Artificial intelligence is a tool.
Your real intelligence can show the world how to use it.
Welcome to the Lee Family AI Challenge and Prize Competition, a year-long, campus-wide initiative open to all undergraduate and graduate students at Lehigh University. Build hands-on AI skills, collaborate across disciplines, solve real-world problems, and compete for a share of $20,000 in prizes.
Whether you study arts, business, education, engineering, health, humanities, or sciences, this is an opportunity to gain practical experience with cutting-edge AI tools, problem identification, and AI application—skills top employers actively seek.
About The Challenge
Spanning the fall semester, The Challenge focuses on exploration, hands-on skill-building, and problem discovery.
What to Expect in Fall 2026
- Skill-Building Workshops: Learn cutting-edge AI tools, prompt engineering, ethical usage, and problem-solving frameworks through hands-on sessions.
- Problem Discovery and Ideation: Explore the Challenge Library (coming soon!) to identify real issues facing local industries, community organizations, and global markets.
- Team Formation: You decide whether to participate individually or form a team of two or three. Matchmaking sessions will help you connect across colleges and disciplines and identify complementary capabilities to drive real success.
- Initial Concept Submission and Student Showcase: Submit your initial concept to participate in the Student Showcase and apply to move forward to the Prize Competition.
Join one session, a few, or all–its up to you! Participation in Challenge sessions are optional and not required for the Prize Competition.
About the Prize Competition
In the spring semester, the focus shifts from exploration to execution with The Prize Competition.
Student teams (or solo innovators) narrow in on specific challenges, gain access to advanced AI models and resources, and design actionable, AI-powered solutions to real-world problems
This competition values the creative application of technology over the creation of new code. You do not need to build new AI from scratch—you need to use existing tools to solve a problem better than current state-of-the-art approaches.
What to Expect in Spring 2027:
- Advanced Tool Access: Gain access to premium generative AI models and technical guidance.
- Coaching and Mentoring: Work directly with faculty coaches and peer mentors who can support you along the way.
- Prototyping: Workshops and drop-in office hours to test and refine your concept.
- The Pitch and $20,000 Prize Pool: Showcase your solution to a panel of judges for a chance to win funding from a $20,000 prize pool to bring your idea to life.