2026 AI for Good Hackathon

about this event

Join forces with fellow students to collaborate, innovate, and drive positive social change. Over this intensive 48-hour weekend hackathon, you will engineer AI solutions to tackle unique data-driven problems impacting the Youth Resilience and Wellbeing social issue. Armed with raw multimedia datasets provided by our partners, it is your turn to build the code to right the world.

As a participant, you will receive direct mentorship from expert data scientists and professionals representing The Performance Academy, Dreams Come True, The Link, UNF, and leading technology companies in Jacksonville. Following final pitches, three finalist teams will be selected and announced as winners during the official AI for Good award ceremony. Top-performing teams will also earn the exclusive opportunity to work with data science experts at FL-DSSG to bring their AI solutions to life after the event.

Join our hackathon, build your team, ask questions, and engage with industry mentors to make a tangible impact!

In preparation for the hackathon, we encourage you to focus on one of these two problem cases related to the Youth Resilience and Wellbeing issue:

Problem Case #1: Build an AI solutions pipeline to track unique individuals across long event videos, mapping their occurrence frequency, specific performing arts actions, and emotional expressions.

Problem Case #2: Build an AI-powered image repository and retrieval system to automatically caption, tag, and organize large collections of photos captured across multiple events.

Food and beverages (brain fuel) will be provided during the event.

Hackathon Location: The Link - Address: 425 Town Plaza Ave, Ponte Vedra Beach, FL 32081. The Link 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. The Link provides shower and refresh facilities for event attendees. The hackathon organizers will allocate a meeting room as a quiet space for attendees to rest and recover. The Link or the hackathon organizers will not provide sleeping provisions. Participants are responsible for travel and accommodation costs.

Meet the Partners:

The Performance Academy is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that has served the Jacksonville community for over 14 years. TPA uses the healing power of the performing arts, including theater, dance, music, and poetry, to help teens and youth overcome struggles, build confidence, and develop critical life-readiness skills. By providing a supportive environment and real-world artistic training, they empower underserved youth to discover their passions and thrive.

Dreams Come True is the First Coast's only locally based nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing hope and joy to children battling life-threatening medical conditions. Since 1984, they have fulfilled the dreams of more than 5,000 local children, providing brave families with a much-needed reprieve from hospital stays and medical treatments. By creating powerful, transformative experiences and lasting positive memories, they help restore a sense of childhood and strengthen family resilience during their most challenging times.

The Link is a space that inspires visitors of all ages to learn, play, think, and do. The state-of-the-art building in Ponte Vedra's Nocatee neighborhood offers unique amenities and an overall otherworldly experience for guests attending - or hosting - an event. The 22,500 sq ft building features open workspace and office space on level two and activity flex spaces on level one—giving you an innovative place to work while doing the activities you love. An innovation and activity hub about 30 minutes south of Jacksonville downtown and north of historic downtown St. Augustine, the Link offers something for all ages and has several event spaces available to rent.

Florida Data Science for Social Good (FL-DSSG) program brings together artificial intelligence (AI), data science, software engineering, and social science to tackle pressing social challenges across Florida. We achieve this goal by partnering with nonprofit and public-sector organizations in Florida, analyzing their data, and finding impactful solutions to social issues. The FL-DSSG program provides internships and research opportunities for students from diverse disciplines to work on data science projects along with our community partners. Nonprofit and public-sector organizations receive data analysis and visualization reports to support their work in Florida communities. Florida DSSG is hosted at the University of North Florida (UNF).

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