Join forces with your fellow students to collaborate and innovate for the social good. Over the course of a weekend, you’ll be challenged to work on unique problems impacting the affordable housing issue. You’ll be provided with the data needed so you can write the code to right the world.

Participating students will receive mentorship from data scientist professionals, the City of Jacksonville, The Link, and UNF experts. Three finalist teams will be selected and announced as winners during the AI for Good award ceremony. Top teams will also have the opportunity to partner with data science experts to bring their solutions to life.

Join our hackathon, build your team, ask questions, and engage with mentors!

In preparation for the hackathon, we encourage you to focus on one of these three problem cases related to the affordable housing issue:

Problem Case #1: Build a predictive AI model to assess housing retention and displacement risk

Problem Case #2: Develop an affordability index and an interactive AI tool to explore the indexes

Problem Case #3: Generate data-driven recommendations for strategic affordable housing investments

Food and beverages (brain fuel) will be provided throughout the event by the hackathon organizers. However, participants are responsible for arranging their own travel and accommodation.

Hackathon Location:

The Link

Address: 425 Town Plaza Ave, Ponte Vedra Beach, FL 32081

The Link is an environment that 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 has shower and refreshment 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 City of Jacksonville has launched an initiative called “State of Jax” to highlight Jacksonville’s most pressing challenges and opportunities. The State of Jax initiative is a public-private-academic partnership designed to provide accessible, data-driven insights into Jacksonville’s key social, economic, health, and educational indicators. Its mission is to support informed decision-making, improve community well-being, and promote social equity by making hyperlocal data available at the city and City Council district levels. The initiative aggregates data from trusted sources such as the U.S. Census Bureau, HUD, and CDC. The initiative includes a Peer Cities Comparison feature that allows users to evaluate Jacksonville’s performance against 13 similar U.S. cities, offering context on strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for growth. By providing these tools, the initiative empowers government agencies, nonprofits, businesses, and residents to collaborate effectively on city planning, housing, education, and health initiatives, ultimately fostering a more equitable and thriving Jacksonville.

The 2025 AI4Good hackathon aligns closely with the goals of the State of Jax initiative by using data to drive actionable insights on the affordable housing issue in Jacksonville. Participants will leverage curated datasets to identify neighborhoods at risk, analyze disparities, and propose targeted investments in affordable housing. By grounding hackathon work in data-driven approaches, teams can contribute recommendations that directly support informed decision-making, equitable development, and the city’s broader mission of fostering thriving, inclusive communities.

mySidewalk is a software platform that provides public data and intuitive tools for creating maps, reports, and visualizations to help communities, organizations, and government agencies make data-driven decisions. The platform integrates data from various trusted sources, offers templates for common needs such as demographics, housing, public health, and economic development, and allows users to upload their own data to generate custom insights and share community stories. 

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—empowering you to have an innovative place to work while doing activities you love. An innovation and activity hub approximately 30 minutes south of Jacksonville downtown and north of historic downtown St. Augustine, the Link has offerings for all ages and, has several event spaces available to rent. To learn more about the Link, visit https://www.thelink.zone/

Florida Data Science for Social Good (FL-DSSG) program blends data science and technology design to inform and solve important social problems in Florida. We accomplish this goal by partnering with non-profit 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. Non-profit and public-sector organizations receive data analysis and visualization reports supporting their work in the Florida communities. Florida DSSG is hosted at the University of North Florida (UNF). For more information about the FL-DSSG, visit https://dssg.unf.edu/.

AI4Good Hackathon Schedule

Friday, October 31

Hackathon begins

4 PM - Kickoff event [First floor – near the stage]

4:30 PM – Introduction to problem cases and datasets overview

5 PM - Teams are formed, and data access info will be emailed to hackathon participants.

Friday 6 PM - Dinner [First floor – Dining area]

Friday 7 PM - Mentoring session on problem understanding [Second floor]

Saturday, November 1

Full day of coding and hacking remainder of the day and through the night

9 AM – Breakfast [First floor]

11 AM - Mentoring session on selecting machine learning and AI techniques [Second floor]

12 PM – Lunch [First floor]

2 PM - Mentoring session on solution approach [Second floor]

6:30 PM – Dinner [First floor]

7 PM - Mentoring session on solution implementation [Second floor]

Sunday, November 2

Last hours of hacking and conducting performance evaluations until 10 AM.

9 AM – Breakfast [First floor]

10 AM - Submit solutions to Devpost. Presentation order selections.

11 AM - Experts review solutions submitted and share their perspectives with the judging team

12 PM – Lunch [First floor]

1 PM to 3:30 PM - Team presentations [First floor]

3:30 PM - Hackathon Winner Award ceremony and event closing [First floor]

Mentoring Sessions

Friday, October 31

7 PM to 8 PM

Audrieanna Burgin (904ward), Nilay Chandra (Dun & Bradstreet), Indika Kahanda (UNF Computing), Mahendran Mookkiah (CEVA Logistics), Dan Richard (UNF Psychology), and Laurel Wainwright (JEA)

Saturday, November 1

11 AM to 12 PM

Audrieanna Burgin (904ward), Nilay Chandra (Dun & Bradstreet), Ranadhir Ghosh (FIS), Mahendran Mookkiah (CEVA Logistics), Dan Richard (UNF Psychology), and Laurel Wainwright (JEA)

2 PM to 3 PM

Audrieanna Burgin (904ward), Ranadhir Ghosh (FIS), Indika Kahanda (UNF Computing), Mahendran Mookkiah (CEVA Logistics), and Laurel Wainwright (JEA)

7 PM to 8 PM

Dan Richard (UNF Psychology), Nilay Chandra (Dun & Bradstreet), Ranadhir Ghosh (FIS), and Laurel Wainwright (JEA)

For more information about the AI4Good Hackathon event and organizer information, please visit the 2025 Hackathon page.

Google Cloud Skills Boost

All participants who take part in the hackathon activities at the Link for all three days will receive one year of access to the Google Cloud Skills Boost, an online learning platform that provides hands-on, self-paced courses, quests, and learning paths to help users develop skills in Google Cloud, including areas like AI, Machine Learning, data analytics, and core infrastructure. The platform offers digital skill badges, helps prepare for Google Cloud certifications, and provides free monthly credits for hands-on learning through its Innovators community. 

Special opportunities for teams with innovative solutions:

Apart from networking access and award prizes, teams that come up with innovative AI solutions that are found to be feasible by the City of Jacksonville will be invited to

• Present their ideas and solutions to the City of Jacksonville Mayor Deegan team
• Receive guidance and support to implement the solution to be included in the State of Jax website
• Present the implemented solution at the TEDx Jacksonville event in January 2026

• Evaluation Criteria
  Each participating team will be evaluated on their model performance and presentation of the results. The hackathon winners will be determined based on the evaluation factor weightings and scores received below.
• Presentation (20%)
  * Delivery of content (articulation, composure) * Appearance of content (clear and helpful visuals) * Organization of content * Q&A responses * Explanation of impact on stakeholders (e.g., The City of Jacksonville) * Suggested next steps
• Model Performance (40%)
  * Communicate performance results * Interpretation of results * Technical terms explained * Model generation process * Model performance metrics
• Solution Approach (40%)
  * Originality/Creativity * Clearly defined positive impact on the environment * Feasibility to scale solution * Operational impact on problem case owners and affected population groups
• Scoring Ratings
  5 = Excellent presentation on all counts 4 = Very good presentation with minor issues 3 = Pitch can be significantly improved but is satisfactory overall 2 = Pitch is incomplete and severely lacking 1 = Presenter fails to address the criteria