Opportunity brief
Overview
48-Hour Online AI Hackathon
Organized by Frontend Arena | In collaboration with Adaption
- Event Dates: December 10–12, 2026
- Format: Online
- Duration: 48 hours
- Team Size: 2–4 members
About AI BuildFest 2026
AI BuildFest 2026 is a 48-hour online hackathon focused on building AI-powered solutions for real-world challenges. It brings together students, developers, and AI enthusiasts to explore how custom-trained AI models can be developed and applied to practical problems.
Participants will work in teams to understand a challenge announced during the hackathon, prepare or generate a suitable dataset, train their own model using Adaption's platform, and build a working solution that demonstrates its capabilities.
The event emphasizes practical model development, problem-solving, experimentation, and the creation of useful AI applications.
Hackathon Theme
Own Your AI: Train a Model That Solves a Real Problem
Participants will be challenged to build an AI solution in which a trained model plays a meaningful role in addressing a real-world problem.
The official problem statements and challenge requirements will be announced to registered participants during the hackathon. Teams will then have the event period to understand the challenge, develop their approach, train a model, and implement their solution.
Challenge Format
AI BuildFest will follow a challenge-based format. No specific tracks or problem statements are being published in advance.
- Official problem statements will be revealed during the hackathon.
- Teams will select or be assigned a challenge according to the instructions announced by the organizers.
- The challenge will require participants to develop an AI-based solution using the Adaption platform.
- Detailed requirements, deliverables, and submission instructions will be communicated when the challenge is announced.
Teams should be prepared to work with data, train a model, and demonstrate a functional solution within the 48-hour period.
Required Use of Adaption
Adaption is the technology partner for AI BuildFest. Teams must use Adaption's platform as part of their model-development workflow.
Dataset Preparation or Generation
Teams will use Adaptive Data to transform raw files into a training dataset, or Invent-a-Dataset to generate a dataset suited to their challenge.
Model Training
Teams will use AutoScientist to train their own model for the selected task.
Solution Development
Teams will build a functional application or prototype that uses their trained model to address the announced challenge.
Demonstration
Teams must demonstrate their solution and explain how the dataset and trained model contribute to solving the problem.
Participants retain their trained model weights and may publish them on platforms such as Hugging Face or Kaggle, subject to applicable platform terms and data or licensing restrictions.
Core requirement: Projects must demonstrate meaningful use of Adaption for dataset preparation or generation and model training. Simply integrating an existing third-party AI API without training a model through the required Adaption workflow will not satisfy this requirement.
Technical Workshop
A technical workshop led by an Adaption representative is planned before the hackathon. It will help participants become familiar with the platform and its model-development workflow.
Planned workshop topics:
- Introduction to Adaption's platform
- Preparing or generating datasets
- Training models using AutoScientist
- Technical guidance and participant Q&A
Workshop date and time: To be announced
Format: Online
The confirmed schedule and joining details will be shared with registered participants.
Eligibility and Team Formation
- Each team must consist of 2–4 members.
- Participants must provide accurate registration and team information.
- Each team should nominate a point of contact for event communication.
- Teams are responsible for coordinating their work and submitting their project on time.
- Participants must follow the official challenge instructions announced during the hackathon.
Project Submission
Teams must submit their completed projects by the deadline communicated by the organizers.
The submission is expected to include:
- Team name and member details.
- Project title and the announced challenge being addressed.
- Description of the problem and proposed solution.
- Dataset details and how it was prepared or generated.
- Explanation of model training using Adaption's platform.
- Source-code repository and instructions for reviewing or running the project.
- A working demo or recorded walkthrough.
- Explanation of results, limitations, and potential real-world usefulness.
The official submission link, deliverables, and deadline will be provided to participants during the event.
Prizes and Adaption-Sponsored Benefits
The following Adaption-sponsored benefits are planned, subject to the final confirmed partnership terms.
Overall Winner, First Runner-up, and Second Runner-up
Recognized team members may receive additional Adaption platform credits worth $1,000 per member, subject to the confirmed eligibility and allocation terms.
Adaption Swag
Adaption swag kits will be available for recognized winners.
Best Use of Adaption Award
A $100 cash prize for the winning team will recognize effective and meaningful use of Adaption's platform, subject to the award criteria.
Adaption Leaderboard Prize
A $200 cash prize will be awarded to an eligible participant who reaches #1 on any Adaption leaderboard domain during the 48-hour hackathon, even if they are later overtaken. This award is subject to Adaption's leaderboard terms.
Adaption-sponsored prizes and benefits are subject to the final partnership agreement.
Event Communication
Workshop details, official problem statements, submission instructions, judging information, and other event updates will be shared through the official communication channels specified by Frontend Arena.
Participants are responsible for checking announcements and ensuring their team receives the relevant information.
Register for AI BuildFest 2026
Join the hackathon, take on a real-world challenge, train your own AI model, and develop a working solution in 48 hours.
AI BuildFest 2026 — Own Your AI. Build for a Real Problem.