THE GENIUS PROJECT
Home / Programs / AI Hackathons

AI Hackathons

48 hours. A real Jamaican problem. A team of smart people. Build something that works, something that matters, and see if you can win.

What It Is

48 hours to go from
idea to working product.

A hackathon is one of the best learning environments that exists. You are not studying for an exam. You are building something real, under pressure, with people you may have just met, for a problem that actually exists.

The Genius Project AI Hackathons happen four times per year. Each one is themed around a specific Jamaican or Caribbean challenge: health equity, climate resilience, education access, financial inclusion. Teams of three to five build AI-powered solutions over one weekend.

The best solutions go on to receive seed funding connections, mentorship to continue development, and in some cases, active deployment partnerships with Jamaican government agencies and NGOs.

📅

Four Events Per Year

Quarterly hackathons, each with a different Caribbean challenge theme. The next one is always approaching.

🚀

Real Prizes, Real Stakes

Cash prizes, investor introductions, and accelerator entry for winning teams. Not trophies. Actual opportunities.

Team of young people working intensively at hackathon
🏆
8 Hackathons Completed 200+ participants total
The Format

How a Genius Project
hackathon works.

📅

Friday Evening: Kickoff

Theme announced. Problem statements released. Teams finalized. Mentors introduced. Opening session with context on the challenge from a real community or industry partner. The clock starts.

💻

Saturday: Build Day

Full day of building. Mentors circulate every two hours. Mid-day check-ins for each team. Three meals provided. The space stays open through the night for teams who want to keep going.

🏆

Sunday: Demo and Judging

Two-minute demos from every team. Three-minute Q+A from judges. Judging criteria: problem clarity, technical execution, feasibility of impact, and quality of presentation. Winners announced Sunday evening.

Past Themes

The problems we have
challenged teams to solve.

🏙

Climate Resilience

Build AI tools to help Jamaican communities prepare for and recover from climate events. Hurricane prediction, flood early warning, heat stress mapping. Winning team built a community flood alert app now being trialed in Portmore.

Q3 2025
❤

Health Access

Use AI to close gaps in health service access for rural and underserved Jamaican communities. Winning team built an AI triage tool that helps community health aides assess patient urgency before clinic visits.

Q1 2025
📚

Education Access

AI solutions that improve learning outcomes for Jamaican students who lack access to quality teachers or resources. Winning team built an offline-capable AI quiz generator for low-bandwidth rural schools.

Q2 2024
💰

Financial Inclusion

Help unbanked or underbanked Jamaicans access financial services. Winning team built an AI loan eligibility tool using mobile money history as alternative credit data.

Q4 2024
🌿

Food Security

AI for smallholder farmers, supply chain efficiency, and food waste reduction. Winning team built a WhatsApp bot that gives Jamaican small farmers daily price alerts and weather-based planting recommendations.

Q2 2025
👥

Youth Employment

Reduce youth unemployment with AI matching, skills assessment, and career navigation tools. Winning team built an AI career advisor specifically for CSEC graduates entering the job market.

Q3 2024
Prizes

What winning teams take home.

🏅
1st Place
JMD 200,000 cash + Startup Lab entry + Investor introductions
🥈
2nd Place
JMD 100,000 cash + 6 months mentorship + Tool credits
🥉
3rd Place
JMD 50,000 cash + 3 months mentorship
🌟
Best Social Impact
Special award + Deployment partnership consideration
Team Formation

How to put together
a strong team.

The strongest hackathon teams have at least one person from each of these areas:

💻
A builder - someone who can write code or use no-code AI tools to actually create the product
📊
A data person - someone comfortable finding, cleaning, and working with datasets
👨‍💻
A designer or communicator - someone who can make the product clear and the pitch compelling
🧠
A domain expert - someone who understands the problem from lived experience or background knowledge

Don't have a team yet?

Register as an individual and we will post you to our pre-hackathon team matching channel. Most solo registrants find teams within 48 hours of the event announcement going out.

You can also come to our pre-hackathon mixer, a casual networking event the Thursday before each hackathon where people find co-participants and form teams in person.

Upcoming Events

The next Genius Project
hackathon.

🇮🇲
NEXT HACKATHON

Caribbean AI for Justice

Build AI tools that address inequality, access to justice, and systemic barriers in Jamaican communities. Legal aid AI, dispute resolution tools, rights information chatbots.

June 2026
Date TBC
Kingston
In-person + Virtual
JMD 350K
Prize Pool
Register Your Interest →

48 hours. Build something
Jamaica actually needs.

Register for the next hackathon. Whether you are a coder, a designer, a domain expert, or just someone with a lot of energy and a good idea, there is a place for you.

Register for the Next Hackathon → Continue Building in Startup Lab