Global Appathon

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Frequently Asked Questions

General

The Global AI Hackathon ran from 2024 to 2025, organized by MIT RAISE and the App Inventor Foundation. Since 2026, the competition has been rebranded as the Global Appathon under appinventor.org and MIT App Inventor. The core elements of the competition remain the same, except that AI is no longer a submission requirement under the Global Appathon. The Global Appathon is a continuation of prior official MIT App Inventor competitions, such as the Summer Appathon, App of the Season, and App of the Month.

Yes, using MIT App Inventor is a requirement of the competition.

The App Inventor Community Forum is an active public forum where App Inventor users of all ages worldwide can ask questions, seek help, and answer others’ questions. Feel free to ask appathon-related questions under the “Appathon” category.

Note that the MIT App Inventor and App Inventor Foundation teams are unable to answer questions about individual projects.

All projects must be submitted by April 2, 2027 at 23:59 AOE (Anywhere on Earth) to be considered for the competition. We are unable to accommodate requests for extensions.

The App Inventor team is unable to match participants with mentors. We have an active Community Forum where you can ask questions and receive help from the community.

Judging

We do not provide letters for visa or application purposes based on participation as a volunteer judge. We have received a number of inquiries about using judging certificates for U.S. visa and H-1B applications, as well as requests for formal support letters. This volunteer program is intended solely as a community service activity and does not meet the criteria required for immigration-related documentation.

There are 2 parts to the judging criteria – Content & Impact and Technical

Content & Impact

Problem Scoping & Impact  (Weight 40%)

  • Submission includes a well-defined problem, mapped directly to a United Nations Sustainable Development Goal. 
  • Submission demonstrates a significant need and the potential for transformative, scalable impact on the target users.

Solution (Weight 35%)

  • Submission describes and demonstrates a fully functional App Inventor app.
  • Submission makes a convincing case that it improves users’ lives, not just that it technically runs.

Creativity (Weight 25%)

  • Submission demonstrates significant originality and creativity, offering a new or unexpected solution to a problem.
Technical

Usability & User Experience (Weight 25%)

  • Submission exhibits a seamless, accessible user experience tailored thoughtfully to the target audience’s profile.
  • Navigation is effortless, and feedback and error-handling are thoughtful throughout, anticipating what could confuse or block a user.

Design (Weight 25%)

  • Submission demonstrates thoughtful use of color, layout, and hierarchy that enhances the app’s purpose.
  • Uses sophisticated layout strategies (dynamic component and arrangement visibility, custom branding) to create an aesthetically cohesive and highly engaging product.

Technical Skill Software (Weight 50%)
Applicable for projects that only use software

  • App is a fully-featured working app.
    Code includes:
    • Purposeful abstraction through parameterized procedures, local/global variables, and data structures.
    • Use of complex data structures (e.g. lists, dictionaries, local variables, and procedure parameters) to manage complexity.
    • Code is clean, well-named, and logically structured throughout; no redundancy or dead logic. All user input paths and edge cases are handled predictably.

Technical Skill Hardware (Weight 50%)
Applicable for projects that include external hardware components. Note that judges will likely have to assess hardware integration and functionality based on the video demo of the app and hardware working together, and review of code and hardware appendix.

  • Code Proficiency:
    • Code shows purposeful abstraction through parameterized procedures, local/global variables, and complex data structures.(e.g. lists, dictionaries, local variables, and procedure parameters) to manage complexity.
    • Code is clean, well-named, and logically structured throughout; no redundancy or dead logic. All user input paths and edge cases are handled predictably.
  • Hardware Integration: Seamless two-way communication (app processes complex sensor inputs and sends real-time outputs back to physical components).
  • Appendix/Connection: Complete hardware appendix detailing original circuit design or integration. App gracefully recovers state upon connection loss/reconnection.

No, we do not provide judging scores or comments to participants.

Submissions

You are invited to submit apps developed for class projects, the AP Digital Portfolio, the Congressional App Challenge, or similar competitions. You may also submit apps previously submitted to App Inventor competitions, such as the Global Appathon, Regional Appathon, Summer Appathon, App of the Season, or App of the Month. However, there has to be significant further work and improvement from the original submission.

Yes, there are no costs associated with submitting to the competition.

Teams can be made up of 1 to 5 of five members, so you can be considered a team by yourself.

No, only one submission is allowed per participant.

Yes, there is no requirement for team members to come from the same location.

If team members are from different age groups, they will fall into the category of the oldest team member. The portal system will determine your category based on the oldest team member’s age.

Yes, your app can address one or more of the 17 UN SDGs.

Yes, you may use hardware as part of your project. The Technical Skill portion of hardware projects will be judged based on the criteria listed below, while Content & Impact, Usability & User Experience, and Design will be judged the same as software projects. Be sure to fill out the Hardware Appendix in your presentation.

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  • Code Proficiency:
    • Code shows purposeful abstraction through parameterized procedures, local/global variables, and complex data structures.(e.g. lists, dictionaries, local variables, and procedure parameters) to manage complexity.
    • Code is clean, well-named, and logically structured throughout; no redundancy or dead logic. All user input paths and edge cases are handled predictably.
  • Hardware Integration: Seamless two-way communication (app processes complex sensor inputs and sends real-time outputs back to physical components).
  • Appendix/Connection: Complete hardware appendix detailing original circuit design or integration. App gracefully recovers state upon connection loss/reconnection.

Adults may support youth submissions to a certain extent. They may provide high-level advice, input, and feedback on the project. However, if adults get more heavily involved in the project (e.g. writing code, debugging code, creating designs, etc), they should be included as a team member and the project will be submitted to the Adult team category. All projects are expected to acknowledge help they received outside of their team members in the Acknowledgements section of the presentation.

Submission videos that do not comply with the 3-minute limit may be disqualified at the discretion of judges.

The submission form, registration form, and presentation  are required to be in English. The video may be recorded in any language, but must contain English closed captions or subtitles. 

Prizes

Only category winners and honorable mentions will get Award Certificates from appinventor.org and MIT App Inventor. All participants who successfully submit a project, and complete the participation post-survey will be awarded digital Certificates of Contribution from appinventor.org and MIT App Inventor.

If any of these items are incomplete or are not completed by our specified deadline, a certificate will not be issued. Note that the participation post-survey will be sent out after the submission deadline this year.

We are unable to provide certificates for past competitions at this time.

A total of three submissions will be recognized as winners, with one winner per category (Junior – 1-5 members, <13 years old; Youth – 1-5 members, 13-17 years old; Adults – 1-5 members, 19+ years old).

Winners will receive the following:

  • Official certificates signed by appinventor.org and MIT App Inventor 
  • Feature in official press from appinventor.org and MIT App Inventor
  • Invitations to present their projects at the MIT App Inventor Global Education Summit in the summer of 2027.

Note: Due to visa restrictions by the US government, we will not be able to invite all winners to present in person at MIT. If winners are not able to enter the US, we will ask them to present remotely and will extend the invitation to 2028 if timing is the issue.

A select number of honorable mentions will be awarded. Honorable mentions will be invited to present their work at the MIT App Inventor Global Education Summit and will receive a separate certificate from the winners.