Hack for Humanity: Build the planning tools your community needs!
Our chapter is joining "Hack for Humanity", The AI Collective's global initiative running Autumn 2026. It's the continuation of the "Humans in AI Week" conversations we held this summer, where we identified real problems in our local community... and now is our chance to build the solutions.Somewhere near you, a hospital is struggling to plan its staff rotas fairly. A food bank is working out who drives where. A volunteer group is juggling too many people and too few time slots. These are all planning problems, and they're the kind Timefold is built to solve.Using Timefold and an AI-powered MCP server we'll have ready on the day, you'll describe your problem in plain language and shape it into your own planning model (as a REST API), with the rules that matter to your community, like fairness between volunteers, travel limits, or skill requirements.Then you'll put that model to work: a sign-up app for volunteers, a route planner for delivery drivers, a rota tool a care team can use on Monday morning.
The challenge
Pick a real problem from your own community and build a working solution in a morning. Some examples:• A fair shift schedule for a local hospital or care team.• The best routes for grocery or food-rescue deliveries.• Practice schedules for a local sports team.Your project has to help people.
The day's schedule
• 09:00: Problem briefing and MCP server walkthrough.• 09:15: Hack.• 13:15: Lunch.• 14:15: Demos and judging.• 15:00: Close.
Who it's for
All builders are welcome. If you can describe a problem clearly, the AI can help you turn it into a model. If you can build a simple app or interface, you can turn that model into something people use. And if you know a local problem inside out, you're just as valuable to a team as the person writing code.Every problem statement and every project should solve something local to your community, with the purpose of benefiting humanity. The winning teams may be invited to showcase their projects in our global newsletter, which reaches more than 300,000 subscribers.Note: Timefold runs on Java. With a good AI Agent (Claude, Codex) no in-depth knowledge of Java will be required to work with Timefold. Setup instructions will be provided during the hackathon, but installing a Java Development Kit (JDK, version 21 or higher) ahead of time might save you some time.
As always, food and drink, engaging conversation, and incredible company will all be provided!
Please be advised: Unfortunately, space is very limited at these community events and we can not always accept everyone we would like to. If you are not accepted to this event, please keep applying! We appreciate your application tremendously and we are looking forward to seeing you at a future event very soon!
The AI Collective is a global non-profit building the human layer for the AI era. We unite 200,000+ leaders, builders, and stakeholders across 100+ forums worldwide to democratize the frontier, build trust, and coordinate how society navigates the rapid acceleration of technological progress.
All attendees and organizers at events affiliated with The AI Collective agree to our privacy policy and are subject to our code of conduct.
