About the challenge

Submissions officially open at 9:30 AM PT on Wednesday, October 28, when hacking begins, and close at 7:00 PM PT that day. Projects must be built during the hacking period.

The Solix AI Hackathon is a one-day, in-person hackathon at UC San Diego's Qualcomm Institute, held as part of SOLIXEmpower 2026. Teams and individuals build AI projects in one of six tracks. Each track is its own challenge with its own winners:

• Data + AI (Enterprise AI): Turn messy enterprise data into models that actually ship.
• AI Safety & Security (Governance): Make agentic systems explainable, monitorable, and safe to trust.
• AI in Pharma: Accelerate discovery, trials, or compliance with applied AI.
• AI in Finance: Build for risk, fraud, forecasting, or autonomous finance ops.
• AI in Healthcare: Apply AI to real clinical, operational, or patient-facing problems.
• AI for Social Good (CSR, in partnership with TALHealthfest): Point AI at a problem that changes someone's life for the better. Refer to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Team size: 1–3 people. Solo entries are allowed; teams can have at most 3 members. Each track has its own winners: a first place ($5,000 in Solix Academy Credits) and a second place ($3,000 in Solix Academy Credits) — $48,000 in Solix Academy Credits across the six tracks.

Schedule

Wednesday, October 28 — CHALLENGE (Hackathon Day)
Location: Qualcomm Theatre – Registration Desk
8:00 AM – Breakfast & check-in
9:00 AM – Kick-off
9:30 AM – Hacking begins
7:00 PM – Hacking ends; submissions due on Devpost

Thursday, October 29 — LEARN (SOLIXEmpower)
Present your project to the judges by track. Selected teams may get the opportunity to present on stage. Winners are announced the same day. Attendees also get complimentary registration to the SOLIXEmpower industry event on Data, AI, and Agentic Systems Governance and $1,000 in SOLIX Academy credits.

Friday, October 30 — NETWORK (Executive Coffee Chats)
Connect with SOLIX representatives, industry experts, researchers, and executives about internships and hiring opportunities. Includes complimentary registration to TALHealthfest.

Track judging times are tentative and may change.

Get started

Join this hackathon on Devpost, form your team, and submit your project here before 7:00 PM PT on October 28. Choose your track from the Track dropdown on the submission form — each submission enters one track only.

• Technical Implementation
  How well is the project built? Does it work, and how effectively does it use AI, data, and the underlying technology?
• Impact & Track Relevance
  How well does the project address a real problem within its chosen track, and how meaningful would its impact be?
• Creativity & Originality
  How novel is the idea or approach? Does it go beyond existing solutions?
• Presentation & Demo
  How clearly does the team explain the problem, the solution, and a working demo to the judges?