⚠  All aplicants who wish to participate in the Climate Crisis AI Hackaton must register here : https://forms.gle/N6PjdbGsUe6TNVDaA  

The Climate Crisis AI Hackathon is a 48-hour event over the weekend of January 22nd with additional workshops on the 18th and 19th. It will bring together beginners and experts to tackle Climate Change related problems using AI.

The third round of applications for Climate Crisis AI Hackathon applications close at 11:59 PM (EST) on January 15th.

*French applications will open next week*

Check out the event on Facebook: https://fb.me/e/S7UKCgFc

Learn more about the event in our hackathon newsletter: http://eepurl.com/hke4_X

Over 250 vetted, talented, and diverse participants supported by leading mentors in their fields will come together to collaborate to address the climate crisis and its impacts on communities and ecosystems. Moreover, an additional 250+ will attend the Kickoff Conference Talks with distinguished guests. The event will prioritize inclusivity, bringing 75% participation from underrepresented groups in tech. It is in collaboration with and supported by Concordia University (especially from Concordia Student Union and Concordia Council on Student Life), District 3 Innovation Center, Montréal Newtech, Environment Canada, Research & Development Frontiers Institute (RDFI), Canadian Center for Climate Services, Dawson College, Front Row Ventures, AI For Tomorrow, CIFAR, and others.

In addition to talks and workshops from many other exciting experts, the Climate Crisis AI Hackathon is very fortunate to include keynote talks from distinguished speakers such as:

David Rolnick, co-founder and chair of Climate Change AI, assistant professor at McGill and Mila, scientific co-director of Sustainability in the Digital Age and lead author, Tackling Climate Change with Machine Learning

Sasha Luccioni, post-doctoral IVADO fellow at University of Montreal and Mila (Quebec Institute for Learning Algorithms), working with Yoshua Bengio on how to use AI to fight climate change

Priya Donti, Ph.D. Student, Carnegie Mellon University, co-founder and chair, Climate Change AI

Alain Bourque, Alain Bourque is Executive Director of Ouranos – Consortium on Regional Climatology and Adaptation to Climate Change. An expert on climate change and adaptation Mr. Bourque contributes regularly to media stories and policy discussions. Before beeing named Executive Director in 2013, he helped establish over 200 projects on vulnerability, impacts and adaptation in Quebec with Ouranos. He was a meteorologist/climatologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada from 1989 to 2001.

We hope you can join us along with the other talented and diverse participants, supported by leading mentors in their fields who will come together to collaborate to attempt to address climate change and its impacts on communities and ecosystems. We hope to begin to achieve a real positive impact in 48 hours using AI.

Why apply to the Climate Crisis AI Hackathon?

“Climate change is the biggest challenge facing the planet. It will need every solution possible, including technology like artificial intelligence (AI).” National Geographic

In addition to potentially impacting the world positively, a fun and exciting experience, the opportunity to showcase your talents to some of the most exciting companies and potentially get hired, and all of the potential prizes, selected hackathon participants will be invited to interview for the AI Launch Lab Research & Development Spring Cohort. The program is part-time and designed to be accessible to students and to those who are working and will enable you to acquire experience and skills in AI by giving you the support and mentorship needed to push the boundaries of AI in research and development and open innovation projects.

Interested in how AI can be used to help address climate change but don't want to participate in the Climate Crisis AI Hackathon? Purchase a spectator ticket and join us on Friday, January 22nd (EST) for the kickoff and discussions with experts and on Sunday, January 24th (EST) as you get to be part of the excitement in seeing what teams can build in 48 hours, see and learn how an AI Launch Lab Hackathon works, and watch presentations and demos from Hackathon participants.

In 2019, The Climate Change AI Hackathon included distinguished speakers such as Yoshua Bengio, one of the world’s leading researchers in AI, Sasha Luccioni, Postdoctoral Researcher at the Mila Institute working on AI for Humanity Initiatives, and Dominic Champagne, Renowned Playwright, Scriptwriter, Director and an initiator of Pacte pour la transition, a movement encouraging government and individuals to fight climate change.

This year's event will be virtual, international in reach, will expand on the variety of challenges that will be offered to participants. It will also bring challenges that can engage with people at a variety of different skill sets and years of experience. This way participants from any background can compete if they are interested in the concept.

Five challenge types will be given:

“Kaggle Style” competition: Participants will be given a set challenges to work on and will compete against others in order to achieve the highest benchmark/best model for the given challenge.

Data Visualization Challenge: A dataset will be given and participants will need to build a visualization tool in order to help researchers better view the data and use it for their analysis.

Climate Change Impacts: Using climate change projection data, the participants will be asked to explore the potential impacts on humans and the environment.

AI Artist Challenge: Use AI to transform climate and environmental data artistically to create beautiful visualisations, music, or unique pieces of art.

Open Challenge: Participants from any level of experience will get the chance to define their own problem and solutions. The primary deliverables will be a pitch deck with ML Canvas. Providing a proof of concept can also be done.

Diversity

AI Launch Lab strongly supports diversity in tech and strives to promote a more inclusive tech culture by prioritizing the empowerment of and the selection of women, LGBTQ2S+ individuals, visible minorities, immigrants, those of all ages, Indigenous Peoples, and disabled or differently abled individuals for >75% of the spots available at the Climate Change AI Hackathon as well as the AI R&D 8-week program.

Given the impacts of AI on the world we live in, we believe that the population should be appropriately and fairly represented in tech in order to ensure that everyone’s interests, contributions and creativity are reflected. You are all valuable and you are all important.

• Model (2.5 pts)
  Does the team additionally incorporates aspects that ensure the model is financially profitable/cost-effective ?
• Creativity (2.5 pts)
  Does the team provides a unique solution and additionally utilizes existing climate approach philosophies with regards to its model ?
• Functionality (2.5 pts)
  How functional and polished the project is
• Challenge Specific (2.5 pts)
  Accuracy for Kaggle - Accuracy of the model ; Design for Data Visualization & AI Artist challenge ; Presentation for the Open Pitch challenges ; Relevance- Projected Impact challenges - is the project viable, relevant to the issue, and efficient?
• Climate Change Approach (5 pts)
  Does the team additionally incorporates aspects of climate approach philosophy (Mitigation/Adaptation/Awareness) while ensuring future longevity and continued, sustainable growth and scale ?
• Collaboration
  Collaboration between different teams is not mandatory but partaking in it will yield teams a bonus of 5 points.