Frugal AI for Public Good: One-Day Hackathon

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7 Jun 2025

08:30 -18:00

Times are shown in local time.

Open to: All

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Fadi Boustany Lecture Theatre (Cambridge Judge Business School)

Trumpington St

Cambridge

CB2 1AG

United Kingdom

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Category: Centre for India and Global Business events

Join our one-day hackathon

This one-day hackathon brings together diverse participants to co-create resource-efficient, socially impactful AI solutions for local government challenges. Hosted by the Frugal AI Hub at Cambridge Judge Business School, the event blends technical innovation, community needs, and public sector collaboration.

This Hackathon is jointly organised by Frugal AI Hub, The Centre for India and Global Business and GetSeen Ventures

Hackathon.

Challenge themes

Participants will form teams to tackle real-world public service challenges provided by Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority, and Cambridge City Council, such as:

  • enhancing citizen engagement
  • improving resource allocation and service delivery
  • tackling digital inequality
  • visualising and interpreting public data

Prizes

  • Artificial Societies Prize: $5,000 credits from Artificial Societies – 5 teams get $1,000 credits each
  • T4G Lab Prize: £1,000 consulting for 1 team from T4G Lab
  • Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority (CPCA) Prize: £1,000 from the CPCA – 5 teams get £200 each
  • Kalavai CoGenAI Platform access: £100 per participant in credits from Kalavai CoGenAI

Sponsors

Who should join?

We welcome:

  • local government professionals
  • software developers and AI engineers
  • civic technologists and community organisers
  • UX designers, data scientists and students
  • no prior hackathon experience is required

Event schedule

08:30 – 09:00

Registration and tea/coffee

09:00 – 10:00

Welcome address (10 min)

Speakers

Keynote: “AI for Public Good” (15 min)

Speaker

  • Robert Pollock, CEO of Cambridge City Council

“Frugal AI Techniques” (15 min)

Speaker

  • Ushnish Sengupta, SqwishAI

Q&A session (10 min)

10:00 – 11:00

Kalavai + GetSeen Ventures Workshop (Carlos and Tanmay)

11:00 – 11:30

Facilitated team formation and challenge track presentation

11:30 – 12:30

Development session I

12:30 – 13:15

Working lunch

13:15 – 16:00

Development session II

16:00 – 17:00

Project presentations (5-7 minute pitch + 2-minute Q&A)

17:00 – 17:30

Judging and awards

17:30 – 18:00

Networking reception

Post-Hackathon engagement

  • Follow-up session (4-6 weeks after)
  • Mentorship for promising teams
  • Pilot support with local government
  • Shared repository of all projects
  • Monthly meetups and a community channel for collaboration

Example challenge tracks

These sample tracks are designed to inspire practical, frugal AI solutions relevant to local government and community needs:

AI for Resident Engagement
  • Multilingual Civic Chatbot (Lite)
  • Open Data Alerts Tool
Data Infrastructure and Preparation
  • Data Catalogue Generator (Auto-Scan)
  • Collaborative Data Cleaning Platform (Micro Edition)
AI Governance and Transparency
  • AI Feedback Collector
  • AI Project Transparency Toolkit
Demand Modelling and Service Planning
  • Waste Collection Route Optimiser
  • School Transport Needs Mapper
AI Ethics and Impact Measurement
  • Energy Use Dashboard for AI Models
  • Frugal AI Toolkit: TCO Estimator

Register

Registration is required to attend the Hackathon. A confirmation email will be sent upon successful registration.

Register

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