UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Each year, teams of Penn State students use artificial intelligence (AI) to help address pressing global issues in the Nittany AI Challenge. Presented by the Nittany AI Alliance in the College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST), the competition offers students the opportunity to develop innovative solutions and win cash prizes. Teams must enter by Dec. 11 to participate in this year's challenge.
The annual competition spans the fall and spring semesters, and multidisciplinary student teams compete for funding to develop potential AI-based solutions to real-world problems. The challenge allows undergraduate and graduate students to apply their knowledge in new ways and experience the innovation that happens when working collaboratively to harness the power of AI.
"If you have an AI-based idea that can do good in the world, the Nittany AI Challenge is your home," said Stephanie Bowles, an education program supervisor who oversees the Nittany AI Alliance. "I entered the challenge as a graduate student in education, and the process empowered me with enough technical and professional skills to pursue a successful AI entrepreneurship journey."
Finding and building a team
Students from all majors are invited to participate, and no technical background is required. Those who do not have a team or an idea can use the Challenge Portal to connect with others who are looking for teammates or to explore ideas for a project.
"A student can enter the competition solo, but we find that our best contestants come from teams with varied experience," Bowles said. "We encourage students to look for team members with varied majors and backgrounds who can fill different roles."
These roles include:
- Team lead: Provides project management to guide the team as it develops its AI solution
- Subject matter expert: Ensures the proposed solution is valuable, feasible and aligned with an actual problem
- Presentation/marketing lead: Concentrates on conveying the work through documentation, videos and pitches
- Technical lead: Helps the team understand the tradeoffs of the technical decisions and leading the actual programming of the solution
- Design lead: Guides the team in user experience/user interface design decisions and development
Challenge phases
The Nittany AI Challenge begins with ideation sessions and workshops, where students brainstorm ideas, build valuable skills and form teams, and culminates in a final pitch of those ideas.
Phase 1 Preparation and Discovery: Students learn about the tools they can use, select an idea with social impact, engage with the customer facing a problem and detail how their proposed solution will address that problem. The workshops help prepare students to compete in the challenge as well as for internships and full-time employment.
Phase 2 Prototype Design and Presentation: To officially enter the challenge, a team submits a prototype video that contains the key components of their solution. A panel of judges selects which teams will move forward with a monetary prize to further their idea for Phase 3. The entry deadline for this year’s challenge is 5 p.m. on Dec. 11.
Phase 3 Minimum Viable Product (MVP): Each selected team works to develop an MVP based on the original proposed solution and submits a video and documentation. Judges determine which of those submissions move on to the fourth and final phase.
Phase 4 MVP Pitch Competition: Demonstrating the journey from ideation to a viable product, finalists pitch their MVP to a panel of reviewers composed of faculty, staff and industry experts. The Nittany AI Challenge Finals phase brings together the knowledge, skills and hard work of all participants and showcases their ability to create impactful AI solutions to address pressing social issues.
Last year, a total of $29,000 was awarded to student teams. The challenge winner was CrashAI, a team of three students who addressed the difficulty of manually analyzing large volumes of complex car crash data collected by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.
"I've seen contestants continue their challenge journey in all sorts of ways: high-impact research projects, nonprofit organizations of their own, unique innovations, internships, new jobs or brand-new entities in collaboration with other contestants," Bowles said. "There are several entry and exit points!"
Penn State is shaping the future of higher education in the age of artificial intelligence. Our focus is on human-centered, ethical AI innovation that delivers meaningful impacts for Penn State and the broader community. Through visionary planning, strategic partnerships, targeted hiring and strategic investments, we will equip every Penn State student, staff and faculty member with the AI-related knowledge, experience and confidence they need to succeed in the AI-powered future. Learn more at psu.edu/ai.