48 hours to build for Puerto Rico.

The waitlist is open now. Once you purchase your Caribbean AI Summit ticket, you can join the hackathon waitlist. Spots are allocated in waitlist order as final registration opens — the earlier you're on the waitlist, the better your position.

Don't have a team yet? Buy your ticket and join the waitlist solo. We'll connect you with other participants at the Day 1 team-formation mixer.

Yes. All hackathon participants must have a valid Summit ticket (General Admission or Inner Circle). Your ticket covers full Summit access plus the hackathon — keynotes, sessions, networking, meals, and the closing reception. Get yours via the Get Tickets button above.

Yes, beginners are welcome. The hackathon is for anyone curious about AI — students, designers, product folks, founders, engineers, and first-timers alike. What matters is that you bring an idea and a willingness to build.

If you've never coded with AI before, we recommend teaming up with at least one technical builder. We'll also have mentors on-site to help unblock teams.

Teams are 2 to 5 people. You can sign up as a team, or as a solo participant and we'll help match you with others during the kickoff.

We'll host a team-formation mixer at the start of Day 1 for everyone looking for a team. Bring an idea, bring a skill, or bring nothing but energy — we'll connect you.

The theme is "AI for Puerto Rico" — broadly defined. Build any AI-powered solution that addresses a real challenge or opportunity for Puerto Rico's communities, businesses, government, environment, culture, or people.

Examples: tools for small business, climate resilience, education, health access, tourism, civic tech, language preservation, public safety. Be bold.

No pre-built submissions. The core build must happen during the 48 hours of the hackathon. You may use open-source libraries, APIs, pre-trained models, and design assets — but the application itself and the AI integration must be new.

Coming in with a clear idea, sketches, or a tech plan is encouraged. Coming in with finished code is not.

Any tools, any stack, any AI model. Use whatever helps you ship: Claude, GPT, open-source LLMs, Cursor, JetBrains, Figma, Vercel, Supabase, AWS, GCP — your call.

Sponsors will provide free credits, API access, and integration support during the event. Details published closer to the date.

A panel of judges (founders, engineers, investors, and PR ecosystem leaders) scores projects on four criteria, weighted equally:

• Impact: How meaningfully does it address a real problem for Puerto Rico?
• Technical execution: Quality of the build, smart use of AI, and what was shipped in 48 hours.
• Originality: Is the idea fresh? Does it approach the problem differently?
• Presentation: Clarity, demo quality, and storytelling on the main stage.

You retain full ownership of the intellectual property you create during the hackathon. However, as a condition of participation, your project must be made open source and published on GitHub before the submission deadline.

By participating, you grant the Caribbean AI Summit and PRAIC permission to feature your project, repository, team name, photos, and project description for promotional purposes. We claim no ownership of your work beyond this promotional use.

Yes to all three. Industry mentors will rotate through team tables throughout Day 1 and Day 2 for technical and product guidance. Meals, coffee, and snacks are provided continuously.

The hackathon takes place inside the Caribbean AI Summit venue at the Puerto Rico Convention Center — open-floor team tables, fast WiFi, charging everywhere, and direct access to the Summit programming.

Bring your laptop, charger, valid ID, and your Summit badge. That's it. We provide everything else: WiFi, power, food, coffee, snacks, swag, and workspace.

The venue is open for working hours, but there's no overnight sleeping inside.

The $10,000 prize pool is split as 1st: $5,000 · 2nd: $3,000 · 3rd: $2,000. Prizes are awarded to the team and split evenly among team members unless the team specifies otherwise.

Prizes are paid via bank transfer or check within 30 days of the event. Prizes are considered taxable income in both the US and Puerto Rico — we'll issue the appropriate tax forms (1099-MISC or equivalent) where required. Consult a tax professional for your situation.