University of Debrecen AI competition highlights innovative and multidisciplinary applications

Innovative and multidisciplinary applications of artificial intelligence were at the centre of the DEIK.AI Challenge 2026, a student competition organised by the Faculty of Informatics at the University of Debrecen with the support of the Innovation Ecosystem Centre. The final of the first stage of the multi-round competition, the AI Idea Competition, was held at the Faculty of Informatics.

The aim of the competition was to identify and support the most promising AI ideas, projects and development teams. A total of 43 entries were submitted to the idea competition, including 33 individual applications and 10 team submissions. In addition to students from the Faculty of Informatics, university students from engineering, health sciences, humanities, natural sciences and medicine also took part. Participants were asked to present AI-based ideas offering innovative solutions to real-world problems in specific fields or across multiple disciplines.

Based on the preliminary evaluation, 20 entries reached the final, where students had the opportunity to present their ideas in person. The finalists gave three-minute pitches to the jury, outlining the essence of their ideas, their objectives and their expected practical applications.

“The initiative aims, above all, to provide as many University of Debrecen students as possible with an opportunity to present their ideas related to artificial intelligence. AI is no longer exclusively a field of information technology: it is creating new research, development and innovation opportunities in almost every discipline. We want to provide a forum where these ideas can become visible, receive professional support and bring students from different fields of study together,” said András Hajdu, dean of the Faculty of Informatics.

The dean also highlighted the importance of ensuring that promising initiatives do not end with the competition, but can become starting points for further development, research collaborations, participation in international competitions or even future startups.

The faculty also launched a matchmaking initiative alongside the competition. Idea owners looking for IT developers to help realise their concepts were given the opportunity to present their projects to students of the Faculty of Informatics. A total of 10 participants took advantage of the opportunity, while nearly 60 Informatics students expressed an interest in development work. In addition to supporting specific projects, the initiative could help strengthen multidisciplinary student collaboration within the university.

The first three places in the idea competition went to Verified Clinical Reasoning, We.Save.It.AI and GreenMind AI.

However, the competition does not end with the evaluation of the ideas. The next stage of the DEIK.AI Challenge is the AI Demo Competition, for which applications can be submitted until September 25 with AI solutions that are already functional or at an advanced stage of development. Improved versions of projects presented in the idea competition can also be entered.

The best-performing projects in the demo competition will be invited to the AI Sprint, scheduled for October 9–10, where participants will be able to continue developing their projects in an intensive development environment.

(unideb.hu)