About the event

A week of ideas, experiments and real products.

strAIght Up! is a youth hackathon that brought together 157 builders, aged 15–25, to explore, experiment, and ship real AI-powered products. The event ran in a hybrid format: an in-person kickoff and finale at LorongAI, followed by a week of remote building.

Participants selected from 25 challenge statements across 5 themes: AI agent trust and infrastructure, work and income access, health and longevity, and others. Several challenges specifically addressed barriers facing girls and young women building with AI.

The Hackathon Journey

From reveal to live demo in seven days.

01 · 18 APRIL

Kickoff

In-Person @ LorongAI, One-North

Challenge reveal · Tech workshops (Codex, Replit, Figma Make) · Mentor sessions

02 · 19–24 APRIL

Remote Build

Global / Remote

Build at your own pace

03 · 25 APRIL

The Finale

In-Person @ LorongAI, One-North

Live judge demos · Networking · Awards ceremony

The build tracks

Two tracks. One finish line.

Participants got to choose from two different build tracks.

Track 01

The Tech Track

For those who love the “how”: APIs, architecture, and robust code.

Track 02

The Vibe Track

For non-tech visionaries who “vibe” products into existence using LLMs and rapid prompting.

What every participant got

The tools to turn momentum into output.

OpenAI$100 in Codex or API credits

Momen$100 in credits

AWS$100 in credits

MobbinMobbin Pro, 3 months

ReplitReplit Core, 1 month

25 challenge statements

Five themes shaping what comes next.

Challenge statements were revealed at kickoff and distributed across five future-facing themes.

A. The Next 10 Years: Structural Shifts

B. Work, Income & Capability Formation

C. Attention, Agency & Coordination

D. Health, Longevity & Human Sustainability

E. Emerging AI Opportunity Space

Results

Meet the teams that stood out.

🏆 Best in Theme

$2,000 OpenAI credits per team · $2,000 Mobbin credits per team member · 1 year Mobbin Pro per team member · Hackathon t-shirt + flask per team member

Theme A · Structural Shifts — Fallback

Theme B · Work & Capability — Merit

Theme C · Attention & Agency — Seepdeek

Theme D · Health & Longevity — PetMe

Theme E · Emerging AI — Weave

🏆 Best AIF Award

$1,000 cash prize · $2,000 Mobbin credits per team member · 1 year Mobbin Pro per team member · Hackathon t-shirt + flask per team member

Theme D — Bloom

Theme E — Archway

🏆 Crowd Favourite

$2,000 OpenAI credits per team

Fallback

🎉 Social Media Challenge

$400 OpenAI credits

@moizhk.1

Organised by

Three communities backing young builders.

Wavesparks

Asia’s launchpad for young founders.

We identify and support ambitious young builders before the world is paying attention. Through early accelerator programmes, venture-building sprints, hackathons, workshops, founder communities, and early funding pathways, we help ambitious young people turn early ideas into real ventures.

Lythe

Foundational conversational AI infrastructure.

Lythe is a research lab that builds foundational conversational AI infrastructure. We develop both the core infrastructure and agent orchestration, as well as d2c products.

NextBigThing

Youth-led, builder-first.

NextBigThing helps young builders move beyond ideation into building and launching real businesses. Started in 2023 at Hwa Chong Institution, it now connects youth with angel investors, industry veterans, and MNCs.

Community Partners

Inside the build

Seven days of learning, making and shipping.

Participants during the strAIght up! kickoff

Contact us

Want to collaborate on a similar event?

Email us at letsbuild@wavesparks.co and we'll get back to you as soon as we can!

Email letsbuild@wavesparks.co →

A week of ideas, experiments and real products.