7 months ago
Hackathon Kick-off Event Details
Hello AI for Good Hackathon Participants,
Thank you for registering to take part in the AI for Good Hackathon.
We have included key information about the hackathon in this email. We apologize for the lengthy email; please review it.
Event kick-off:
The hackathon event will start on Friday, October 31, at 4 PM in The Link (425 Town Plaza Ave, Ponte Vedra Beach, FL 32081). Student participants must check in before the kick-off event begins.
The AI4Good Hackathon is being held with the support of the State of Jax initiative, which unites trusted data sources to address Jacksonville’s most pressing community challenges. The 2025 hackathon will focus on the affordable housing crisis. During the weekend, you will work on one of three problem cases:
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 index
Problem Case #3: Generate data-driven recommendations for strategic affordable housing investments
During the event kick-off, we will provide an overview of the problems, the data, and the expected solution. Thus, we recommend you arrive at The Link around 3:30 PM to give you enough time to check in and be seated.
The Social Good Challenge:
We want to emphasize that this hackathon utilizes real-world data and community partners with real needs. Thus, the event is designed to make an impact on students and community members. Social good challenges can be solved, and real impacts can be made when team members bring diverse knowledge bases. Students from computing, business, statistics, psychology, sports management, and other disciplines are participating in the hackathon. Thus, we highly recommend reaching out to students from disciplines outside of your degree program to form a team. Again, this is a suggestion, not a requirement. More on team formation is given below.
Team formation:
Hackathon participants are expected to form teams of up to 3 members. You can work alone or with one or two other participants, as you prefer. After the event kick-off, participants without a team will be allowed to discuss and form one. Only those who provide team information will be allowed to present during the final presentations on Sunday afternoon.
A team registration form will be distributed during the event kick-off. You can provide team formation information on Friday evening.
In-person event:
Participants can start working on the hackathon problems at 5 PM on October 31. As this is an in-person hackathon, we encourage you to work on the hackathon problems in The Link. While you are welcome to spend the night at The Link, it is not required. However, it should be noted that there are no provisions provided in The Link for you to sleep comfortably. You may use the daytime to connect with your team and spend the evening and night in the comfort of your home. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, and soft drinks would be provided to hackathon participants.
Mandatory check-ins during the weekend:
At least one team member would be expected to check in with Dr. Umapathy on Friday evening, Saturday (morning or afternoon), and Sunday morning. Everyone on the team would be expected to complete online reflection questions over the weekend. These check-ins will help hackathon organizers to keep tabs on progress made and issues faced by the teams. We will share more information on these during the kick-off event.
Mentors:
Mentors from several companies and experts from UNF will stop by over the weekend to share best practices and tips. Please see the Devpost site for mentor hours and their names.
Final presentations and awards:
Hackathon teams must submit their solutions via Devpost by Sunday, November 2, at 10 AM. Teams will present their solution, insights, and interpretations from 1 PM to 3 PM on Sunday. The presentation order details will be shared on Saturday evening or Sunday morning.
Judges will deliberate and announce the winners on Sunday at 3:30 PM. Each member of the first-place team will receive a $500 gift card, each second-place team member will receive a $300 gift card, and each third-place team member will receive a $200 gift card.
Dress code:
As this is a weekend event, we suggest wearing business casual on Friday and Sunday and casual clothes on Saturday. You will interact in person with representatives from the City of Jacksonville, Dun & Bradstreet, FIS, NLP Logix, and UNF. Therefore, do not wear any clothing that others consider offensive at any time during the hackathon.
If you have any questions about the hackathon, please email Dr. Umapathy at k.umapathy@unf.edu.
Sincerely,
AI 4 Good Hackathon Organizers