about this event
Getting code to run has never been easier. Getting a system to actually work, at scale, under real constraints, is still hard. That gap is what this hackathon is about.
Global Innovation Build Challenge (GIBC) V2 is a fully online, student-led international hackathon. GIBC V1 brought together 552 participants worldwide with backing from sponsors including NordVPN. V2 builds on that with three tracks, an international judging panel, and a larger sponsor lineup.
Over the 10-week build period from July 11 to September 21, 2026, you can register at any time, build solo or in a team of up to 6, and submit to one of three tracks. Projects are reviewed by a panel of industry professionals and academic experts, with winners announced at a virtual closing ceremony on September 29, 2026.
tracks
Track 01: TECH (Foundational LLM Development)
Build and train a language model capped at 50 million parameters. You design the architecture, curate the data, and write the training loop. We want to see how much capability you can pull out of a deliberately small model. Example directions: a domain-specific assistant for legal or cryptographic text; a model optimized for on-device inference; a small generative model trained on a narrow technical corpus without touching a commercial API.
Track 02: Applied (Medical Technology & Finance)
Build a data-driven system on real, empirical datasets that solves a problem in healthcare or finance. This means predictive models, diagnostic pipelines, or automated financial systems, backed by data engineering that turns raw input into something a person could actually act on. Example directions: diagnostic software that processes device telemetry; analytics pipelines for pharmaceutical research; quantitative trading models driven by market indicators; automated risk scoring or fraud detection. All datasets must be public or de-identified, and prototypes must not be deployed on real patients or real money.
Track 03: Open (General Technical Invention)
Build a functional prototype that shows technical novelty and cross-disciplinary engineering. Software, hardware, interactive media, generative systems, or any combination. No architectural limits and no resource constraints. Example directions: IoT-connected physical infrastructure; a tool that changes how you work day to day; a generative AI product; a full-stack application aimed at an environmental or community problem.
when
Global Innovation Build Challenge V2
Build period begins. Register at any time throughout the 10-week build period.
◍ OnlineGlobal Innovation Build Challenge V2
Submission deadline (September 21, 11:45pm Taipei time, UTC+8). Late submissions are not reviewed.
◍ OnlineWinners announced
Virtual closing ceremony where winners are announced.
◍ Online