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Building with IBM Bob

Hosted by
IBMIBM
Starting in
1
days
8
hrs
17
mins
Meet Bob, your assistant builder
AutomationBeginner Friendly
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Status
Upcoming
Participants
0
Prize Pool
$2,000USD
Format
Virtual
Registration Starts on
31 Aug, 2026, 12:00PM(EDT)

About

Over three weeks, builders of every background, developers, designers, product thinkers, and first time hackers, will get hands-on with IBM Bob to design, build, and deploy real solutions.


This is your chance to actually put Bob to work: explore what it can do, apply it to your own project, and walk away with something you built yourself.


Whether you've got a problem you've been wanting to solve or you're just curious to see what Bob can do in your hands, this hackathon gives you the time, the tool, and the support to make it happen.

Eligibility Criteria

  • Ages18+
  • GenderAll genders
  • Teams
    1 - 5 members
  • ProfileAll Profiles
  • Regions

    Only specific countries/territories

Challenge Themes

Theme 1: Students / Early Career — Explore, Fix, and Build

Start with an unfamiliar application and use Bob to understand how it works, fix a seeded issue, and add a useful feature. Potential use cases: code explanation, debugging, feature development, tests, and documentation

Theme 2: Experienced Developers — Modernize What Matters

Use Bob to analyze and transform an existing or legacy application without disrupting its core functionality. Potential use cases: framework upgrades, dependency updates, architectural refactoring, API enablement, better test coverage, and modernization documentation.

Timeline

Sep 28 - Oct 18: 3 week build period; participants explore, build, and iterate with IBM Bob


Oct 18: Submission deadline (23:59, ET)


Oct 28: Winners announcement

Submissions Requirements

1. GitHub Repo Link:

  • Team leader to create the project's GitHub Repo and share the access with the rest of the team to collaborate on.
  • The team will save all submission items onto this Github Repo where the judges may access the items during the judging period.
  • GitHub repo should host the application’s code, a README file, any other deployment files and testing instructions.


2. Project Details:

  • Project Description (max 100 words)
  • Selected hackathon track
  • A list of tech stack (solutions, technology infrastructure, technology services, etc.) used by the team to build your project

3. Improvements Made: For existing projects, please state the improvements made during the hacking period.


4. Pitch Deck (in PDF):

  • Team and project introduction
  • Project Summary : Provide a comprehensive overview of your solution, keeping in mind that the judging criteria will form the basis of judges’ assessment.
  • Future Roadmap : Any key learnings and room from improvements? Outline the next steps for your project if you were to continue developing it.


5. Demo Video (max 3 min):

  • Showcase the technical strengths, usability and performance of your solution here! You must pre-record your demo, upload it to Youtube, and provide the link. 


6. Project Demo Link: This is the URL to the live working environment of the solution the team has developed.

Judging Criteria

Tool Usage & Depth of Adoption (30%): Did the team actually build with IBM Bob as a core part of their workflow, not just bolt it on at the end?


Innovation & Use Case Relevance (30%): Is the use case a credible, realistic application of IBM Bob (vs. a generic project that happens to touch it)?


Functionality & Technical Execution (30%): Does the project work as demoed? Is it technically sound given the 3-week timeframe?


Presentation & Clarity (10%): Can the team clearly explain what they built and how Bob was used in a few minutes?