What You'll Build, and How You're Judged
You don't need to build something huge. You need to build something real, working, and yours — for one of two domains.
A Working AI-Powered Solution
Your team creates a basic web app, dashboard, or AI-supported tool that responds to your assigned domain. We don't restrict the format — we care that it works and solves something real.
AI-Powered Dashboard
Turn data into a decision-support tool.
Website or Web App
A working, demonstrable product.
AI-Supported Digital Solution
Any tool that meaningfully uses AI to solve the problem.
Rules & Conditions
1–3 Per Team
Register solo or as a team — solo registrants are matched before the build period.
Working Prototype
Teams must show a working prototype, not only slides.
Live Pitch
Teams must present live — minutes per team.
Two Domains
Two challenge domains are open; each team builds for one of them.
How Your Solution Is Scored
Pick the problem you actually care about
Every team is assigned one of two domains. They are deliberately broad — the point is that you find a specific problem inside one, not that you solve the whole thing.
Domain 01 — Understanding Gen Z Talent
Build AI solutions that help people find work, grow skills, and connect with employers faster and more fairly. The underlying problem is a mismatch: employers struggle to read what this generation of graduates can actually do, and graduates struggle to show it.
Things teams in this domain typically look at: skills matching that goes beyond keyword search, portfolio and evidence tools that show capability rather than credentials, interview preparation, fairer screening, or anything that shortens the distance between a capable student and an employer who cannot see them yet.
Domain 02 — AI Technologies
Build practical AI-powered tools, agents or automations that solve a real operational or industry problem. This domain is wider and more technical, but it is not restricted to computer science students — the strongest submissions usually come from someone who understands a specific workflow well enough to know exactly where it wastes time.
Pick a process you have watched go wrong. Automate the part that is genuinely repetitive. A narrow tool that works beats a broad one that demos.
How judging actually works
Round 1 — online, 28 to 30 September 2026
Five minutes of pitch, then questions from industry mentors in online breakout rooms. Judges are looking for a working prototype and a clear account of the problem it solves. The Top 20 teams advance to the Grand Final.
You will get direct feedback in the room. Take notes — teams that revise between Round 1 and the Grand Final consistently place higher.
Grand Final — physical, 10 October 2026 at USM Penang
The same five-minute format, in person, in front of industry judges. Nine awards are decided here from a RM10,000 prize pool: Champion, 1st Runner-Up, 2nd Runner-Up, three Innovation Awards and three Teamwork Awards.
The two award tracks matter. Innovation recognises the most original idea; Teamwork recognises the strongest collaboration. A team that does not win overall can still leave with an award.
What judges are not looking for
Scale is not a criterion. Neither is polish for its own sake, nor the number of AI models you managed to stack. A small tool that works, solves a problem you can describe in one sentence, and is honestly presented will beat an ambitious demo that does not run.
See the full programme journey for what happens before and after judging, or the FAQ for the detail questions.