showers: Venue shower facilities are available to help you refresh and recharge during the weekend.
- Overnight Packing Checklist: If you plan to stay overnight or shower, please bring your own sleeping bag, sleeping mat, towel, soap, and shower gear.
Who Can Participate?
The AI4Good Hackathon is open to all currently enrolled higher education students who are at least 18 years old and pursuing a Bachelor’s, Master’s, or Doctoral degree.
To build solutions together, all participants must be able to attend and collaborate completely in person at the venue throughout the hackathon weekend.
Participants will work in teams of 2 to 3 members. If you do not have a team before the event, don't worry; you will have the opportunity to connect with other students and form a team on October 23 right after the official event kickoff.
Please note that participants are responsible for coordinating and covering their own travel logistics and accommodation arrangements.
Diverse Teams Build Smarter AI
An intelligent pipeline is only as good as the human insights behind it. While the AI4Good Hackathon problem cases require strong technical implementation, building a successful solution platform takes more than just code.
Why We Need Interdisciplinary Perspectives:
- Technical Minds: We need students with strong skills in machine learning, computer vision, data science, software engineering, information systems, and statistics to architect and deploy the core technology.
- Human-Centered Thinkers: We need students from psychology, education, digital media, business, or the humanities. Your understanding of youth engagement, behavioral patterns, and design is critical to ensuring the AI solves actual human problems.
These problem sets are not just technical challenges; they are human and organizational ones. We strongly encourage technical students to partner with creative thinkers, researchers, and designers. Together, you will guide what the AI should look for, design intuitive interfaces, and turn raw data insights into real-world social impact.
Bring your unique background, join forces at the kickoff event, and collaborate to create AI innovations and build impactful solutions!
Social Good Partner and Problem Cases
The Challenge: Youth Resilience & Wellbeing
The AI4Good Hackathon delivers realistic, highly advanced challenges designed to ensure your weekend efforts drive real-world utility. This year, teams will work with complex multimedia datasets, including long-form video files and large photo collections, to develop sophisticated AI solutions that support youth-focused community initiatives.
Multimedia Solution Tracks
Problem Case #1: Video Intelligence & Youth Behavior Recognition Pipeline
Build an intelligent system engineered to analyze long event videos and extract useful insights on participant dynamics. Your solution must accurately identify unique individuals across multiple videos, map their occurrence frequencies, recognize specific performing arts actions, and detect emotional expressions over time to help understand youth engagement.
Problem Case #2: Intelligent Photo Processing & Media Discovery System
Architect and build a smart image repository and discovery platform to showcase and manage the impact of community events. The system must automatically generate descriptive captions, apply smart contextual tags, and structurally organize massive photo collections for seamless search, storytelling, and retrieval.
Purposeful Innovation: Beyond the Weekend
We do not believe in throwaway hackathon code. To ensure your breakthrough ideas create a lasting legacy, Florida Data Science for Social Good (FL-DSSG) will adopt the best solution approaches.
Following the closing ceremony, FL-DSSG will work hand-in-hand with the winning developers to fully implement, scale, and deploy these systems. This direct pipeline guarantees your code will actively assist The Performance Academy and Dreams Come True in driving actionable insights and operational benefits for youth welfare.
Partner with DSSG
The AI4Good Organization seeks strategic, non-monetary partnerships with organizations in Youth Development, AI, and Data Science. Partnering with us allows your organization to co-create realistic project challenges and provide real-world datasets that give students invaluable hands-on experience.
Become an Industry Mentor
We are looking for dedicated working professionals in the AI and Data Science industries to guide the next generation of tech innovators. As an industry mentor, you will provide hands-on, face-to-face guidance to student teams as they build their projects. This mentoring role takes place entirely in person at The Link during the hackathon weekend, from October 23 to 25, 2026.
To explore a strategic partnership or share your expertise as a mentor, please reach out to Dr. Umapathy: