Challenge Category Overview
Avanade — Future of Work & AI Wellbeing Design an AI-powered solution that reimagines how people work and thrive in the modern workplace. Teams are challenged to address the intersection of workforce transformation and employee wellbeing — whether through intelligent tools that reduce cognitive load, foster inclusion, or support mental and physical health at work. Solutions should be creative, technically viable, and demonstrate a clear path to organizational adoption.
ISACA OC — Personal Cyber Safety Coach Build an AI-powered personal cybersecurity coach that makes digital safety accessible to everyday users — not just IT professionals. Teams are challenged to design a solution that explains threats clearly, offers trustworthy and privacy-respecting recommendations, and could realistically be piloted at a university, club, or small business. The goal: reduce real harm by empowering non-experts to protect themselves online.
Insights Association — Career Event Smart Match Create an AI-enabled smart matching system that connects students with career events, volunteer opportunities, and professional association chapters based on their interests and goals. Teams should address the real operational constraints of volunteer-run organizations like IA West — including limited bandwidth and the need to grow member pipelines — with a solution credibly scalable from CPP to multiple universities.
Neo Smart Living & AYTM — AI-Powered Market Research Develop an open-source, AI-powered market research pipeline that makes consumer insights accessible to small businesses and student teams. Using Neo Smart Living's Tahoe Mini as a real-world product case, teams will integrate synthetic respondent generation, panel data (powered by AYTM's Skipper tool), and cross-model validation to produce actionable findings — with cost barriers and data transparency addressed head-on.
Creative — Student-Identified Entrepreneurial Problems Teams are invited to identify an entrepreneurial challenge they're passionate about and build an original AI solution from the ground up. There are no prescribed use cases — just a high bar for creativity, real-world impact, and a compelling story. This track celebrates student ingenuity in its purest form.
You can find sponsors’ challenge category detailed descriptions here:
Avanade (Future of work, AI wellbeing)
ISACA OC (Personal Cyber Safety Coach)
Insights Association (Career Event Smart Match)
Neo_Smart_Living & AYTM Joint_Challenge (New product AI powered market research)
Creative (student identified entrepreneurial problems)
Detailed Rubrics for Each Category
Finalist Universal Rubrics
| # | Dimension | What Judges Evaluate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Innovation & Problem Framing | How original is the solution, and how clearly does the team define the problem it solves? |
| 2 | Impact & Significance | Will the solution create meaningful real-world impact — for users, businesses, or society? |
| 3 | Technical Viability & Feasibility | Is the solution technically sound, credible, and scalable toward real-world deployment? |
| 4 | Execution & Adoption Potential | Is there a plausible path to real-world use? Would target users/organizations actually adopt it? Does it demonstrate responsible AI practices (privacy, transparency, fairness)? |
| 5 | Storytelling & Communication | Is the 6-minute pitch clear, compelling, and effective in conveying the problem, solution, and impact? |
Avanade
| Innovation & Creativity | How original and creative is the proposed solution? |
|---|---|
| Significance & Impact | Will the solution create meaningful impact for industries, communities, or society? |
| Technical Viability | Is the proposed solution technically sound, practical, and scalable for real-world implementation? |
| Entrepreneurship & Organizational Strategy | Does the solution demonstrate potential for real-world execution within a business or organizational context? Is it aligned with market or community needs? |
| Storytelling | Is the 5-minute video clear, compelling, and effective in communicating the problem, solution, and impact? |
ISACA OC
| Impact | Would a non-expert actually use it? Would it reduce harm? |
|---|---|
| Clarity | Are explanations understandable to 'everyone'? |
| Feasibility | Could this be piloted at a university/club/SMB? |
| Trust | Privacy, transparency, and safe recommendations. |
| Storytelling | Clear demo narrative in 5 minutes. |
Insights Association
| Innovation & Problem Framing | How clearly does the team define the opportunity discovery, volunteer matching, and pipeline problem? How original is the AI-enabled solution? |
|---|---|
| Impact & Relevance | Will Smart Match realistically increase the engagement-to-membership pipeline? Does it address IA West's real-world constraints (volunteer-run, limited ops bandwidth)? Does it scale beyond CPP? |
| Technical or Design Feasibility | Is the CRM prototype credible and feasible? Does the opportunity discovery method work? Responsible AI: privacy-first data handling, transparent scoring, fair matching. |
| User Need & Adoption Potential | Would IA board members, university event organizers, and chapter leadership actually use this? Plausible path from CPP prototype to multi-university adoption? |
| Storytelling | Is the solution clearly and compellingly communicated with a professional 5-minute video? |
Neo Smart Living & AYTM
| Innovation & Problem Framing | How clearly does the team define the market research accessibility problem? How original is the AI-enabled pipeline design — beyond a basic API wrapper? |
|---|---|
| Impact & Relevance | Are findings specific and actionable enough for Tony Koo to make a real marketing decision about the Tahoe Mini? Does the open-source pipeline have reuse potential? |
| Technical or Design Feasibility | Code works, stages connect, API calls are efficient, cross-model reliability checks implemented. Responsible AI: synthetic data clearly labeled, limitations honestly stated. |
| User Need & Adoption Potential | Does the simulated research pipeline produce insights users would trust and act on? Plausible path to adoption by students, practitioners, or small businesses? |
| Storytelling | Coherent narrative in a professional 5-minute video. Does the team connect the open-source vision to the cost barrier, Neo Smart Living case, and confidence calibration? |
Creative
| Innovation & Creativity | How original and creative is the proposed solution? |
|---|---|
| Significance & Impact | Will the solution create meaningful impact for industries, communities, or society? |
| Technical Viability | Is the proposed solution technically sound, practical, and scalable for real-world implementation? |
| Entrepreneurship & Organizational Strategy | Does the solution demonstrate potential for real-world execution within a business or organizational context? Is it aligned with market or community needs? |
| Storytelling | Is the 5-minute video clear, compelling, and effective in communicating the problem, solution, and impact? |
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