🔍Create AI-driven, open-source solutions to optimize public sector network management in critical areas like predictive maintenance, total cost optimization (TOC), and energy efficiency—enhancing public sector networks' scalability, efficiency, and sustainability in underserved regions.
📅 Join us February 28–March 2, 2025: Participate online or in person in vibrant Barcelona at NTT DATA Living Lab, on the sidelines of MWC 2025, to collaborate with peers worldwide and shape the future of public sector connectivity.
👨🏫 Work alongside experienced industry mentors who will provide guidance and insights to elevate your solutions.
💰 $5,000 prize pool for the winners!
🏆 Compete for a chance to join the lablab NEXT incubator program!
🧑🏻💻 Don’t wait! Sign up now to secure your spot before the Kick-Off!
The AI for Connectivity Hackathon builds on the transformative mission of Giga, an initiative by UNICEF and ITU that aims to connect every school worldwide to the internet and every young person to opportunities and knowledge. This hackathon invites participants to use open-source AI technologies to address the pressing challenges of managing public sector networks—ensuring efficient, cost-effective, and sustainable operations for critical institutions like schools and health centers in underserved regions.
Public sector connectivity networks are digital infrastructures providing internet and communication services to institutions such as schools and healthcare facilities. These networks are essential for enabling equitable access to education, healthcare, and governance, particularly in remote areas. Optimizing their management is crucial to bridging the digital divide and advancing the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
This challenge is the second edition of a global series designed to bring together AI developers, educators, and innovators to co-create impactful solutions. Winning teams will gain access to an incubation program that provides mentorship, resources, and technical credits to transform their prototypes into impactful, real-world tools.
Join the on-site event in Barcelona, Spain
For those joining the hackathon on-site, we’re thrilled to welcome you to the NTT DATA Living Lab in Barcelona, Spain! Here you’ll gain exclusive access to top mentors, collaborate with a passionate community, and access on-site support to bring your AI ideas to life.
The AI for Connectivity Hackathon on-site event is co-hosted with NTT DATA, which aims to create, share and promote knowledge on innovation and cross-sector partnerships in the Barcelona ecosystem.
Don’t miss out - apply for a seat to secure your spot and join in person or online! ✨
To participate in our hackathon, you must complete the application process. This applies to both online and onsite participants.
- Apply for a seat to enroll in the Hackathon
- Fill out the registration form
- Participate remotely from anywhere
Find our event on DevITJob!
Participate in this hackathon to develop open-source AI-driven solutions that tackle complex challenges in designing and maintaining resilient, efficient, and sustainable public sector networks for underserved regions.
Public sector connectivity networks are digital infrastructures that provide internet and communication services to public institutions such as schools, healthcare facilities, and government offices. These networks enable equitable access to essential services, fostering education, healthcare, governance, and economic development, particularly in underserved or remote areas. They are essential to bring connectivity, in our increasingly digitized world, to every corner of the globe.
This hackathon challenges participants to address pressing global issues by leveraging advanced AI technologies to improve the planning, procurement, operations, and maintenance of public sector networks. Innovators are encouraged to design creative solutions that enhance the efficiency and sustainability of these networks, improve access to critical services, and empower communities.
Optimizing Public Sector Networks:
Public sector networks provide essential connectivity for schools, healthcare facilities, and government services. However, challenges in planning, procurement, infrastructure design, and resource allocation often hinder their efficiency and scalability.
This hackathon invites participants to develop AI-powered, open-source solutions that improve how these networks are designed, managed, and optimized—ensuring resilient, cost-effective, and scalable connectivity for underserved regions.
🔹 Your solution must align with at least one of the tracks below, but you are encouraged to combine multiple areas for greater impact.
Focus: Leverage data-driven insights to help design, plan, and blueprint scalable, cost-efficient network infrastructure for rural and remote areas.
• Community Asset Mapping: Integrate local data to ensure designs meet on-the-ground needs.
Focus: Maximize the potential of existing/underleveraged network assets to deliver high-quality digital services.
• Last-Mile Enhancement: Optimize signal strength, speed, bandwidth, and reliability where basic infrastructure is already in place.
• Service Resilience: Develop solutions that sustain network performance under typical constraints of rural and remote areas, including extreme or variable local conditions.
• Digital Service Activation: Create platforms that transform existing connectivity into robust, community-focused digital services.
Participants are encouraged to explore next-gen telecom technologies to maximize impact and scalability.
• Advanced Network Architectures: Experiment with the latest network technologies, network slicing, and massive MIMO to boost capacity and reliability.
• Edge Computing & Virtualization: Leverage Network Function Virtualization (NFV), Software Defined Networking (SDN), and edge computing for dynamic, scalable network operations.
Use cutting-edge telecom innovations to build smarter, more efficient, and future-ready public sector networks.
Unlock the Ultimate Resource Hub for Network Innovation
Explore our carefully curated guide designed to accelerate your network development projects.This collection includes datasets, tools, and simulators tailored to help you analyze connectivity gaps, optimize networks, and explore advanced technologies like 5G. Whether you’re working on rural connectivity, infrastructure planning, or cutting-edge telecom solutions, this resource hub equips you with everything you need to build impactful solutions efficiently.
Click here to access the guide and start exploring!
Select your preferred technology for app development.
Use any open-source technology to develop an innovative solution that addresses the challenge. Submissions must comply with the open-source requirements, ensuring transparency and accessibility of your project.
Exciting news for the teams who created or joined a team for the hackathon! Thanks to our partner AI/ML API you have a chance to get exclusive FREE access to various models to help jumpstart your AI projects, We’re giving away 1000 keys with $20 in AI/ML API credits,
Promo code: will be announced during the kick-off stream (watch the live stream on Twitch)
With over 100 models from OpenAI, Anthropic, LLama, and Qwen, the AI/ML API covers all your needs, from image generation to computer vision with just one API. ✨ Here’s how you can claim your bonus and get started:
How to apply a Promo code 👉 link
Please note that the AI/ML API is a subscription-based service. If you do not plan to continue using it after the hackathon, please remember to cancel your subscription to avoid any charges.
How to cancel the subscription 👉 link
For the technical support, visit AI/ML API Discord.
🎁 Don't miss out on this incredible opportunity. Gather your team and sign up now! ⏳✨
Prizes
💰 Cash: $3,000
💰 Cash: $1,500
💰 Cash: $500
🏆Acceleration Opportunity
The top teams from this hackathon will secure a spot in the exclusive 6-week GIGA & lablab NEXT incubator program.
📋 Basic Information
• Project Title
• Short Description
• Long Description
• Technology & Category Tags
📸 Cover Image and Presentation
• Cover Image
• Video Presentation
• Slide Presentation
💻 App Hosting & Code Repository
• Public GitHub Repository
• Demo Application Platform
• Application URL
For further details and guidance, please visit Submission Guidelines
Impact (Real-World Value & Practicality)
Join lablab.ai hackathon and innovate using the latest models in the market. Discover all the relevant details below.
The start date of the hackathon is mentioned according to the date specified on the hackathon page, cover and schedule. The hackathon will take place on the lablab.ai platform and lablab.ai Discord server , or join us in person in Barcelona to experience the event live.
Everyone is welcome to participate, regardless of previous AI or coding experience! We encourage anyone with a passion for AI or an interest in exploring how it can be used in their field to join.
If you don't have a team, don't worry! You can connect with other participants from all over the world on our dashboard or Discord server. We also recommend checking out our Discord server to find teammates and bounce around ideas. You can join the server here.
The hackathon will take place online on lablab.ai platform and lablab.ai Discord Server. Please register for both in order to participate. To participate click the "Enroll" button at the bottom of the page and read our Hackathon Guidelines and Getting Started Guide.
To get ready for the hackathon, visit our AI Tech pages and read up on all the available technologies. You can also check out our tutorials page for more information on how to use them. Get a head start on your project by using the resources on lablab.ai!
Check out the roster and find teams to join
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