The state of Iowa is known for its rich educational institutions and the immense potential of its college students. As the world delves deeper into the era of big data and Multimodal AI, it's essential to harness these technologies for social good. This challenge aims to bring together the brightest minds from Iowa's colleges to tackle pressing societal issues using big data and Multimodal AI.
This challenge is open to any full-time students in Iowa ages 18-24. No coding or technical knowledge necessary. To enter the AI Challenge, select a track, assemble a team of 3-5 students, and fill out the form below. We will provide you with more details on the challenge such as project timeline, requirements, materials and more.
Objective:
Develop an AI solution that leverages big data to address a social issue relevant to the Iowa community by choosing one of the tracks below. Solutions should be innovative, scalable, and have a tangible positive impact.
Objective: Develop AI solutions tailored to addressing critical challenges in Iowa's agriculture sector.
Challenges to Address:
• Livestock Health Monitoring: Develop an AI system using sensors and machine learning to monitor livestock health, detecting early signs of illness or distress.
• Crop Health Monitoring: Create an AI-powered platform using satellite imagery and drones to detect diseases, pests, or nutrient deficiencies in crops.
• Farm Labor Efficiency: Design AI-driven autonomous robots to assist with labor-intensive tasks like planting, weeding, and harvesting, addressing the labor shortage.
• Precision Agricultural Inputs: Build a multi-modal AI system for real-time monitoring of soil, moisture, and crop growth to optimize irrigation, fertilizer, and pesticide use.
Objective: Develop AI solutions to promote sustainability and preserve resources for future generations.
Challenges to Address:
• Power Management: Develop an AI system to optimize electricity generation from diverse sources, considering weather patterns and seasonal changes to ensure efficient energy distribution and minimize reliance on non-renewable resources.
• Water Quality Monitoring: Create an AI-powered platform to monitor water quality in real-time, identifying pollutants and providing actionable data for prompt intervention, ensuring clean water for communities and ecosystems.
• Food Rescue: Design an AI solution to track food waste from restaurants, enabling the redistribution of surplus food to shelters and non-profits, reducing waste and addressing food insecurity.
• Mapping Local Food Surplus: Build an AI system to map restaurants with surplus food, facilitating its efficient redistribution to food shelters and non-profits, ensuring excess food reaches those in need in a given area.
Objective: Create AI solutions to address chronic student absenteeism Schools, improving student outcomes and engagement.
Challenges to Address:
• Chronic Absence/School Attendance: Design an AI-driven system that analyzes patterns in student attendance, identifies at-risk students, and provides personalized interventions to improve attendance rates and support student engagement.
• Improving Reading and Writing: Develop an AI-powered platform to assess and enhance reading and writing skills, using natural language processing and personalized learning pathways to address individual student needs and improve literacy outcomes.
Objective: Develop AI solutions to increase access to opportunities, ensuring fair chances for growth and contribution across various sectors.
Challenges to Address:
• Up-Skilling with AI: Create an AI-powered platform that provides personalized learning pathways for skill development, helping individuals acquire new competencies and improve employability in an ever-evolving job market.
• Increasing Accessibility within the Art Sector: Design an AI system to make art more accessible by analyzing and recommending art content to diverse audiences, while also creating tools to help artists with disabilities better engage in the creative process.
• Entrepreneurship: Develop an AI-driven platform to provide aspiring entrepreneurs with personalized business guidance, market insights, and resource recommendations, increasing their chances of success and fostering innovation across underserved communities.
Team Composition:
Students ages 18-24 can apply in teams of 3-5. Interdisciplinary teams composed of students with backgrounds in STEM fields, social sciences, and humanities encouraged to apply. Teams with diverse demographic and cultural backgrounds are also encouraged to apply. Individuals may apply without being part of a team and will be placed with a team by competition organizers.
Data Sets:
Teams must share the data sources they use and can create their own datasets. Datasets may be qualitative or quantitative, but teams must (1) share the dataset, (2) explain the methods used to create it (if applicable), and (3) ensure all personally identifiable information is redacted. The data should not allow an independent user to identify individuals.
Where to get Data:
AI Challenge Information and Data Sets.pdf
Multimodal AI:
Solutions should utilize multiple AI modals. This could mean combining Natural Language Processing (NLP) to understand textual data, Computer Vision for image data, and Predictive Analytics for trend forecasting, among others. Example, a model that produces classifiers for flood warnings based on both aerial photographs of and geodata.
Project Example:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/ai/ai-lab-projects
Win $5,000 and an opportunity for a pilot implementation in partnership with a local organization.
Win $3,000 and an internship opportunity with leading tech firms in Iowa.
Win $2,000 and mentorship sessions with AI experts.
Any student attending college and pursuing an undergraduate degree in the state of Iowa. Participants are required to sign up in teams of 3-5 students.
Yes! This challenge was created to be accessible to students in any field of study, with or without a technical background or experience working with AI.
Sign up to get more information on submission requirements and details pertaining to the challenge.
Mentors are expected to share high-level advice and insights to inspire teams, not provide detailed plans or advice on using AI programs. The focus is on encouragement to foster creativity and problem-solving.
Pi515 will provide access to AI programs, data sets, and all the resources students need to successfully complete the challenge. Sign up to get more information.
