2024 Challenge Schedule

This year’s Nittany AI Challenge is focused on creating a prototype and a minimum viable product (MVP) that leverages AI to create a solution that solves a specific problem and results in a positive, measurable impact.

The Challenge will culminate with teams making pitches to a panel of reviewers composed of faculty, staff, and industry and subject matter experts. AI for Good solutions in the Challenge must support the effort to make the world a better place in the areas of education, the environment, agriculture, health, or humanitarianism.

This year, we are encouraging teams to use language models (LLMs) as they can speed up the development process and deliver value in an abbreviated period of time. 

Customer Discovery Phase

New This Year: There will be no formal Idea Phase, nor an idea proposal submission. 

We want teams to focus their energy on understanding the customer’s problem that their solution will address. Rather than submitting an idea proposal, teams should engage in customer discovery and use what is learned from the customer to create a prototype and prototype video. The customer discovery phase will give teams the opportunity to truly understand the customer and their program and build the prototype during the months of November, December, and most of January. Your prototype will be evaluated based on the challenge or problem your team is addressing, the potential impact of the solution, and how it uses artificial intelligence to develop the solution. 

Prototype Phase

The Prototype Phase video submission deadline is noon (ET) on January 24, 2024.

The entry to the Challenge will be a prototype. With the advent of LLMs, it is our expectation that prototypes can be created much more efficiently than in the past competitions. As a result, rapid prototyping will be one of the key factors of success, assuming you have done your due diligence and understand the problem or opportunity you are addressing, along with its impact and feasibility.

To assist you with this prototype phase, we will be offering events and online office hours to support teams with building their prototypes and MVPs. We have also add a resources page with links to various tools. 

Each team will enter the Challenge by submitting a video that demonstrates the team’s prototype in action. This phase will be judged by a group of individuals that will select teams to move forward into the MVP phase based on ranking and overall score.

Review Prototype Phase submission criteria and submit your prototype

Minimum Viable Product (MVP) Phase

The MVP Phase submission deadline is noon (ET) on April 1, 2024.

Participation in the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) Phase is by judge selection and invitation only. The MVP phase will conclude with the development and submission of a minimum viable product (MVP) based on the original proposed solution. 

MVP Phase submission criteria