On June 5, the University of Oxford and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights hosted the 2025 Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Summit, bringing together renowned experts and leaders, policymakers, technologists, academics, universities, celebrities, and more to explore solutions to climate challenges.

During the summit, a panel of distinguished speakers came together to present the winners of the recent Hackathon for Progress with RAG and IBM watsonx.ai. In the session they also talked about the power of hackathons. These events can be a "forge for innovation," helping the Developer community gain skills in areas like generative AI while also advancing new AI technology solutions that can responsibly address important business and humanitarian issues.

The panel included:

Dr. Alice E. A. Evatt
Research Fellow | Net Zero for the Fossil Fuel Sector
Oxford Net Zero and the Environmental Change Institute,
School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford

David Clark
Founder | Chief Executive Officer
Call for Code
Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance

John McNamarra
Master Inventor | European Academic Lead
Thought Leader Technical Specialist
IBM

Astrid Van Genderen Stort
Chief of External Engagement | Partnerships
United Nations Human Rights

Watch the replay of the Winners Announcement Panel

Participants in the Hackathon for Progress had a selection of two themes to address with their solutions using RAG and IBM watsonx.ai: 

• Advance the future of customer experience
• Climate Challenge, brought to you by Call for Code

The winning projects were exciting and really impressed the judges.

First place teams

Each first place team wins:

• $5,000 USD

• $500 USD IBM Cloud credits, per team member

• 1 ticket per team member to IBM TechXchange Conference 2025 in Orlando (Tickets are subject to legal pre-approval, are non-transferable, and travel/lodging is not included)

First place for the “Advance the future of customer experience” theme:

Team Lynx of Mid-West 

There is a wealth of online information that travelers can comb through when they are planning a trip, but it takes a lot of time to research descriptions and reviews across numerous sources, and often those resources are too generic to be relevant to the individual traveler. Travelers may have dietary restrictions, activity preferences, or accessibility requirements that need to be considered. Planning a trip that meets all the traveler’s wants and needs and maximizes their time and enjoyment can be difficult. 

This student team from Kansas State University created the AI Travel Concierge System that can create a personalized, comprehensive travel itinerary, tailored to the individual’s preferences, dietary needs, and budget, in under 60 seconds. Using RAG and IBM watsonx.ai, it takes as input an individual’s travel preferences and delivers highly relevant and contextually appropriate travel recommendations. Over time, it also adapt to individual customer needs and preferences to ”learn” how the individual likes to travel. The solution has potential to advance customer experience in the travel industry, as this sort of personized travel plan would be an attractive offer to present for travel companies or cities looking to drive tourism, as examples.

The project utilizes a multi-agent architecture that combines Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) with IBM watsonx.ai’s advanced language models.

Watch their demo

First place for the “Climate Challenge, brought to you by Call for Code” theme:

Team RescueRiser

With over 250 lives lost in Kenya each year due to floods brought on by climate change, this student team from Kirinyaga University in Kenya has developed an AI solution that could help protect Kenya’s most vulnerable citizens. They discovered that rushing waters are not the only deadly aspect of a flood; many people are injured or killed due to an ineffective response and rescue system. Warnings are issued, but they do not always reach the most at-risk communities. Shelters are built, but the people who need them may not know where they are or have a way to get to them. Victims, especially those without smartphones or internet connections, get neglected. 

The FloodZap solution is an AI-powered flood response platform, built with RAG and IBM watsonx.ai, designed to save lives by getting people to safety fast during a flood disaster. Individuals in need can quickly text *384# and follow short prompts to provide details on their situation from any basic-feature cell phone; no smartphone or data plan required. Then the platform quickly evaluates local data inputs such as flood risk predictions, evacuation procedures, and shelter data updated in real-time. AI-driven prioritization delivers back to the user a  hyper-personalized rescue plan – in English or Swahili – with safe shelter directions or estimated rescue times. At the same time, the system updates a live dashboard used by Kenya Red Cross Society, Water Resources Authority, and local leaders. It highlights critical alerts, allowing rescue teams to respond within minutes. This coordination can reduce delays and aid in rapid, localized response. 

FloodZap leverages IBM watsonx.ai's Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) model. Once the flood victim has reported an emergency, the system searches a vector database (Milvus) pre-indexed for relevant domain-related documents. Returned documents are incorporated into the AI model's context window, enhancing factual grounding. Context-dependent response generation is enabled that is representative of live data conditions, and watsonx.ai creates a custom response from the augmented input. The AI also prioritizes the highest-risk requests. The team hopes their scalable MVP, which is testable in a sandbox mode today, can be implemented by developers elsewhere and scaled to at-risk communities beyond Kenya.

Additionally, Team RescueRiser is eligible to be judged in November for the 2025 Call for Code Global Challenge, where the top team will take home $50,000 USD.

Watch their demo

Congratulations as well to our second place winners. Each member of the second place teams will take home Apple Airpod Pros® and $300 USD IBM Cloud Credits. In second place:

• “Advance the future of customer experience” theme: Team Kul_Gang — A virtual AI assistant coaches customer support professionals in real-time and brings the value of human empathy to customer experience.
  

• “Climate Challenge, brought to you by Call for Code” theme: Team Savedly — AI using satellite feeds and historical data analyzes fire risk and alerts communities in real-time to get them to safety faster. 
  

Hack your way to the IBM TechXchange 2025 conference!

Are you ready to supercharge your skills, collaborate with developers from around the world, and score cash and a trip to Orlando, Florida in October?

IBM TechXchange 2025 Pre-conference watsonx Hackathon
August 1 - 17
Join us for an exciting virtual event where innovators like YOU will dive into the power of AI agents to build cutting-edge solutions that tackle real-world problems. Team up with peers and develop a proof-of-concept using IBM watsonx to show how agentic AI can take on an everyday issue in a new, creative way. The top 2 hackathon teams will win $5,000 USD and a trip to the IBM TechXchange 2025 conference where you can show off your smarts! 

Learn more and register

Watch for more hackathons throughout the year:
IBM watsonx Hackathons, brought to you by IBM TechXchange and Call for Code