1. What it is
Build with AI is an education hackathon in two phases. It is organized by Epoha Online, Google Developer Groups Plovdiv, iSTEB Association and TU Sofia, Plovdiv Branch, with the support of Google for Education, Plovdiv Municipality, the Regional Department of Education - Plovdiv, the Club Quant Foundation and the Prepodavame.bg platform. The idea is simple: students, teachers and university students build working and secure solutions with Google tools such as Gemini, without needing deep programming experience. The topics connect technology with the Bulgarian language, history, culture and education.
2. When and how it runs
The hackathon is in a hybrid format and unfolds over two months.
- Kick-off on from 11:00 in person in Room 3206, 3rd Academic Building of TU Sofia, Plovdiv Branch (8 Tsanko Dyustabanov St), with an online stream for teams across the country. You will hear a short briefing on the rules and we will announce the challenges.
- From October 1 to 31 a one-month online incubator runs: workshops and mentoring sessions on Gemini, Google Cloud and Vertex AI on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 18:30 to 20:00 and on Saturdays from 10:00 to 12:00. Every lecture is recorded and stays available to the participants. During that time the teams grow their ideas into a working prototype together with the mentors.
- The final, demo day, is on , a Thursday, in person at TU Sofia, Plovdiv Branch. The best teams defend their projects before an expert jury.
3. Who can take part
The competition is open to participants from Plovdiv, the region and the whole country in two categories.
Schools
- Each school can enter up to 2 teams.
- A team consists of 1 lead teacher and 3 to 5 students.
- Students are over 13 years old.
- Because minors take part, at registration parents must fill in a consent form.
Universities
This category is open to university teams and to young developers from the IT community. A team is 3 to 5 people.
4. What each team gets
Throughout October the registered teams use, completely free of charge:
- access to education platforms and Google Skills;
- licenses and free credits for Google Cloud and Vertex AI;
- tools for working with the Gemini API, Flutter and Firebase AI Logic.
5. The themes
The themes are arranged in three eras. The three eras are not random: we want projects about the past and the future too, not only the present.
- Past: the memory we can read. Everything that has already happened and is at risk of being lost: an archive, a dialect, a photo, a story, a craft, a document. AI does not create the past here, it makes it accessible.
- Present: the code we write every day. The main theme of the season. This is also where the official case "Digital Conscience" sits: the AI that is already in the classroom, on the phone and in the homework.
- Future: what does not exist yet. The only era with no right answer. The jury cannot check the forecast, so it judges how well-founded the vision is, not how likely.
Each era has three profiles: Humanities innovation and culture, Digital conscience and ethics, Education innovation. The ideas are split into two age groups, 13 to 15 and 16 to 18.
In total 54 ready ideas with suggested Google tools are published in the Themes section of the homepage. A team can pick one of them or propose its own in the same spirit. The project should offer a working technology solution built with Google tools such as Gemini.
Teams choose a theme and an age group at the kick-off on October 1. Have a look at them before then.
6. How it is judged
A mixed expert jury scores the projects on a 10-point scale. The four criteria carry equal weight, 25% each.
- Technical execution: how effectively the Google stack is integrated and how stable the working prototype is.
- Innovation and vision: the originality of the concept and its connection to the motto "Digital visionaries in the age of AI".
- Social and humanities value: applicability in a real setting (Bulgarian schools, culture or the urban ecosystem) and readiness for practical deployment.
- Presentation and defense: the ability to present live within three minutes on November 5 and convincing answers to the jury's questions.
For projects in the "Future" era the jury looks at how well-founded the vision is, not how likely it is.
7. Prizes
- The winners in the separate categories win technology prizes with the Google brand and special recognition from the business partners and sponsors of the event.
- Business partners can choose an idea or a team to support for delivery and growth even after the hackathon ends.
8. Fair play and copyright
- The code and the intellectual property of the projects stay with the teams that created them.
- Using someone else's code without attribution and any form of plagiarism lead to disqualification.
- The organizers may show visuals and demonstrations of the projects to share good practices with the community.