Official Rules

By registering, you agree to these rules in their entirety.

Dates

  • Registration: April 26 - June 6, 2026
  • Qualifier: June 7-10 11:59 ET, 2026
  • Qualifier Results: June 12, 2026
  • Hackathon Kickoff June 14, 2026 10:00 AM ET https://webinar.zoho.in/meeting/register?sessionId=1371179302
  • Build Period: June 14-21, 2026
  • Submission Deadline: June 21, 2026 at 11:59 PM ET
  • Judging: June 22-26, 2026
  • Winners Announced: June 27, 2026 10:00 AM ET

Who Can Participate

✅ Eligibility: Participants must be currently enrolled in an accredited secondary school (grades 9–12), college, university, or graduate/doctoral program at the time of registration and through the submission deadline (June 21, 2026).

✅ Employment: Part-time employment in any field does not affect eligibility. Full-time employment in AI, data science, machine learning, software engineering, or a directly related technology field disqualifies a participant, even if they are simultaneously enrolled in a degree program.

 

✅ High School Track: Current Highschool students enrolled in grades 9-12. This includes students recently graduated from 8th grade, and students recently graduated from 12th grade but not yet strated undergraduate school at time of hackathon.

 

✅ Undergraduate Track: Current undergraduate students enrolled in grades 13-16 (freshman, sophomore, junior, senior). This includes students graduating in 2026, recent graduates within the past 12 months who are not employed full-time and/or not yet enrolled in graduate school, taking a gap year or job seeking.


✅ Graduate Track: Current graduate students enrolled in Masters or PhD program. This includes students formally enrolled in graduate program by the hackahton start date.


✅ Team eligibility: All team members must individually meet eligibility requirements. Mixed teams where any member is ineligible will be disqualified. Teams must register in the track corresponding to the highest education level of any team member.

 

✅ Verification: USAII reserves the right to verify enrollment and employment status. Winners who are found to have misrepresented their eligibility will forfeit prizes, which will be awarded to the next-qualifying team.

✅ Location: From any country worldwide

✅ Age: At least 14 years old (Parental consent required if under 18)
https://aihackathon.usaii.org/guardian-consent-form 

 

Team Requirements

  • Team Size: 2-5 members (no solo participants)

Formation:

  • Members can be from different schools/countries
  • All must register individually on Devpost
  • Mixed-level teams compete in highest track represented (e.g., 1 grad + 4 undergrads = Graduate track)
  • Use our Discord community where you can actively connect with other participants. Look for the #track-team-formation channel. https://discord.gg/ePjenJnyh4
  • Use Devpost "Looking for teammates" feature to post your skills, interest, and the type of team you are hoping to join. Browse others who are also looking as well.
  • USAII Global AI Hackathon submission does not open until June 14 - so you cannot create a project or add teammates on the platform until then
  • Today -
    • find your teammates using Devpost and Discord
    • start talking, planning, and getting to know each other
    • when submission opens on June 14, ONE team member (your designated team leader) creates the project on Devpost and invites the rest of the team using the email address each  member used to register.


Who CANNOT Participate

❌ USAII employees and immediate family

❌ Event judges, mentors, organizers

❌ Non-students

❌ Teams that don't pass the qualifier


Project and Submission Requirements

Phase 1: AI Readiness Qualifier (REQUIRED)

  • https://qualifier.usaii.org/ 
  • Opens: June 7 10:00 am ET
  • Closes: June 10, 2026 at 11:59 PM ET
  • All participants must:
    • Register on Devpost before June 6, 2026
    • Form a team of 2-5
    • Complete qualifier between June 7-10 https://qualifier.usaii.org/  
    • Answer 8 structured AI thinking prompts
    • Receive AI-scored evaluation
    • Only top-scoring qualified teams receive approval codes for Phase 2
    • Qualifier Results sent via email by June 12, 2026 11:59 AM ET

Phase 2: Hackathon Build

Build Requirements

  • All substantial work during June 14-21, 2026
  • MAY use existing open-source libraries/frameworks
  • MAY NOT submit pre-built solutions
  • Originality:
    • Must be original work by team members
    • Open-source libraries permitted (with attribution)
    • AI coding assistants allowed (must disclose)
    • Proper attribution required for all external content
  • Prohibited:
    • Pre-hackathon work
    • Plagiarism
    • Unauthorized proprietary data
    • Harmful/discriminatory systems
    • Violating third-party terms of service
  • Data & Privacy (Permitted)
    • Open public datasets
    • Synthetic data (disclose method)
    • Public APIs
    • Simulated data
  • Requirements:
    • Respect privacy laws
    • No personal data without consent
    • No proprietary data without permission
    • No violating website terms
  • Disclosure:
    • All data sources must be listed in submission.

Submission Requirements

  • Deadline: June 21, 11:59 PM ET
  • Required:
    • Valid qualifier approval code
    • Complete project description
    • Track and challenge selection
    • AI architecture explanation
    • Human-in-loop design
    • Responsible AI guardrail
    • Tools and data disclosure
    • 3-5 minute pitch video
    • Working demo or walkthrough
    • Missing elements = automatic disqualification
    • No edits after deadline

Eligibility Verification

  • Winners must complete within 7 days:
    • Student enrollment proof
    • Age verification (parental consent if under 18)
    • Tax documentation if required
    • Winner agreement

International Winners

  • Subject to local tax laws
  • May need additional documentation
  • Alternative fulfillment methods possible
  • Longer processing time

Award Timeline

  • Announced: June 27, 2026 10:00 AM ET
  • Verification due: July 5, 2026
  • Fulfillment: Within 30 days of verification

Forfeiture

  • Failure to verify = prize to next-ranked team

Restrictions

  • Teams may win ONE main prize + ONE special award

 

Judging Criteria

Projects evaluated by industry and academic professionals using track-specific INFORMS-aligned rubrics.

High School Track

  1. Problem Understanding & Context (30%)
    Is the problem real, relatable, clearly explained? Clear user or community?

  2. AI Reasoning (20%)
    Why AI? Could simple AI help? Appropriate for problem?

  3. Solution Design & Architecture (20%)
    Clear input→AI→output flow? Understandable system explanation?

  4. Impact & Insight (20%)
    Who benefits? What decision/action becomes easier?

  5. Responsible AI (10%)
    Mentions concern (bias, privacy, over-reliance, misuse)? Plain language?

Undergraduate Track

  1. Problem Understanding (20%)
    Clear decision context? Constraints acknowledged?

  2. AI/Analytics Reasoning (30%)
    Justification of approach? Clear reasoning, not buzzwords?

  3. Solution Design & Architecture (25%)
    Coherent system? Clear data→AI→output pipeline?

  4. Impact & Decision Value (15%)
    Explains how insights change outcomes? Avoids "AI for AI's sake"?

  5. Responsible AI & Ethics (10%)
    Addresses bias, hallucinations, privacy, failure modes? Explains mitigation?

Graduate Track

  1. Problem Understanding (20%)
    Clear assumptions? Explicit scope and non-goals?
  2. AI Reasoning (35%)
    Architecture tradeoffs explained? Mentions evaluation strategy?

  3. Solution Design & Architecture (20%)
    Modular system? Clear component boundaries?

  4. Impact & Insight (15%)
    Connects to real decisions? Identifies stakeholders and risks?

  5. Responsible AI (10%)
    Addresses bias, monitoring, misuse, drift? Lifecycle awareness?

 

Scoring Scale

1 = Missing/fundamentally flawed  

2 = Present but weak  

3 = Solid and reasonable  

4 = Strong, well-executed  

5 = Exceptional for level

 

Winner Selection

Process:

1. Validation & screening (June 22-23)

2. Judge scoring using rubrics (June 23-25)

3. Panel deliberation (June 25-26)

4. Final selection based on:

  • Rubric scores
  • Compliance with rules
  • Successful verification

All decisions final and binding

 

Verification Rights

USAII reserves right to verify:

  • Student enrollment
  • Team eligibility
  • Project originality
  • Build timeline
  • Qualifier codes
  • Rule compliance

 

Code of Conduct

All participants must comply with USAII Code of Conduct.

Expected

✅ Respectful, inclusive communication  

✅ Professional collaboration  

✅ Accepting feedback gracefully  

✅ Focus on learning and growth

 

Prohibited

❌ Harassment, intimidation, discrimination  

❌ Offensive comments, personal attacks  

❌ Sharing private information  

❌ Cheating, rule violations  

❌ Disrupting event/community

 

Reporting

Discord: Contact moderators  

Email: aihackathon@usaii.org  Subject: CONDUCT (confidential)

 

Consequences

  • Warning
  • Temporary suspension
  • Disqualification
  • Ban from future events

 

AI Tool Usage

Permitted

✅ Free AI tools  

✅ Paid AI tools (judges don't favor these)  

✅ AI coding assistants  

✅ No-code platforms

 

Required

  • Disclose ALL AI tools in submission
  • Failure to disclose = rule violation

 

Disqualification

Grounds for disqualification:

  • False information
  • Code of Conduct violations
  • Invalid/missing qualifier code
  • Plagiarism, dishonesty
  • Missing deadline
  • Prohibited content
  • Non-response to verification (7 days)
  • Any rule violation

 

Disqualified teams forfeit all prizes.

 

Intellectual Property

  • Teams retain full project ownership
  • Teams grant USAII non-exclusive license to:
    • Showcase winning projects
    • Use in promotional materials
    • Feature in events and publications

 

Open Source

Encouraged (not required)

Recommended licenses: MIT, Apache 2.0, BSD

 

Legal & Liability

Participation Agreement

By participating, you agree to:

  • These official rules
  • USAII Code of Conduct
  • Release USAII from liability
  • Allow use of name/likeness/project if winner

 

Privacy

Personal information:

  • Used only for hackathon administration
  • Not shared except as required by law
  • Retained per USAII privacy policy

 

Modifications

USAII may modify rules with notice via:

  • Email to participants
  • Devpost announcement
  • Discord #announcements

 

Contact

  • General: aihackathon@usaii.org 
  • Conduct: aihackathon@usaii.org Subject: CONDUCT
  • Tech Support: Discord #tech-support 
  • Urgent: aihackathon@usaii.org Subject: URGENT

 

Last Updated: 4/28/2026