Are you ready to take a step forward and compete with some of the best minds in computer science? The FAU AI Innovation Challenge 2025 invites ambitious undergraduate students take on cutting-edge challenges, win from a €10,000 prize pool, and gain international recognition. This is your chance to showcase your expertise, engage with top researchers, and open doors to future opportunities at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), one of Germany’s top research institutions.

You can participate in one, several, or all four challenges. Whether you focus on your strengths or push yourself across multiple domains! Test your creativity, problem-solving skills, and expertise in relevant computer science topics, the opportunity to become a winner is within your reach!

Who Can Participate?

The FAU AI Innovation Challenge 2025 is open to undergraduate students currently enrolled in an anabin-approved (H+) international university or an accredited German university.

FAU members, including students, are not eligible to ensure a fair competition and provide a platform for fresh talent to shine on an international stage.

How to participate?

Ready to take on the FAU AI Innovation Challenge? Here’s how you can join:

1. Check the Eligibility Criteria

2. Ensure you meet the participation requirements listed above. Only eligible candidates can compete.

3. Choose Your Challenge(s): Decide whether you want to tackle one, several, or all of the challenges. The choice is yours!

4. Register Online: Use the provided links for each challenge to sign up and gain access to the problem descriptions.

5. Solve the Problem: Put your skills to the test and craft a solution for the chosen challenge(s).

6.Submit Your Entry: Submit your solution as per the procedure outlined in the specific challenge, along with: A concise report (maximum three pages) explaining your approach, thought process, and methodology. & a CV highlighting your skills, education, research/projects and achievements.

The top three to five participants for each challenge will be invited to a pitch-interview with our selection committee. This is your opportunity to further demonstrate your talent and stand out! Show us your skills and take the first step toward joining FAU’s vibrant computer science community!

(The organisers reserve the right to cancel a challenge or disqualify an entry without giving any reason. Award of prize money is subject to quality checks and due diligence.)

The challenges

Kalah is one of the oldest games of mankind, but remains far from trivial for artificial agents. Show your Game-AI development skills and innovation prowess by building a Kalah agent that can beat all others. Let it play with other agents for practice, and then enter the final competition.

This competition investigates the performance of recognizing different fonts (actually font groups) in text lines of historical prints (15th and 16th century). Participants have to submit the most likely font group for lines of font groups.

This challenge reflects FAU’s commitment to advancing cybersecurity and privacy – a vital field in today’s interconnected world. Put your cybersecurity skills to the test on the topics forensic, binary exploitation, reverse engineering and web exploitation. Have fun and happy hacking.

Discover the science of color in the ChromoPredict Challenge! Use the names of dye molecules to predict their color class. But there is more to it than meets the eye — each color is rooted in molecular structure. Are you ready to connect the dots?

WHEN

– All entries must be submitted by 23:59 on February 23, 2025.

– From February 24 – March 7, 2025, applications will be evaluated by a panel of esteemed FAU faculty and experts.

– Shortlisted participants will be invited for interviews between March 10 – March 21, 2025.

– Winners will be announced on March 31, 2025. Top performers will also receive an invitation to connect with FAU faculty for further opportunities.

– April 2025: Selected participants are invited to apply for FAU’s Master’s programs with further support.

WHERE

Onsite at FAU

REGISTRATION DEADLINE

23 February, 2025