Students are welcome to register and join at any time throughout the Challenge!
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Join the AI Builders Challenge – North America, a free virtual competition for university students across the United States and Canada to learn new skills, build real-world projects with IBM Bob, and compete for prizes. No coding experience is required! Students of all majors, backgrounds, and skill levels are welcome -- registration is open throughout the Challenge.
Start with the free 15 minuterequired IBM SkillsBuild learningto build foundational knowledge of IBM Bob and earn a certificate of participation. All participants must complete this course and submit their certificate with their final project to be eligible for judging. You can also explore additional foundational to advanced IBM SkillsBuild courses to strengthen your skills. Choose from AI for Good, AI for Business, or the Wildcard Challenge and build your project with IBM Bob as your primary development tool.
Join the kickoff webinars on November 5 to learn more about the competition, explore available resources, and connect with fellow participants. Throughout the Challenge, you'll have access to IBM mentors, technical resources, and project support to help bring your ideas to life. Gain hands-on experience, create a portfolio-ready project, and submit your final project by December 10, 2026, for the opportunity to compete for a share of the $15,000 prize pool, including $10,000 for the first-place team!
About the Student Challenge
The Challenge is open to eligible university students 18 years of age or older who are legal residents of the United States of America or Canada, excluding the province of Quebec. Participation is subject to the Official Rules.
How it Works
Build your skills, then put them into practice.
The challenge is open to current university or college students of all majors and gives you the tools, resources, and support to get started. Begin with IBM SkillsBuild, then apply what you learn by building your solution with IBM Bob.
BUILD
LEARN
Create a Real-World Prototype with IBM Bob
Develop Your Skills with IBM SkillsBuild
Choose from AI for Good, AI for Business, or the Wildcard Challenge and use IBM Bob as your primary development tool to build a prototype that addresses a real-world problem.
Access IBM mentors, technical resources, and webinars throughout the Challenge to support your project development.
Registration is open throughout the five-week Challenge. Participants may join at any time and submit their final projects by December 10, 2026, for the opportunity to compete for a share of the $15,000 prize pool.
Complete the required free 15-minute IBM SkillsBuild introductory learning, How IBM Bob and AI Tools Are Changing the Way Solutions Are Built, to gain foundational knowledge of IBM Bob and prepare for the Challenge. All participants must complete this course and submit their certificate of completion with their final project to be eligible for judging.
Explore additional IBM SkillsBuild courses, from foundational to advanced learning, to expand your AI knowledge and build the skills needed to develop your solution.
The AI Builders Challenge - North America is open to current college and university students* in the United States and Canada across all majors and backgrounds. All AI and coding skill levels are welcome.
Business & Industry Students
(Business, Finance, Healthcare, Policy, Economics & Related Majors)
Technical & STEM Students
(Computer Science, Data Science, Engineering & Related Fields)
Design & Communications Students
(Design, Marketing, Media, Communications & Related Majors)
Students Passionate About AI
(Have an idea or want to learn more about AI)
Team size is 1–5 participants, solo participation is also allowed.
To be eligible to enter the Challenge, you must be a student at least 18 years of age enrolled at an institution of higher education and be eligible in accordance with the BeMyApp Eligibility Policy and the Official Rules.
*Including students at universities, colleges, community colleges, technical or vocational schools and institutes of technology.
Prizes
Join the challenge for the opportunity to compete for a share of the $15,000 total prize pool. Top teams across all challenges will also gain recognition from IBM and the opportunity to showcase their work.
Grand Prize
$ 10,000 USD
Best AI for Good Project
$ 1,000 USD
Second Place/ Runner Up
$ 3,000 USD
Best Wildcard Solution
$ 1,000 USD
Prizes are awarded to the top eligible teams across all challenges and are subject to the official challenge terms and conditions. Participants can register at any time during the challenge period. All solutions must be submitted by December 10, 2026 at 5:00 PM EST and include proof of completion of the required IBM SkillsBuild learning for every team member to be eligible for a prize.
Challenge Themes
Choose one of three challenge themes and use IBM Bob to build an innovative AI-powered solution.
AI for Good
Build AI solutions that create meaningful impact.
AI has the potential to help address important challenges facing people, communities, and the world around us. In this challenge, you’ll build a solution that uses AI to support positive social outcomes.
Your project should demonstrate how AI can help people make better decisions, improve access to resources, or solve real-world challenges in thoughtful and practical ways.
Example Ideas
AI tools for education and learning support
Community resource and support platforms
Public health or well-being tools
Disaster preparedness and response solutions
Non-profit initiatives
Think About:
How can AI improve lives or strengthen communities?
How can AI help make important resources or services more accessible?
How can AI be used responsibly to address real-world problems?
AI for Business
Build Intelligent Systems for the Future of Work
AI is changing how businesses operate by helping teams automate repetitive work, organize information, coordinate projects, make faster decisions, and deliver better experiences. In this challenge, build an AI-powered solution that addresses a real business need. Your project could support employees, customers, managers, or operations teams by improving how work gets planned, executed, analyzed, or scaled.
Your goal is to demonstrate how AI can become a practical part of the way an organization works—not just as a standalone tool, but as a system that helps people achieve better outcomes.
Example Ideas
Workflow automation tools to help onboard new team members more efficiently
AI co-workers and assistants that help employees research, organize, and complete everyday tasks
Project planning assistants that map tasks, timelines, and responsibilities across departments
Decision intelligence platforms that bring business data and recommended actions into one place
Operations and productivity tools that help teams manage schedules, resources, and recurring processes
Customer or employee experience tools that improve support, onboarding, and access to information
Entrepreneurship solutions that help increase speed and efficency
Think About:
How can AI reduce repetitive work?
How can AI improve decision-making?
How can AI help teams work more efficiently?
How can AI improve customer or employee experiences?
Wildcard Challenge
Bring your own idea to life with AI.
Have an idea that doesn’t fit into AI for Good or AI for Business? The Wildcard gives you the freedom to build an AI solution around your everyday life, student experience, hobbies, or personal interests.
Think about the tools you wish you had for school, campus life, sports, entertainment, staying organized, learning something new, or managing your day. This is your chance to build something you would actually want to use.
Example Ideas:
AI study assistants that help organize notes, assignments, and exam prep
Campus tools that help students find events, clubs, resources, or study spaces
Personal productivity assistants for managing schedules, goals, and daily tasks
Sports tools for tracking performance, planning workouts, or following teams
Creative AI tools for music, content creation, gaming, or storytelling
Personal recommendation tools for activities, entertainment, or everyday decisions
Think About:
What is something in your daily life that feels harder or more time-consuming than it should?
How could AI make student life easier, more organized, or more enjoyable?
What tool would you personally want to use every day?
How could AI support one of your hobbies, interests, or goals?
Submission Requirements
For each monthly challenge, submissions must published on the challenge platform by December 10th at 5:00pm ET.
To complete each challenge, your team must provide:
1.
Complete the required 15-minute IBM SkillsBuild learning before you begin building.
All team members must complete the learning first.
2.
A working prototype or proof of concept using IBM Bob (required primary developement tool)
3.
A published project page on the challenge platform that includes:
Which challenge you are submitting for, the problem you are solving, your AI/technical approach, and how you used IBM Bob.
A 3-minute video presentation and demo with spoken narration/voice-over explaining your solution and showing how it works
Winners will be selected by a panel of judges who will evaluate submissions based on:
Technical Execution
Innovation
Challenge Fit & Real-World Impact
Feasibility & Implementation
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BeMyApp is the official organizer of the AI Builders Challenge with IBM Bob, overseeing participant experience, platform management, and challenge execution.
