​Presented by AWS, Backboard.io, ElevenLabs, IBM, and the Mayor’s Office

​📍 January 16, 2026 - Queen’s University, Kingston

​🗂️ (Online prep begins one week earlier)

​Join 200+ builders for Kingston’s largest industry-backed AI hackathon. One week before the event, participants will receive track details, datasets, and tools and start building! This gives every team a head start before demo day.

​This hackathon is built around career opportunity and real impact.

​IBM and Backboard.io will be onsite accepting resumes, AWS engineers will provide mentorship, and the Mayor’s Office will evaluate AI civic projects with a pathway to present at City Hall.

​Start building something, make an impact, and potentially land your dream internship here!

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​🏆 Tracks & Prizes

​🟦 AWS Track

​Build an AI solution powered by AWS tools or cloud services.

​Prize: $1,000 in AWS Credits + 1-on-1 Mentorship with AWS Solutions Engineers

​AWS engineers will be onsite for mentorship.

​🟨 Backboard.io Track

​Use Backboard’s memory product to create a personalized, context-aware AI experience.

​Prize: $500 at any restaurant in Kingston

​Backboard will be onsite and actively accepting resumes.

🟪 ElevenLabs Track

Build an AI product that uses voice or audio to improve how people create, communicate, or access information.

Prizes:

• Overall Winning team: 3 months of ElevenLabs Pro tier per member ($1.6k Value).

• Best ElevenLabs-powered project: 6 months of ElevenLabs Scale tier per member ($10.8k Value).

ElevenLabs will provide API access, branding assets, and technical support for teams building with their platform.

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​🟥 IBM Track

​Create an enterprise-grade AI tool or improvement. (Theme released 1 week before the hackathon day)

​Prize: TBD

​IBM will have an onsite booth and will accept resumes for internship consideration.

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​🟩 Mayor's Innovation Track

​Build an AI tool that improves Kingston’s civic services or community life.

​Prize: Top submission will culminate in a finalist presentation at Kingston City Hall under the Mayor’s Innovation Challenge.

​City officials will attend and judge onsite.

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​📅 Event Format

​All participants will receive tracks, rules, datasets, and APIs one week before Jan 16, giving teams a strong head start.

​January 16 - Hackathon Day

​• Welcome & sponsor introductions

​• Final build & refinement period

​• Sponsor booths open (Backboard.io and IBM)

​• Resume drop for IBM and Backboard.io

​• Live judging by sponsors + Mayor’s Office

​• Awards & finalist announcements

​🍕 Food, drinks, cookies, and swag will be available throughout the day.

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​✨ Why Attend

​This hackathon is designed to help students:

​• Build with real industry tools

​• Meet engineers and hiring managers

​• Get resume feedback & internship opportunities

​• Work on civic challenges with real impact

​• Land your dream internship next cycle!

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​🎙️ Meet the Judges

​Meet the experts evaluating your work:

​• Juan Djuwadi - Product Manager, Google, ex-Riot Games & EA

​• Michael Jiang - Software Engineer, Google, ex-Wayfair

​• Ran Tao - Cloud Support Engineer, AWS

​• Praveen Kumar Venugopal - Senior Data Scientist, CVS Aetna

​• Deepti K. - Advisory Board Member, CallBotics.ai

​• Jason Dsouza - AI Engineer, creator of Caer (3M+ installs), freeCodeCamp Deep Learning Educator, winner of 60+ hackathons

​These judges bring deep expertise across AI, cloud computing, product engineering, and large-scale data systems. Your project will be reviewed by people who ship real products at global scale.

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​👥 Who Can Participate

​Students of all backgrounds and experience levels are welcome!

​We need at least one google form submission from each team! Make sure your teammates are registered to the Luma event after you fill out the Google form!

​Please submit your registration before Jan 8!

​As always, food and drink, engaging conversation, and incredible company will all be provided!

​​Please be advised: Unfortunately, space is very limited at these community events and we can not always accept everyone we would like to. If you are not accepted to this event, please keep applying! We appreciate your application tremendously and we are looking forward to seeing you at a future event very soon!

• Innovation (25%)
  Is the project creative, original, or technically ambitious? Does it introduce a novel use of AI, a new interaction pattern, or a meaningful improvement over existing solutions?
• Execution & Technical Quality (25%)
  How well is the project built? Is it functional, stable, and polished? Does the prototype demonstrate strong engineering fundamentals, clarity of design, and good problem-solving?
• Impact & Real-World Relevance (25%)
  Does the project solve a genuine problem or address a clear user need? Could this solution realistically scale, help real users, or drive meaningful civic or industry impact?
• Sponsor Adoption & Track Integration (25%)
  How effectively does the project leverage tools, datasets, APIs, or themes from the sponsor tracks (IBM, AWS, Backboard.io, Mayor’s Office)? Does the project meaningfully use sponsor technologies or align with the intended problem space?