ENFIELD Hackathon 2024
Bias Identification and Mitigation in AI

Are you passionate about Artificial Intelligence? Do you want to be part of a transformative experience that shapes the future? This is your chance!

The ENFIELD Hackathon 2024 is calling all innovators, coders, and AI enthusiasts to join us for an event of creativity, collaboration, and cutting-edge technology.

Why Participate?

• Innovate: Push the boundaries of AI technology and create solutions that can ensure fairness and equity, improve predictive accuracy, and foster inclusion.
• Collaborate with the Best: Work alongside bright minds from diverse backgrounds.
• Learn and Grow: Gain invaluable experience, insights, and mentorship from AI experts.
• Win Prizes: Compete for exciting prizes, recognition, and opportunities to promote your ideas.

Event Highlights

• Workshops and Talks: Engage with leaders in AI and gain new skills through hands-on experience.
• Mentorship: Get guidance and feedback from experienced mentors.
• Networking: Connect with like-minded individuals and expand your professional network.
• Showcase: Present your innovative solutions to a panel of expert judges and to the hackathon participants.

Ready to Make an Impact?

Join us at Hackathon 2024 and be a part of the AI revolution. Bring your ideas, your skills, and your passion. Together, we can create a future powered by AI.

The Hackathon will challenge teams of competitors to develop innovative solutions for “Bias Identification and Mitigation in Artificial Intelligence”. The challenges for the teams will be to create prototypes and solutions to cover one the following topics:

• Bias identification in datasets for specific domains; preference will be given to healthcare, manufacturing, energy or space domains
• Bias identification in Large Language Models
• Bias mitigation/correction
• Bias identification and correction in data annotation
• Generation of synthetic data for bias reduction in the 4 vertical domains of Enfield: healthcare, manufacturing, energy or space.

The Hackathon will be organized in 3 stages: a stage to select the teams competing in the event following the call for participation, a second stage during which the selected teams will elaborate their solutions, and the final stage, a 2-day event organized at POLITEHNICA Bucharest in 29-30 August 2024.

During this third stage, the teams will have the opportunity to refine their solutions with guidance from the mentors and present them to a Jury composed of AI leaders from academia and industry, as well as to the public.

Who can participate?

Whether you’re a Ph.D., M.Sc., or B.Sc. student, or a young researcher with a keen interest in AI, this hackathon is for you!

Participants will form teams composed of 2 to 4 members. Teams from partner universities are also eligible to participate.

When responding to the call for participants, teams must already be formed. They should select a topic from the list of proposed challenges and submit an initial sketch of their proposed solution for that topic.

How to Participate?

Submissions necessary for the First stage – deadline 7 July extended deadline 25 July 2024 (23:59 CET)

• Team name, team leader, and email address for correspondence.
• Name, affiliation and short CV of the team members.
• A 2-page outline of the proposed solution highlighting the innovative approach, the main AI algorithms, the envisaged dataset(s) to be used and the potential impact.

Based on their submission, the Jury will select the teams that will participate in the hackathon. The selected teams will be informed, and a mentor will be assigned to each team to coach it during the development phase of the solution.

Submissions necessary for the Second stage – deadline 27 August 2024 (23:59 CET)

• Team name, team leader, and email address for correspondence.
• Video presentation of the solution (not longer than 5 minutes).
• Project description (feel free to include any relevant pictures, links, etc.).
• Github repository with the source code and datasets used.

Third stage: During the 2-day event at POLITEHNICA Bucharest, the teams will physically gather at the event venue, will put in place the definitive solution, will interact with the mentors, and will have the opportunity to prepare their presentation and demo of the solution. Each team will present their developed solution during a specifically allocated time. These presentations will be streamed online.

See Registration to become part of this exciting event.

• Jury Prizes: First place: 5000 euro; Second place: 2000 Euro, prizes awarded by the Jury according to the criteria bellow.
• The Impact Prize: The prize decided by a public vote: 1000 Euro.
• Special awards offered by companies sponsoring the event.

Evaluation for the Jury Prizes

The following criteria will be used by the Jury to evaluate the proposed solutions:

• Innovative Approach: The uniqueness and creativity in the solution’s design and implementation.
• Potential Impact: The ability of the solution to make a significant difference in Human-Centered AI and/or Trustworthy AI.
• Effectiveness: The effectiveness of the solution in responding to the challenge.
• Potential for take-over: how likely is the solution to evolve into a marketable product.

Stage 1

• 5 June 2024 - a call for participating teams will be issued. It will be widely disseminated through several channels and media.
• 7 July 2024 – deadline 25 July 2024 - extended deadline for submitting initial proposals.

Stage 2

• 27 July 2024 – informing the teams that are selected to enter the competition, assignment of a team mentor to each team.
• 27 July – 27 August 2024 – teams develop their solutions.

Stage 3

The 2-day event at POLITEHNICA

The third stage of the hackathon will take place in the Library of POLITEHNICA. Throughout the event, photos and videos will be taken for promotional purposes. Feedback will be collected from participants, including team members, jury members, and mentors.

All team members will receive a Diploma of Participation, and all teams along with their solutions will be promoted on the ENFIELD website and social media. The awarded solutions will be included in the ENFIELD Catalogue of Resources.

We will ensure consistent follow-up after the hackathon by fostering community building and encouraging future collaboration among participants, as well as between participants and project members. The awarded solutions will be included in the Catalogue of Resources.

How to register you submission?

For the First Stage the candidate teams must fill in the following form by 7 July 25 July 2024 (23:59 CET) and include:

• Team name, team leader, and email address for correspondence.
• Name, affiliation and short CV of the team members.
• A 2-page outline of the proposed solution highlighting the innovative approach, the main AI algorithms, the envisaged dataset(s) to be used and the potential impact.

By 27 July 2024, all teams will be informed about the results of the selection process and the teams that were selected to enter the second stage of the competition will be assigned a team mentor.

Stage 1

• 5 June 2024 - a call for participating teams will be issued. It will be widely disseminated through several channels and media.
• 7 July 2024 – deadline 25 July 2024 – extended deadline for submitting initial proposals

Stage 2

• 27 July 2024 – informing the teams that are selected to enter the competition, assignment of a team mentor to each team.
• 27 July – 27 August 2024 – teams develop their solutions.

Stage 3

• Competition 29 - 30 August 2024.

Who can participate?
B.Sc., M.Sc. and Ph.D. students, and young researchers (at most 5 years since obtaining their Ph.D. degrees).

How much is the registration fee?
Attendance is FREE! Just register to join.

How many members can one team have?
A team can have up to 4 members.

Is in-person attendance mandatory for me and my team?
Yes, both you and your team are required to be present in person during the 2-day event. Your attendance is crucial for refining your solution and for the final demo, and is a key part of the event.

How can I find accommodation?
Participants must arrange their own overnight accommodations. Several hotels and possibilities of housing in the university dormitories will be indicated. A limited number of scholarships covering accommodation will be available.

Can I become a sponsor of the Hackathon?
Yes you can be a sponsor of the event. If interested send an email to Enfield-hackathon@upb.ro.