Techstars StartUp Weekend - PAI Palooza & GDG Build with AI—Chicago
This AI Hackathon Series Tour is a groundbreaking, multi-city event that spans the United States, bringing together the brightest minds in artificial intelligence to innovate, collaborate, and compete over a 3-day period. Culminating in the PAI Palooza, a showcase of the host city's most promising AI startups and projects, each event aims to foster community, drive technological advancement, and highlight the capabilities of AI across various industries.
The envisioned event is a groundbreaking fusion of artificial intelligence innovation, competitive hacking spirit, and cutting-edge technological exposition, wrapped in the vibrant atmosphere reminiscent of the Lollapalooza music festival.
The event is meant to empower entrepreneurs who are learning the basics of founding startups and launching successful ventures. It is a 54-hour event that brings together developers, designers, marketers, product managers, and startup enthusiasts to share ideas, form teams, build products, and launch startups.
This AI-focused Touring Hackathon & Tech Fair takes the essence of a traditional hackathon — where entrepreneurs, developers, designers, product owners, and tech enthusiasts come together to solve problems and create new technologies, and possibly companies, within a set period — and elevates it with the inclusion of AI technologies at its core. Participants will engage in intense hackathon challenges aimed at harnessing the power of AI to solve real-world problems, innovate, and develop applications that push the boundaries of what's currently possible. Including using AI itself to build MVP with more technical depth in a shortened period of time (48 hours).
Complementing the hackathon, the event features a tech fair showcasing the latest advancements in artificial intelligence, robotics, machine learning, and related fields. Attendees will have the opportunity to experience hands-on demos, attend workshops led by industry experts, and witness keynote speeches that inspire and forecast the future of technology. This touring event brings together a community of tech enthusiasts, professionals, and students, promoting collaboration, learning, and innovation in a dynamic, festival-like environment.
Prizes:
First Place
Musa Capital Prize Amount: $1500
- Justification: The first-place team must demonstrate exceptional performance in terms of innovation, validation, execution, and business model. This larger prize reflects the team's outstanding achievement and provides them with resources to further develop their startup.
Second Place
Musa Capital Prize Amount: $1000
- Justification: The second-place team must show strong potential and have made substantial progress. This prize recognizes their hard work and encourages them to continue refining their project.
Third Place
- Musa Capital Prize Amount: $500
- Justification: The third-place team has also made notable contributions and shown promise. This prize acknowledges their efforts and provides them with some support to keep moving forward.
Honorable Mentions
For teams that have performed exceptionally well but did not place in the top three, PAI Palooza Hackathons proudly offers Honorable Mentions. These teams will receive non-monetary awards such as free mentoring sessions, co-working space access, or services from our event sponsors. These rewards aim to support and encourage continued innovation and development of their projects, recognizing their hard work and potential.
Friday
- 4:00 PM - Participant Check-in and Welcome Snacks
- 5:00 PM - Opening Ceremony: Welcome Speech, Getting started with the PAI OS, Hackathon Rules and Goals
- 6:00 PM - Team Formation and Networking Activities
- 7:00 PM - Dinner Served, Sponsored by Local Food Sponsors
- 8:00 PM - Idea Pitch Session and Team Finalization
- 8:40 PM - "Introduction to Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) with Milvus", - Developer Advocate at Zilliz
- 9:00 PM - Midnight - Hackathon Begins: Teams Start Working on Projects
Saturday
- 8:00 AM - Coffee Served
- 9:00 AM - Morning Check-In: Quick Team Updates, Mentor Availability Announced
- 10:00 AM - FounderWay.AI introduction and demo
- 11:00 AM - Getting started with the PAI OS
- 12:00 PM - Lunch Break
- 1:00 - 5:00 PM - Coding Continues: Teams Work on Projects, Mentor Rounds
- 5:00 PM - Mid-Hack Check-In: Optional Project Updates, Refreshment Break
- 6:00 PM - Dinner Served
- 7:00 PM - Midnight - Evening Coding Session: Focus Time, Mentors Available for Scheduled Consultations
Sunday
- 8:00 AM - Coffee Served
- 9:00 AM - Final Coding Push: Teams Work on Finalizing Projects and Presentations
- 10:00 AM - Project Submission Deadline
- 12:00 PM - Lunch Served, Coding Ends
- 1:00 PM - - Project Pitches Begin: Teams Present to Judges and Audience
- 3:00 PM - Judges Break Away to deliberate
- 4:00 PM - PAI Palooza Showcase: Highlighting Local AI Startups and Technologies
- 6:00 PM - Closing Ceremony: Awards Announcement, Closing Remarks from Event Organizers and Sponsors