What is the AI Hackathon?
Pratham USA is bringing a unique opportunity to young AI enthusiasts and future leaders in USA, starting with two regions - the Seattle Metropolitan Area and Bay Area. The AI Hackathon is a yearly 4-week event where participants who meet specific entry criteria collaborate in teams to create a demo-ready solution for a problem relating to the year's topics.
The AI hackathon is an invitation to ideate and innovate for solutions that will improve learning and employability in low-resource environments such as India (and other low resource environments).
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Students will learn about AI in education and how to build AI solutions
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Students will engage in a high-profile, national-level contest
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Students will develop their ideas under the guidance of industry-leading mentors from Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, Google and more
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Students can collaborate with their teams and mentors, and compete with similar teams
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Teams will compete for exciting prizes and recognition
Interested in competing? Check out our student information page, which has everything you need to know.
The Problem Space
Pratham's Programs reach over 5M+ students, who are lagging in access to education. The only way to accelerate progress is through technology. We are inviting students 15-19 in High Schools in the US to ideate, innovate and design solutions for students in less privileged and low-resourced environments.
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23% of the National Population in India is Under Age of 19, and in need of vocational skills and career guidance
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Only 5.6% are enrolled in Vocational Training
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95% of Rural households have smart phones, but have limited use for learning
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In 2023 1.5M appeared for 1250 Federal Govt. Vacancies (5x increase) as the average student in a Tier 2 or Tier 3 city does not know of other career options
Pratham's On-Ground Machine of manual, community and volunteer driven interventions can scale exponentially to reach over 10MM+ population via AI driven tools. Pratham's multi-decadal experience of scaling Research & Evidence based methodologies, provides a robust framework to leverage AI as force multiplier.
Read about the 2024 AI Hackathon's problem spaces and how solutions are evaluated here.
Hackathon Format
Timeline:
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Begins with a kickoff day with the organizing team to explain processes, tools, timeline, and to introduce mentors and interns
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4 weeks of working sessions. Participants will be given access to data sets, tools, mentors, research and overall guidance to work towards a proof of concept solution
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Ends with a demo day with judges and winner selection
Team Structure:
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For each of the two topics, there are five teams per region, to a maximum total of 20 teams.
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Each team includes 3-5 students, either assigned or by joining, and each has access to at least one mentor for the 4 weeks, with interim Dry Runs and live office hours
About Pratham
Established in 1995 to provide education to children in Mumbai slums, Pratham (which means “first” in Sanskrit) is now one of the largest and most successful non-governmental education organizations in India.
Working in collaboration with governments, communities, parents, teachers, and volunteers, we focus on innovative interventions to address gaps in the education system. The clarity of our mission— “every child in school and learning well”—drives us to make an impact on the lives of India’s children and extends from our leadership to our team in the field.
Dates and Deadlines:
Registration Window
April 15 to June 7
Submission Day
July 24
Teams Announced
June 15
Pitch Practice
July 25-26
Kickoff Day
June 22
Presentation and Demo Day
July 27
Development Period
June 23 to July 24
Gala Showcase
September (date differs by chapter)