Aloha Data:🌈🏝️
AI Hackathon for Hawaiʻi’s Resilience
Beginners Welcome!
Date: April 4-6, 2025 – See Schedule
Location: University of Hawaiʻi Mānoa, Post Building (Travel support is available for participants from other islands)
The Big Idea 💡
Hawaiʻi faces the escalating realities of current and future hazards from extremes in droughts that fuel large wildfire risks to flooding due to intensifying storms. Our islands are on the front lines of a global challenge. The imperative is clear: we must act, and we must act now. This AI Hackathon is a call to action, a focused effort to harness the power of artificial intelligence to build a more resilient Hawaiʻi.
This hackathon is more than just a competition; it’s a collaborative effort to forge a future where Hawaii thrives in the face of uncertainty. We are here to bring together diverse skill sets, data, and innovative thinking, to create solutions that will have real world local and statewide impacts. Let us work together to ensure that the beauty and the strength of Hawaii endures, for generations to come.
Your Mission 🎯
The mission of this AI Hackathon is to accelerate Hawaii’s resilience by fostering the development of innovative AI-powered solutions that enhance data integrity, visualization, and communication & education capabilities. We aim to empower communities, policymakers, and researchers with actionable insights to mitigate climate risks and ensure a sustainable future for the Hawaiian Islands.
Along the way you will meet other University of Hawaiʻi (UH) students and mentors. You will learn how to access and use the Google Cloud Platform and Vertex AI to aid in developing AI powered solutions. Have fun!This Hackathon is more about hands-on building solutions than pitching- so keep that in mind as you work with your team of 3-5 UH students. NOTE that teams competing for challenge 3 are limited to 3 members.
Don’t have a team yet? The organizers can help add you to a team.
Challenges 💻
1.
AI Guardian – Detecting Anomalies in Hawaiʻi’s Mesonet Data
Protect the integrity of Hawaiʻi’s climate data! This hackathon challenges you to develop an AI-powered system for the automated detection of anomalous “bad” data within the Hawaiʻi Mesonet. Design an AI solution that can intelligently analyze sensor readings, identify inconsistencies, and flag or remove faulty data points. Your system should enhance the reliability and accuracy of weather data, empowering researchers and forecasters with pristine information. Build an AI guardian that ensures the Mesonet delivers the highest quality climate insights.
2.
Hawaiʻi Climate Data Portal AI Concierge Bot
Creating an AI-powered chatbot to enable those with interest in Hawaii ‘s Climate (such as residents, students, researchers and decision makers) to more dynamically obtain information on the islands. By leveraging advanced AI, users can enjoy more natural conversations and receive accurate, timely information about Hawai’i current and past climate, making user’s search for relevant details quicker and more intuitive in finding datasets.
3.
3D Visualizations Of Data
Dive into the third dimension! In this challenge your team will create a compelling stereoscopic 3D data visualization using Unity and the CC_CANOE 3D template. Transform complex climate data into an immersive experience. Develop a Unity game that generates 3D structures from point cloud data, creating interactive models that allow users to explore Hawaii’s landscape in a whole new way. Unleash the power of AI and Unity to turn data into a captivating and research and educational 3D experience. NOTE that teams competing for this challenge are limited to 3 members.
4.
AI Powered Interactive Hawaiʻi Data Explorer
Build the future of climate data exploration! This hackathon challenges you to create an AI-driven visual data explorer, empowering residents, students, researchers, and decision-makers to effortlessly access and understand Hawaii’s climate. Design an intuitive interface where users can engage in natural language conversations, querying the system for current and historical climate data. Leverage AI to provide accurate, timely responses and dynamic visualizations, transforming complex datasets into actionable insights. Your explorer should streamline data discovery, making Hawaii’s climate information more accessible and engaging than ever before.
5.
Educational Material Generation
Explore the captivating world of Hawaii’s climate! This hackathon challenge invites you to leverage AI to create engaging and informative video lessons. Develop dynamic content for K-12 or adult audiences, focusing on concept explanations, interactive storytelling, visual problem-solving guides, and animated tutorials. Use AI to generate compelling narratives, produce eye-catching visuals, and simplify complex climate data into easily digestible lessons. Unleash your creativity and educational prowess to make Hawaii’s climate accessible and exciting for learners of all ages.
Evaluation Criteria
Prizes 🏆
- 1st Place – Macbook Air laptops for the top team along with $5,000 in credit for a Google Cloud Platform project for the team.
- 2nd Place – 11in iPads for each team member and $3,000 in credit for a Google Cloud Platform project for the team.
- 3rd Place – Air pods for each team member and $2,500 in credit for a Google Cloud Platform project for the team.
Visualization Challenge Prizes – 3 Member Team Limit.
- 1st Prize Xreal One AR Glasses
- 2nd Prize Rayban Meta AI Sunglasses
Eligibility 📝
The Aloha Data event is open to teams of 3-5 people who register via this registration form no later than 5:00 p.m. March 23, 2025 and are:
- Eighteen (18) years of age or older (adults) as of the time of entry and have reviewed and acknowledged these rules and guidelines via web form; and
- Are a student (undergraduate or graduate) at one of the 10 University of Hawaiʻi System campuses and currently living in the State of Hawaiʻi.
The Aloha Data event IS NOT open to:
- Individuals who are residents of, or organizations domiciled in, any other state or country;
- Employees, representatives and agents involved with the design, production, paid promotion, execution, or distribution of the Aloha Data event , including the Administrator (“Promotion Entities”);
- Any Judge;
- Members of the immediate family or household of the employees, representatives, agents or judges, including those individual’s spouse, children and stepchildren, parents and stepparents, and siblings and step siblings; and
- Any other individual whose participation in the Aloha Data event would create, in the sole discretion of the Aloha Data Administrators, a real or apparent conflict of interest.
Primer Trainings 🧑💻
Date
Time
Description
April 1, 2025
5:00-7:00 pm
Google Cloud Platform and Vertex AI and other tools, dataset and Q/A about challenges and hackathon.
April 2, 2025
5:00-7:00 pm
Google Cloud Platform and Vertex AI and other tools, dataset and Q/A about challenges and hackathon.n.
Recordings will be available for those unable to attend either day.
Each participant will get access to the Google Cloud Skills boost training after registering.
Event Schedule 🗓️
Friday, April 4, 2025
Time
Description
4:00 pm
Registration
4:30 pm
Kickoff
6:15 pm
Dinner
8:00 pm
Wrap for the day
Saturday April 5, 2025
Time
Description
8:00 am
Resume
8:15 am
Snacks
10:00 am
Team Updates (Progress and Help requests)
12:00 pm
Lunch
2:30 pm
Team Updates (Progress and Help requests)
6:00 pm
Dinner
8:00 pm
Wrap for the day
Sunday, April 6, 2025
Time
Description
8:00 am
Resume
9:00 am
Submissions Due
9:30 am
First Round of Judging
11:00 am
Lunch
12:00 pm
Final Demos
2:00 pm
Awards
Questions
For questions about the event or travel assistance, please contact datasci@hawaii.edu
Sponsored By:
The University of Hawaii System Information Technology Services,
UH Manoa Association of Computing Machinery,
The Hawaii Data Science Institute,