A look back at CIC’s Generative AI and Sustainability Hackathon

On October 5th, 2024, the UBC Cloud Innovation Centre (CIC) hosted its Generative AI and Sustainability Hackathon. As generative AI technologies continue to advance, new opportunities arise to apply them towards addressing issues in sustainability. In this event, over 75 UBC students from various backgrounds came together to explore these opportunities in a day of creativity, experiential learning, and innovation.

Event Overview

The event provided participants with the unique opportunity to freely collaborate using AWS technology. Students were given access to Amazon Bedrock, a service with robust capabilities for the development of generative AI applications. This technology was leveraged to provide an exclusive-access workshop environment in which participating teams interacted with large language models (LLMs) to find innovative solutions.

Winning Projects

The student teams were evaluated based on their creativity and originality, cloud deployment, technical implementation with respect to use of AI, user interaction, and their mindfulness towards the topic of sustainability.

Check out the winning projects below:

1st Place – Greenlife

GreenLife is a web application that helps British Columbians find eligible sustainability programs from federal, provincial governments and energy companies. By leveraging Amazon Web Services’ models and RAG implementation, it provides users with the best fitting program to meet their sustainability goals while accessing financial incentives.

2nd Place – ReMakeIt

ReMakeIt is a web application that offers sustainable upcycling suggestions for items users no longer need. By uploading pictures and descriptions, users receive creative ideas on how to transform or repurpose their items, promoting eco-friendly practices.

3rd Place – EcoCircle

EcoCircle is a platform where users can list items they want to sell or get creative upcycling ideas. With AI-generated suggestions for sustainable solutions, users can connect with buyers, implement upcycling projects, and contribute to a growing community by sharing their experiences and ratings.

Fostering Student Collaboration and Excellence

To create this year’s winning project, Martin, Edward, Frederick and Jerry combined their expertise in various studies including computer science, computer engineering, statistics, and commerce. The four were excited to participate in the hackathon to meet ambitious, like-minded students and learn how to leverage these new technologies with the support of mentors and engineers.

“As someone aspiring to work in the field of machine learning and AI, mastering AWS is quite crucial for me because it provides a comprehensive ecosystem for developing, deploying and scaling AI/ML models.” Jerry says. By diving headfirst into the AWS platform with the guidance of experts, the students were able to gain an in-depth understanding of the services and how to piece them together to create their custom solution.

Not only were participants provided a space to nurture their technical skills, but the hackathon also saw students come together to design creative solutions that serve the community as a whole. “The most inspiring aspect of the experience came from the goal of using these new technologies to make an environmental and social impact.” Martin reflects. This event was a demonstration of the positive waves that young minds and new technologies can create on our wider BC community.