Participants Worldwide Tackle UN SDGs in Second Annual AI Hackathon
Over 1,300 participants from 86 countries and regions used AI tools to develop mobile apps addressing the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals in a six-week virtual event.
The second annual Global AI Hackathon brought together participants from around the world to use artificial intelligence in addressing important global challenges. Hosted by MIT RAISE and the App Inventor Foundation, this free virtual competition invited innovators worldwide to use MIT App Inventor for developing AI-powered mobile applications aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The six-week event, which ran from March 3 to April 14, 2025, saw a record level of participation—1,313 individuals registered for the hackathon, marking a 42% increase from the inaugural competition in 2024. Participants came from 86 countries and regions worldwide, with 60% living in developing nations. The top countries represented were the United States, India, Brazil, Singapore, and Indonesia. The competition brought together a remarkably wide range—from 5 to 77 years old—with a median age of 17.
Project submissions spanned across all seventeen UN SDGs, with SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-Being) and SDG 4 (Quality Education) being the most frequently addressed. Among the AI technologies used in submitted apps, chatbots were the most popular, followed by NLP (Natural Language Processing). Approximately 13% of projects—including two of the winners—went beyond mobile apps by including hardware components in their projects, such as IoT (Internet of Things) sensors and microcontrollers.
Submissions were evaluated by a panel of over 50 judges, including volunteers from community partners like Google, as well as MIT App Inventor educators and power users. Judges assessed projects for creativity, impact, design, and technical skill based on a presentation, video, and mobile app code.
The winning apps—RehabAI, Move To Heal, RecycleEasy, and VisionCap—developed solutions to tangible problems in their communities, ranging from physical rehabilitation to trash pollution and road safety. Their impressive projects have earned them all-expenses-paid trips to present their work at the MIT AI & Education Summit in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on July 16-18, 2025. Below we present the winning teams and honorable mentions whose projects showcase how AI can be used for social good.
Youth Individual Category
Winner: RehabAI
By: Cody Li
My project is inspired by the United Nations SDG of ensuring good health and well-being. Through my research, I discovered that the United States is projected to face a shortage of 124,000 physicians by 2033. This shortage significantly affects many critical healthcare sectors, including telerehabilitation. To address this issue, I developed RehabAI, an AI-powered app designed to enhance telerehab services. Telerehab provides remote rehabilitation for individuals with mobility challenges or limited access to healthcare facilities. RehabAI improves this process by tracking, classifying, and scoring rehabilitation exercises, allowing patients to complete their rehab effectively without direct supervision from a physician.
Honorable Mention: Aimon
By: I Gede Narayana Parameswara
Many people struggle with financial management, leading to stress, debt, and economic instability. Inspired by the UN SDGs, especially No Poverty (1), Good Health and Well-Being (3), and Reduced Inequalities (10), this app aims to provide AI-powered financial guidance, budgeting tools, and a supportive community. Poor financial literacy affects mental well-being and economic growth, making accessible financial planning essential. By leveraging AI, we empower individuals to make informed financial decisions, reduce inequalities, and improve overall well-being. We are passionate about solving this issue to promote financial stability, reduce stress, and foster a healthier economic future for everyone.
Watch Aimon’s video here.
Youth Team Category
Winner: Move to Heal
By: Ada Kilinc, Batuhan Pekcan, Defne Nil Pekdemir, Deniz Derya Gokcek, Eylul Karabulak
Doing physical therapy incorrectly at home is a serious issue that often goes unnoticed. Without proper guidance, people may perform movements in ways that make their condition worse — or even cause lasting harm. This problem connects directly to UN SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being. Recovery should not depend only on having access to a professional. Even small mistakes during exercise can have long-term effects on someone’s health. We wanted to create something that supports people on their healing journey, helping them feel safe and confident while exercising at home — especially when expert help isn’t always available.
Honorable Mention: Kidney Buddy
By: Alan Zheng, Alina Zheng, Madeline Nie, Alec Zheng, Isabel Lin
Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) affects over 850 million people worldwide, yet many still face barriers to early diagnosis, personalized care, affordability, and ongoing support—especially in underserved communities. Inspired by UN SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being) and SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities), we created Kidney Buddy: an AI-powered eHealth app that empowers patients to manage their condition confidently, anytime and anywhere. By making smart, on-demand support more accessible and intuitive, we aim to reduce complications, lower long-term healthcare costs, and improve outcomes. This is personalized kidney care—reimagined for the digital era.
Watch Kidney Buddy’s video here.
Honorable Mention: Ikigai for Teens
By: Nomusa Gwebu, Victor Tang, Ronald Zhao
Ikigai for Teens leverages your interests, skills, values, background, and even your daily reflections to build a personal profile that grows and evolves with you. It helps uncover your Ikigai—your unique “meaning for life”—while suggesting fulfilling career paths and crafting tailored career plans to guide your journey.
Watch Ikigai for Teens’ video here.
Adult Individual Category
Winner: RecycleEasy
By: Marco Perrone
In our cities, great amounts of trash are produced every day. To reduce waste, we know that we can recycle a large part of the garbage we produce. On the packaging of the products we consume, we often find codes or descriptions that are not always easy to understand, especially if you come from another country and don’t know the language. I created RecycleEasy with my city, Venice, in mind. Venice has around 50,000 residents, and every day, just as many tourists visit. That’s why giving visitors the opportunity to properly sort their waste is incredibly important for the city. RecycleEasy uses AI to find recycled codes inside packaging labels and returns the codes and the materials they are made of. I would like to solve this problem because I feel that pollution and waste is an important problem that affects us all, and this app can be a starting point.
Honorable Mention: Sleep Fixer
By: Dhakshesh Dhanasekaran
The importance of sleep is often underappreciated until it affects your health, focus, or mood. I’ve seen friends stay up all night trying to reset their sleep, only to fall into worse patterns. Inspired by the UN SDG on Good Health and Well-being, I wanted to build something that doesn’t just track sleep, but actually helps change it. Most apps set goals. Few offer a gentle, realistic way to shift habits. I designed a free, simple tool that helps people gradually move toward better sleep, day by day, without stress, guilt, or burnout. Because good sleep shouldn’t be this hard.
Watch Sleep Fixer’s video here.
Honorable Mention: Eye Speak
By: Himaja Mankala
Globally, millions of individuals with motor impairments face communication barriers that obstruct access to better healthcare, education, equal opportunity, and independence (SDG 3, 4, 10). The existing assistive tools in the market are widely outdated, expensive, and inaccessible. In school, I witnessed a classmate struggle with managing Rett Syndrome and communication through those same technologies. This inspired me to build a simpler, compact, and cost-effective application. Since most of the world already has access to a smartphone or tablet, this dramatically increases accessibility, decreases consumption, and removes the need for bulky, unaffordable hardware.
Watch Eye Speak’s video here.
All Ages Team Category
Winner: VisionCap
By: Tianxiang Xing, Kushal Sri Rangam, Shounak Palnitkar Jitendra, Punam Ram Pukale, Jaida Gao
We chose to address road traffic safety based on UN SDG 3.6. The global average road death rate is 15 per 100,000, with higher rates in developing regions. Causes include poor infrastructure and low awareness. We aim to reduce accidents by providing real-time alerts and emergency response through a smart helmet and app, at a low cost.
Honorable Mention: ArachNeed
By: João Rubens Belluzzo Neto, Ana Clara Rosa
We chose to address spider bites, a neglected tropical disease aligned with UN SDG 3. In 2023, Brazil reported 43,933 spider bite cases—the highest number worldwide. Only three spider species are medically relevant, yet they live close to people and cause over 10,000 severe cases per year in Latin America. Rural and low-income populations, especially children, face the highest risks and often lack access to proper care. Inspired by this gap, we created a solution to help detect, assess, and respond to bites early using AI, supporting faster care and reducing complications like necrosis, sepsis, or death.
Watch ArachNeed’s video here.