Top 10 Artificial Intelligence Competitions for High School Students
Artificial Intelligence competitions offer hands-on experience for high school students to implement coding and problem-solving skills to real-world challenges. By taking part, you not only enhance your technical know-how but also your sense of teamwork, critical thinking and creativity.
Apart from the skill training, participating (and maybe even winning!) in prestigious AI competitions can boost your academic profile and your college applications — opening doors to scholarships, mentorship opportunities, and a deeper understanding of AI’s potential impact on our future. Whether you're a beginner or an advanced coder, there's an AI competition out there for you to explore and grow your skills.
How did we select these competitions?
We have curated a list of ten AI competitions that could be great avenues for students interested in AI. They have been selected according to the following criteria:
- Prestige: While prestige can be a pretty subjective factor, some organizers are more well-known than others. Competitions hosted by well-known companies like Intel, for example, can be a boost for your college application given the brand name and reputation.
- Complexity: The more advanced a competition’s subject matter is, the better it will look on your resume. So, programs with a higher level of expertise have been ranked higher.
- Cost: Competitions that are funded or sponsored have been ranked higher since they are more accessible to students of all backgrounds and usually signify the credibility of the program as well.
Read on to learn more about which AI competition you should choose!
1. World Artificial Intelligence Competition for Youth 2023
Location: Online and in-person options available (in-person competitions can be co-hosted with local organizers in other countries)
Eligibility: Students aged 6 – 18
Prize: Students receive awards but there is no monetary prize
Coding level: Intermediate
Cost: Free
Program dates: December 2, 2023 – December 3, 2023
Application deadline: November 25, 2023
Students worldwide can register for this AI competition. Students compete based on their age, that is, whether they are elementary, middle, or high school students. You can work as an individual or a team and choose from three different competition tracks — AI Showcase Track, AI Generated Art Track, or AI Large Language Model Track. Once you submit your project, it will be judged on the basis of your understanding of the use of AI, the project’s impact on the community, and the user experience. Should you make it through to the final round, you will present your work and take part in a Q&A round, before the winner is announced. Previous winners have worked on projects like an AI-integrated app that helps visually impaired people and an AI-assisted face mask detector.
This is a great competition for anyone who is passionate about AI ethics and how AI can solve important problems in the community. You can learn more about WAICY here.
Here is an official recap from the 2022 competition! Also check out their AI resources.
Location: Online
Eligibility: Participants must fall into one of two age groups: 13 – 18 years old and 18+ years
Prize: $5,000, Intel-powered laptop, and mentorship opportunities are awarded to the global winners. Regional winners may get between $500 – $1,000.
Coding level: Beginner
Cost: Free
Program dates: September 13, 2023 – September 20, 2023
Application deadline: Not specified
This competition is part of the broader Intel AI Global Impact Festival, which annually showcases the latest innovations and talks by experts in the fields. The AI Impact Creators competition takes place at a global level and revolves around social impact AI projects. Previous winning projects include a tool that can help people have regular heart check-ups and a code summarizer that improves the accessibility of coding to non-English speaking people. Coming from a well-known company like Intel, this competition offers a fair amount of recognition and benefits for those who want to pursue a career in the field. However, it can be quite competitive!
You can check out past winners here!
Location: Online and in-person components included (varies by region and year)
Eligibility: High school and university-level students
Coding level: Advanced
Cost: $200 and extra costs might be incurred due to the required hardware
Program dates: To be announced
Application deadline: Applications will open in Fall 2023
Organized by the Robotics Education & Competition (REC) Foundation, the Vex AI Competition is a great way for students to explore the intersection of robotics and artificial intelligence. Along with your team, you will work on two robots. The focus is on robots being able to function and interact with their environment autonomously — such as being able to navigate an obstacle course. You would need to be familiar with areas like motor planning, computer vision, and haptic feedback integration for this project. However, you might need to apply through your school or another organization for this competition, so keep that in mind.
Location: Online
Eligibility: Students of 13 years of age or more
Prize: $5,000, a free CVDL Master Program by OpenCV, and a certificate of excellence for first place with other prizes available for runners-up
Coding level: Intermediate (given that the technical skill set is a big part of the project and judging criteria)
Cost: Free
Program dates: Winners announced on December 21, 2023
Application deadline: November 30, 2023
The OpenCV AI Competition 2023 is an international open-source challenge involving projects that focus on computer vision and AI. You can participate individually or in a team of up to 3 people and must submit a project using the OpenCV Library. Apart from that one restriction, you pretty much get to work on developing your project however you like. Robotics, agriculture, education, health, and other areas are indicated but you do not have to stick to these. You will spend the first phase of the competition working on the proposal and the second phase implementing it. In the end, you will have to submit a project report, demo video and the source code.
5. Numerai
Location: Online
Eligibility: Open to all (students and adults)
Prize: Numerai’s cryptocurrency (NMR)
Coding level: Advanced
Cost: Free. However, once you stake NMR there may be potential costs
Program dates: New submission rounds begin every week with specific timings for submission windows
If you’re interested in the intersection of data science, AI, and finance, and have a strong skill set in these areas already, Numerai should be on your radar. It is a data science competition where your goal will be to develop machine learning models that can predict the stock market. Afterward, you can stake Numerai’s cryptocurrency on your predictions and earn rewards based on its performance. While Numerai is a reputed competition that has been featured in magazines like Forbes, it’s the real-world interaction and valuable resources that make it a truly unique experience. However, the crypto reward might not be for everyone. It is important to note that this competition is not suitable for beginners — it is fairly advanced and open to adults for participation as well.
6. AIHacks
Location: Online
Eligibility: High school females and gender non-conforming students
Prize: Previous prizes have included Oculus VR Headsets, Amazon Echos, and Polaroids
Coding level: Beginner
Cost: Free
Program dates: September 5, 2023 – September 7, 2023
Application deadline: Not specified
A student-run competition, AIHacks is meant to encourage women and gender non-conforming students in the field of AI. As a participant, you will attend workshops and then work in teams to solve problems with code. Previous winners have worked on projects like a website that provides user-determined safe routes for people when walking alone and a website that helps reunite owners with their dogs through a search and sort system. This is an ideal option for those who are interested in the field but have no previous knowledge. The program’s mentors and workshops will teach you everything you need!
7. Bitgrit’s Bird Species Classification Challenge
Location: Online
Eligibility: No specific criteria given
Prize: None (it’s a learning competition)
Coding level: Beginner
Cost: None
Program dates: The competition began in May 2022 and is still ongoing
Submission deadline: Rolling submissions, 3 per day allowed
This competition involves the application of artificial intelligence to a specific problem. While Bitgrit usually offers a number of different competitions, this one requires participants to develop a machine-learning model that can predict a bird’s species based on its attributes and geographical locations. Rather than a fixed winner, the competition has a leaderboard that shows the participants with the highest scores. This is a great option for those who have just started learning about AI and want some practice.
8. AIcrowd’s Melting Pot Challenge at NeurIPS 2023
Location: Online
Eligibility: Applicants who are at least 16 years old, including professionals
Prize: $5,000 for the first place, $3,000 for the second, and $2,000 for the third
Coding level: Advanced
Cost: Free
Program dates: August 31, 2023 - November 15, 2023
Application deadline: None
AIcrowd is another platform where you can find a variety of AI-based challenges. The Melting Pot Challenge is organized by researchers from the Cooperative AI Foundation, MIT, and Google DeepMind. In teams, you must develop multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) solutions that promote teamwork and discourage undesirable behavior in various specific scenarios. The goal is to see how well computer programs adapt to each other and improve the cooperativeness of AI systems during real-world teamwork. Top performers will receive an invitation to co-author a report for NeurIPS 2024 (an annual AI conference).
9. Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair
Location: In-person at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center, Dallas, Texas
Eligibility: All (even international) high school students
Prize: $5,000 for the first place with cash awards going to 3 runners-up
Coding level: Intermediate
Cost: $25 registration fee
Program dates: Regional/local fairs usually conclude by April, ISEF takes place from May 13, 2023 – May 19, 2023
Application deadline: 12 days after the regional/local fair
With an acceptance rate of 2-5%, the Regeneron ISEF is not only highly competitive but also extremely prestigious. It is a project-based science competition where you must present an individual or team-based research project that belongs to one of these categories (a wide range of subjects in the field of science). The research should not have been going on for longer than 12 months. The only drawback is that to be eligible for this competition, you need to first participate in a regional/local fair and then get shortlisted for ISEF. It can seem like an arduous process, but the recognition and access to opportunities that come with ISEF is worth taking the trouble. If you want to get an idea of the kind of projects accepted, you can go through project abstracts here. You can also check out our complete guide to ISEF here!
10. The Trojan Detection Challenge 2023 (LLM Edition)
Location: Online
Eligibility: Open to all
Prize: Monetary prizes range from $500 - $5,000
Coding level: Intermediate
Cost: Free
Program dates: July 26, 2023 - October 29, 2023
Application deadline: Registration opens on July 17, 2023 and the development phase begins on July 25, 2023, so applications should ideally be submitted before that.
Unlike the other entries on this list, this competition is not project-based. It comprises two tracks: The Trojan Detection Track, where participants must identify triggers for trojans embedded in LLMs, and the Red Teaming Track, which challenges participants to develop automated methods that induce specific undesirable behaviors in LLMs. Overall, you will advance your understanding of the methods used to detect hidden functionality in large language models. This is a great choice if you have an interest in cybersecurity, natural language processing, AI safety, risk assessment and the like.
Here is a bonus competition for interested students!
Kaggle’s Competitions: Google - Fast or Slow? Predict AI Model Runtime
Location: Online
Eligibility: Applicants who are at least 18 years old, including professionals (however, Kaggle is known for having competitions open to younger students as well)
Prize: $15,000
Coding level: Intermediate to Advanced
Cost: Free
Program dates: August 29, 2023 - November 17, 2023
Submission deadline: November 17, 2023
Kaggle is a popular platform for data science, artificial intelligence, and machine learning competitions, where you can find several options for AI-based competitions. Kaggle’s community of professionals, valuable prizes and real-world datasets make it a sought after platform. This particular competition is hosted by Google and your goal is to optimize AI model runtimes by finding the most efficient compiler configurations based on the provided data. The objective is to train a machine learning model to predict runtime for given graphs and configurations in the test dataset. While this is just one of the options, Kaggle hosts many different types of competitions such as writing essays about AI or building an algorithm for object detection.
Build your foundations in AI before taking part in a competition with Veritas AI!
Founded by Harvard graduate students, Veritas AI is a program that teaches you the foundations of AI and ML through real-world, collaborative projects. You can also work 1-1 with mentors from universities like Harvard, MIT, Stanford, and CMU to create unique, personalized projects in AI. Last year, we had over 1000 students learn AI with us. You can find the application form here!
Image Source: VEX AI Competition Logo