Competition Overview

The Faculty of Informatics of the University of Debrecen, with the support of the Innovation Ecosystem Center, is pleased to announce the DEIK.AI Challenge 2026, a multi-stage competition for Hungarian and international students studying at the University of Debrecen, and the goal is to find and support the most promising AI projects and developer teams.

The programme provides an opportunity to the participants to develop their ideas into working solutions, receive professional feedback, present their projects in response to real-world challenges, and potentially progress to international forums.

Who Can Apply?

Students of the University of Debrecen may enter:

• individually; or
• as teams of 2–4 members.

A student may participate in both the Idea Competition and the Demo Competition. However, within each competition, they may only be involved in one submission.

Why Should You Participate?

• You can win valuable prizes.
• You can work on real-world problems and showcase your AI project.
• You can receive professional feedback from academic staff and experts.
• You can develop your presentation and teamwork skills.
• You can build a professional network with fellow developers and researchers.
• You can gain opportunities for future research, innovation and entrepreneurship collaborations (including mentoring and national or international exposure).

The Structure of the Competition

The DEIK.AI Challenge 2026 consists of three stages.

1. AI Idea Competition

This competition is intended for participants who do not have a completed prototype yet, but wish to submit a well-developed, innovative concept. We welcome such AI-based ideas that address genuine disciplinary or multidisciplinary challenges, particularly—but not exclusively—through the following applications:

• educational support systems, student services and administrative solutions;
• research data processing, knowledge bases, search and recommendation systems;
• natural language and multimodal applications, including generative AI;
• visual AI solutions;
• data analysis, prediction, optimisation and planning;
• data protection or locally deployable AI systems;
• innovative projects with the potential to be developed into commercial products or start-up ventures.

Submission Deadline 4 September 2026

Each participant may submit only one idea, either individually or as part of a team.

Submissions (may be made in Hungarian or English) must include a project description of no more than one A4 page (font size 12, single line spacing) and a presentation video of up to 3 minutes. Projects may also be invited to a final in-person presentation in front of the decision makers.

Prizes

• 1st Prize: HUF 200,000
• 2nd Prize: HUF 150,000
• 3rd Prize: HUF 100,000

2. AI Demo Competition

The AI Demo Competition is intended for participants who already have a working AI solution or a project at an advanced stage of development. Entry to the Demo Competition is open regardless of whether participants have taken part in the AI Idea Competition. A participant may enter both competitions. Entries may be submitted in one of the following three categories.

2.A) Open AI Project This category is open to any original AI-based project developed by the participant(s), including solutions that have been further developed from submissions to the AI Idea Competition.

2.B) Urban Environmental Monitoring System This category is linked to Debrecen's Green Sentinel (Zöld Őrszem) environmental monitoring system (https://zoldorszem.debrecen.hu/). Participants are required to develop their demo using the system and its associated data. The mandatory data structure and a sample database will be made available specifically for the competition. The sample database is based on a publicly available 30-day dataset from the Green Sentinel monitoring system. As in real-world operation, the dataset may contain anomalies, including negative measurement values and missing data. Participants are expected to address these issues through data cleaning, handling missing values, rounding. The database may be used exclusively for the purposes of the DEIK.AI Challenge 2026. All rights are reserved by KER Debrecen Nonprofit Ltd. The dataset is available here: Required data structure, data types and sample data

On top of that participants are also welcome to incorporate additional datasets related to urban environmental monitoring and planning (the participants must follow the Data Usage Policy for each dataset). Examples include, but are not limited to:

additional measurements from the Green Sentinel environmental monitoring system: https://zoldorszem.debrecen.hu/measurements
transport data provided by DKV Debrecen Transport Ltd. (available exclusively for use within the DEIK.AI Challenge 2026; all rights reserved by DKV Debrecen Transport Ltd.):
DKV dataset, description
biodiversity datasets:
https://www.inaturalist.org/
https://openbiomaps.org/projects/debrecenmadarai/
https://padapt.eu/hu
https://rtm.mme.hu/
air quality datasets:
https://legszennyezettseg.met.hu/
water resource datasets:
https://geoportal.vizugy.hu/talajvizkutak/index.html
soil datasets:
https://talaj-teradat.hu/
meteorological datasets:
https://odp.met.hu/
https://odp.met.hu/tree.html
the Regulatory Plan of the City of Debrecen;
https://debrecen-megyei-jogu-varos-szabalyozasi-terv.envimap.hu/hu/Admin/landing
historical maps of Debrecen:
https://civisgistory.hu/Starter_website/home.html

Participants are responsible for complying with the licensing and terms of use of any third-party data sources they utilise.

2.C) AI-Assisted PR Content Generation: This category focuses on the development of AI systems capable of automatically generating communication materials based on scientific publications, research reports, educational or technical documentation, and other background materials. The primary objective is to develop a demo capable of producing press releases, PR materials and video content; however, additional communication-oriented textual or audiovisual outputs may also be considered. Sample materials for testing purposes will be provided.

Submission Deadline: 25 September 2026

Each participant may submit only one demo, either individually or as part of a team, including solutions that have been further developed from submissions to the AI Idea Competition.

Submissions (may be made in Hungarian or English) must include a project description of no more than one A4 page (font size 12, single line spacing) and a presentation video of up to 3 minutes. Projects may also be invited to a final in-person presentation in front of the decision makers.

Prizes (per category)

• 1st Prize: HUF 300,000
• 2nd Prize: HUF 225,000
• 3rd Prize: HUF 150,000

If it is appropriate, outstanding solutions may also be considered for use during the graduation ceremony of the Faculty of Informatics, University of Debrecen.

3. AI Sprint – Invitational Final

The highest-ranked projects from the AI Demo Competition will be invited to participate in a two-day AI Sprint Final.

Date: 9–10 October 2026

During the Sprint, participants will tackle real-world challenges in an intensive development environment, creating new features or complete solutions within a limited timeframe. The competition places particular emphasis on creativity, technical excellence, individual initiative and effective collaboration.

Prizes

• 1st Prize: HUF 400,000
• 2nd Prize: HUF 300,000
• 3rd Prize: HUF 200,000

For all three competitions, the organisers reserve the right to withhold any prize if the submitted projects do not meet the expected quality standard.

Further Information

To assist with planning and organising the event, we would greatly appreciate an indication of the expected number of participants. If you intend to take part, please let us know by completing the following form:
Expression of Interest Form (Please note that completing this form is not a requirement for participation in the competition.)

If you have any questions, please contact us at: challenge@inf.unideb.hu

Whether you have an innovative concept that could become a real-world solution or you are already developing an AI system ready to be showcased, we encourage you to apply.

DEIK.AI Challenge 2026 – From Ideas to Working Solutions.