Esper AI Hackathon is a 3-day offline hackathon organised by Esper at their Indiranagar office in Bengaluru. The challenge: build AI that runs where the physical world happens — retail, restaurants, healthcare, logistics — on actual edge devices, not in the cloud. This is for engineers with 3+ years of experience building ML systems who want to ship something real.
Who Should Apply
Experienced developers (3+ years) ready to build and deploy production-grade AI solutions on real-world hardware. Teams of 2–4 members. Only 10 teams will be selected based on the strength of their idea.
Format & Timeline
The hackathon runs from June 22, 2026 at the Esper Office, Indiranagar. Teams will have 3 days to build and demo their solution. Judging is based on a live demo — not a slide deck. Mentors and AWS solutions architects will be on-site throughout.
Evaluation Criteria
- Enterprise Problem Depth (30%): Does this solve a real, painful problem in the chosen vertical? Is the ROI clear?
- Hardware Integration (25%): How well does the solution interface with edge devices, sensors, or point-of-sale hardware?
- AI Quality & Innovation (25%): Sophistication of the ML models, latency optimization, and creative approach to inference.
- Live Demo Readiness (20%): Can you prove it works? Production-readiness and reliability during the final presentation.
Prizes
Total cash prize pool of $6,000 (approx. ₹5,52,000).
- First Place: $3,000
- Second Place: $2,000
- Third Place: $1,000
Eligibility
Open to experienced developers (3+ years) building ML systems. Teams of 2–4 members. Must be able to attend in person at the Esper Office in Bengaluru.
How to Apply
Applications are open. Register via the official event page linked above. Only 10 teams will be selected.
