The Amazon Nova AI Hackathon offers a platform for developers to innovate using Amazon Nova, a portfolio of foundation models and services designed for frontier intelligence and price performance. Participants are invited to build generative AI applications by leveraging Nova's capabilities, which include advanced reasoning, tool use, multimodal understanding, voice AI, and UI workflow automation. The hackathon provides an opportunity to invent with freedom and explore models such as Nova 2 Lite for everyday tasks, Nova 2 Sonic for conversational AI, Nova Act for UI workflow automation, and Nova multimodal embeddings for state-of-the-art multimodal applications.
Program Timeline and Administration
• Sponsor: Amazon Web Services (“Amazon”), 410 Terry Avenue North, Seattle, WA 98109-5210
• Administrator: Devpost, Inc. (“Devpost”), 250 Broadway, 24FL, New York, NY 10007
• Registration Period: February 2, 2026 (10:00 am Pacific Time) – March 16, 2026 (5:00 pm Pacific Time)
• Submission Period: February 2, 2026 (10:00 am Pacific Time) – March 16, 2026 (5:00 pm Pacific Time)
• Feedback Period: February 2, 2026 (10:00 am Pacific Time) – March 18, 2026 (5:00 pm Pacific Time)
• Judging Period: March 17, 2026 (10:00 am Pacific Time) – April 2, 2026 (5:00 pm Pacific Time)
• Winners Announced: On or around April 8, 2026 (2:00 pm Pacific Time)
Eligibility Criteria
• Open To: The Hackathon is open to individuals who are at least 18 years of age, teams of eligible individuals, and organizations. An eligible individual may join more than one team or organization and may also enter on an individual basis.
• Not Open To: The Hackathon is not open to individuals or organizations residing in or domiciled in a country where participation is prohibited by local or U.S. law, including Brazil, Quebec, Russia, Crimea, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, and Syria. Employees, agents, and representatives of Promotion Entities (including the Sponsor and Administrator), judges, and their immediate family or household members are also ineligible, as are any other individuals or organizations whose participation would create a conflict of interest.
Participation Benefits
• Innovate with Next-Gen AI: Explore the frontiers of generative AI and apply Nova's differentiated features to solve real-world problems.
• Real-World Impact: Develop solutions that deliver measurable value for businesses or create meaningful benefits for communities.
• Compete for Prizes: A prize pool of $40,000 in cash and $55,000 in AWS credits is available for innovative projects.
• Learn and Grow: Gain access to dedicated resources, code examples, technical documentation, virtual workshops, and office hours.
• Showcase Your Skills: Receive recognition for your expertise and showcase your work.
• AWS Credits: Student and Professional Developer entrants may request $100 in AWS Promotional Credits, available on a first-come, first-served basis while supplies last. Requests must be submitted by March 13th at 5pm PT.
Project Requirements
• Core Task: Build a generative AI application using Amazon Nova on AWS. The core solution must utilize a Nova foundation model (such as Nova 2 Lite, Nova 2 Sonic, multimodal Embedding) and/or the Nova Act service.
• Focus Areas: Submissions are encouraged to align with one of the following categories: Agentic AI, Multimodal Understanding, UI Automation, Voice AI, or Freestyle for projects that do not fit the other categories.
• Functionality: The project must be capable of being successfully installed and running consistently on its intended platform, functioning as depicted in the video and text description.
• Project Status: Projects must be either newly created or, if pre-existing, must have been significantly updated during the submission period.
• Third-Party Integrations: If a project integrates any third-party SDKs, APIs, or data, the entrant must be authorized to use them.
Submission Guidelines
• Submitter Type: Entrants must identify as an Individual (student or professional), Team (student or professional), or Organization.
• Category Selection: Choose one category for your project: Agentic AI, Multimodal Understanding, UI Automation, Voice AI, or Freestyle.
• Text Description: Provide a brief summary of your project, its purpose, and how it leverages Amazon Nova foundation models.
• Demo Video: Submit an approximately 3-minute video showcasing the project in action. The video must be uploaded to a public platform (YouTube, Vimeo, or Youku) and include the hashtag #AmazonNova.
• Code Repository: Share a link to the project’s code repository. If private, access must be granted to testing@devpost.com and Amazon-Nova-hackathon@amazon.com.
• Bonus Blog Post: For a chance at a bonus prize, publish a blog post on builder.aws.com about your project's potential community impact, using the tag 'Amazon-Nova'.
• Feedback Survey: Complete the post-project feedback survey for a chance to win a $50 cash prize.
Judging Criteria
• Technical Implementation (60%): Evaluates the quality, effectiveness, successful integration with Amazon Nova, and overall system architecture.
• Enterprise or Community Impact (20%): Assesses how the solution delivers business value or creates meaningful benefits for communities.
• Creativity and Innovation (20%): Considers the novelty of the approach and the innovative use of multi-agent systems to solve real-world problems.
• Feedback Submission Criteria: Judged on the completeness, viability, and potential impact of the feedback provided.
• Blog Post Criteria: Evaluated based on completeness and the potential impact of the post, focusing on community benefits, real-world application, and adoption plans.
Prizes and Awards
• First Prize Overall: $15,000 in cash and $5,000 in AWS Credits (1 winner).
• Second Place Overall: $7,000 in cash and $5,000 in AWS Credits (1 winner).
• Best of Agentic System: $3,000 in cash and $5,000 in AWS Credits (1 winner).
• Best of Multimodal Understanding: $3,000 in cash and $5,000 in AWS Credits (1 winner).
• Best of UI Automation: $3,000 in cash and $5,000 in AWS Credits (1 winner).
• Best of Voice AI: $3,000 in cash and $5,000 in AWS Credits (1 winner).
• Best Student App: $3,000 in cash and $5,000 in AWS Credits (1 winner).
• Bonus Blog Post Prize: $200 in AWS Credits (100 winners).
• Feedback Prize: $50 in cash (60 winners).
This hackathon presents a significant opportunity for developers, teams, and organizations to engage with advanced AI technologies. By participating, entrants can contribute to solving real-world challenges, gain valuable experience, and compete for a substantial pool of cash prizes and AWS credits. Interested parties are encouraged to review the official rules and resources to prepare their submissions.