Students Win Gold at Inter-University GenAI Hackathon for the SDGs

Students from The University of Hong Kong featured on two of the four Gold Prize-winning teams at the 2026 Hong Kong Inter-University GenAI Hackathon for the SDGs, an annual event led by HKU’s Common Core Office and HKU RISE in alliance with all of the region’s eight publicly funded universities.

This year’s hackathon challenged more than 140 teams of students from different universities and disciplines to develop generative AI solutions addressing four themes: Green Transport and Mobility; Sustainable Northern Metropolis; Smart Living, Culture, and Belonging; and Future Work and Enterprises. In addition to the four Gold Prizes, the competition awarded four Silver Prizes, four Bronze Prizes, and six Tencent WorkBuddy Special Prizes.

Team Foodprint, an all-HKU team comprising Khabiya Vini, Ngan Pak Yiu, Yael Horowitz, and Chloe Chan On Kiu, won Gold for an AI-powered platform that helps people with dietary, medical, and religious restrictions discover suitable restaurants and navigate dining in Hong Kong.

Team Placeholders, which included HKU students Hans David Viloria and Chenxi Yu alongside teammates from HKUST, CityUHK, and HKBU, also took Gold for a GenAI-enabled learning platform that helps students navigate and engage more deeply with complex academic readings through interactive, source-grounded experiences.

The remaining Gold Prizes went to Team HumanRoute, a cross-university team from HKUST, HKBU, and Lingnan University, for a navigation platform designed for people with different mobility needs; and Team JCC from HKUST, for a map-based GenAI copilot that helps the public navigate complex Environmental Impact Assessment reports.

Three of the four Gold Prize-winning teams drew members from multiple universities, reflecting the hackathon's emphasis on cross-institutional and cross-disciplinary collaboration.

“It has been a pleasure to help lead this social good hackathon with our multi-university committee,” said Dr Jack Tsao, Associate Director of HKU’s Common Core Office. “The collaboration made it possible to create a powerful learning environment where students had to move quickly as a team while still thinking carefully about impact, inclusion, and responsibility. This year’s teams showed a real step forward in both the quality of their ideas and the technical sophistication of their prototypes.”

Winners are offered pathways to startup incubation, including with Hong Kong Science and Technology Park, which has incubated and seeded previous years' teams. The tech giant Tencent will also offer fast-tracked internship and graduate positions to the special prize-winners.