Competition 2026

Build the Future of
Infrastructure with AI

Sep 3 – Sep 16  ·  University of Colorado Denver

Challenge Tracks

01

Citizen-to-City AI Bridge

Modern cities run on structured data, but citizens report problems in messy, unstructured ways — tweets, voice memos, emails. Build AI middleware that automatically translates raw citizen reports into auditable, actionable work orders with crew assignment, priority scoring, and a chain-of-thought trust layer.

Pick one challenge to go deep on:

  • Crisis Cluster Detector — Group multiple reports in the same area and time window into a single major incident.
  • Severity Scorer — Extract high-hazard keywords to auto-escalate priority to Level 1.
  • Deduplication Guardrail — Use fuzzy semantic matching to suppress duplicate reports for already-open issues.

Trimble & Colorado Smart Cities Alliance

NLP / LLMsRAGJSON SchemaLangChainStreamlit
Mobile mapping vehicle on highway
02

Asset Management Capture Model

State DOTs are deploying mobile mapping systems to capture roadway assets at highway speeds. Using a real ~1-mile LiDAR and imagery dataset captured in Mannford, OK with a Trimble MX9, build an AI/ML model that extracts and classifies key asset categories with geospatial accuracy.

Asset categories to extract & classify:

  • Pavement — Surface condition and extent.
  • Utilities — Visible utility infrastructure along the corridor.
  • Signs — Traffic and regulatory signage with position data.
  • Safety Structures — Guardrail, rumble strips, and related elements.

WSB & Trimble

LiDAR / Point CloudComputer VisionGeospatial AIObject Classification

Key Dates

Sep 3

Kickoff

Track workshop, team formation, dataset access

Sep 11

Presentations & Judging

Team demos, Judge Panel, Winners announced

Sep 16

Symposium

Winners Showcase

Supported By

WSB
WSB Partner
HDR Inc
HDR Inc Partner
Colorado Smart Cities Alliance
Colorado Smart Cities Alliance Partner
CU Denver
CU Denver Host Institution
AI Student Association
AI Student Association Organizer
Colorado State University
Colorado State University Collaborator