NYC Build With AI Hackathon @ NYU Tandon Engineering School, part of NYC Open Da

Empowering New Yorkers through Open Data and Artificial Intelligence!

🎤 Keynote & Labs Evening Session
Get ready to build! This evening session is designed to provide the technical foundation and inspiration needed for a successful hackathon. Attendees will receive direct guidance on Google Cloud tools and Gemini APIs.

Agenda:

6:00 PM – 6:15 PM: 👋 Check-in & Refreshments Networking music, high energy.

6:15 PM – 6:45 PM: 🎤 Keynote: The Multimodal Frontier Intro to Gemini Live API & Agent Development Kit. The "Anti-Project" Brief: Explicitly show the slide of what NOT to build (No basic RAG, No Medical/Mental Health bots). Introduction of Judges and Mentors.

6:45 PM – 7:00 PM: 🛠️ Environment Setup & API Access Distribution of Google Cloud Credits. Verification of API access (ensure every laptop is ready for Sunday morning).

7:00 PM – 8:30 PM: 💻 Introduction to Gemini Live Agents and Anti-gravity Technical deep-dive: "From 0 to Hello World" with Live API. Technical deep-dive: How to master Antigravity for your coding projects.

8:30 PM – 9:00 PM: 🤝 Speed Networking & Team Formation The Rule: Teams of 3–4 preferred. Activity: "Pitch your skill" (e.g., "I'm a backend dev looking for a creative storyteller"). Solo hackers are grouped or encouraged to join existing ideas to maximize credit usage and project quality.

Workshop Guidelines:

Level 0 Instructions

Level 1 Instructions

Level 3 Instructions

Level 4 Instructions

The Mission:
Step out of the traditional "text box" paradigm and build AI that truly connects. This hackathon challenges you to create immersive, multimodal AI agents using Google Cloud and Gemini. Participants will leverage the speed of the Gemini Live API and the power of Google’s GenAI SDK/ Agent Development Kit to build solutions benefiting NYC as part of NYC Open Data Week.

Don’t just build a chatbot. Build an experience that sees, hears, speaks, and creates.

Prizes:

Up to 4 tickets to Google I/O on May 19-20 in Mountain View, CA.

The winning team will receive an exclusive, private pitch session with the founders of Google’s AI Futures Fund.

Register for the waitlist and our team will review and approve shortly.

Register for Day 2: NYC Build with AI Hackathon - Day II

Agenda

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Speakers

Rachel Francois - Google (Regional Lead - North America GDG & GDG on Campus Program)

Rachel Francois is the Regional Lead for North America for Google Developer Groups (GDG) & GDG on Campus, where she curates programs that empower developers, educators, and students. With a background spanning Google, higher education, and community building, she focuses on cultivating inclusive ecosystems and driving transformative learning experiences.

Kartik Derasari

Judges

Alix Jules - Broadridge (Head of AI Transformation)

Across my career, the throughline has been turning AI and emerging technologies from buzzwords into a real operating levers for growth, productivity, and resilience. At Google, I built and scaled AI programs that created a multi‑year GenAI and cloud transformation backlog in the billions, working with senior business and technology leaders to rethink how data, cloud, and AI could power new lin…

Annie Beckman - New York Law School

Boyang Chen - Meta (Software Engineer)

Boyang Chen is a software engineer specializing in large-scale cloud infrastructure and AI systems. He holds a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of California, Davis and has nine years of experience at leading technology companies including Meta and Bloomberg.
His work focuses on backend systems that support machine learning applications at scale, includi…

Drake Ryans - frog (Senior Strategist)

Deborah Navarro - Barndoor AI (AI Platform Strategy)

Product leader currently building AI ecosystems at Barndoor AI, with experience at Meta and a track record of turning frontier technologies into real-world products. Previously led commercialization and partnerships for MIT Hyperloop III, earning recognition from SpaceX for innovation, and co-founded Texas Guadaloop. Has worked across AI, mobility, and deep tech startups, bridging engineering …

Jai Chandnani - Cornell AI Innovation Hub (AI Engineer Fellow)

Jai Chandnani is the Inaugural AI Engineer Fellow at the Cornell AI Innovation Hub. Within Cornell University’s AI Program, he leads projects focused on building and deploying generative AI solutions to streamline workflows, improve decision-making, and scale high-impact services. He also advances AI literacy and fluency across campus through introductory workshops and hands-on training sessio…

Kyunghyun Cho - New York University (Co-Director of Global Frontier AI Lab)

Kyunghyun Cho is the Glen de Vries Professor of Health Statistics and a professor of computer science and data science at New York University. He is also a CIFAR Fellow of Learning in Machines & Brains and an Associate Member of the National Academy of Engineering of Korea. Early 2021, he co-founded Prescient Design which was acquired by Genentech late 2021. Since then, he served as an Exe…

Kartik Derasari

Obed Appiah-Agyeman - Google (Software Engineer)

I will be a difference maker.

Peta-Gay Clarke - Women TechExchange Inc. (Founder)

“Technologist by training, educator by calling,” is how Peta-Gay Clarke describes her journey. For over 15 years, she has worked at the forefront of technology, financial services, and academia—building a career defined by innovation, purpose, and lasting impact. A visionary leader and strategic operator, she is known for scaling global programs, shaping inclusive ecosystems, and transforming …

Prahal Arora - Instagram (Machine Learning Engineer)

With over a decade of experience, I’m a Machine Learning Engineer at Meta (Instagram, NYC), building large-scale ranking and retrieval systems for ads/shopping and reels recommendations. Previously, I worked across Meta’s AI org on multimodal video understanding and real-time integrity systems, developing AI that detects harmful content in live video and helps reviewers quickly localize policy…

Shizhu Liu - NYU Tandon (Industry Associate Professor | Deputy Director of the M.S. MOT Program)

Shizhu Liu is an Industry Associate Professor and the Deputy Director of the Management of Technology (MoT) master’s program at NYU Tandon. Her academic roots at NYU run deep; she earned her Ph.D. in Mathematics in 2018 under the mentorship of Erwin Lutwak, Gaoyong Zhang, and Deane Yang. It was during this time that she discovered a profound passion for pedagogy while serving …

Shuaiyu Liang - Bloomberg (Senior Software Developer)

Shuaiyu Liang is a senior software engineer and a 2017 graduate of NYU Tandon School of Engineering (M.S. in Electrical Engineering). With nine years of experience, including at Bloomberg, he builds and scales data infrastructure that supports high-volume, time-sensitive systems across communication platforms, financial data, and AI-enabled services.
His work focuses on …

Shrutivandana Sharma - NYU (Industry Associate Professor)

Shrutivandana Sharma is an Industry Associate Professor in the Department of Technology Management and Innovation (TMI) (https://engineering.nyu.edu/academics/departments/technology-management-and-innovation) at New York University (https://engineering.nyu.edu/). Prior …

Yifeng (Ethan) Fan - NYDIG (Software Engineer)

Ethan brings a rare combination of top-tier finance data (former Citadel) engineering experience and hands-on work in emerging digital asset systems, with a strong ability to turn complex data into real business impact.

Zin Tun Cho - Financial Sector (Senior Data Science Manager)

Hosted By

Anna Nerezova, GDG Organizer

Anna Nerezova is a Digital Marketing and Cloud Transformation Consultant with 15 years of experience in data, analytics and optimization.
She has built innovative solutions using Google Cloud to solve problems in the media and entertainment, tech, health and non-profit industries
Anna is a Google Cloud Engineer Scholar, and is on the 100 Women in Analytics list by Google Analytics. She is also a Google Developer Group NYC lead and a mentor for the Northeast, and a proud Women Techmakers Ambassador.

Anna is passionate about using the latest AI/ML technologies to provide solutions and bring growth and better experience for all users. She is a strong advocate for diversity and inclusion, and is committed to helping underrepresented groups become entrepreneurs and financially independent.

Bhavik Chopra, Computer Science Graduate Student

Hi, I’m Bhavik — a Data Scientist at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and an Organizer for Google Developer Group (GDG) NYC, where I foster a thriving tech community through events like GDG NYC DevFest and Cloud Study Jams on Google Cloud and Terraform.

My passion for technology started in childhood, surrounded by computers, software, and games. Although I initially pursued Science-Maths in high school, my true calling emerged when I discovered software development. Since then, I’ve been building projects and exploring cutting-edge technologies.

I hold a Master’s in Computer Science from Pace University and a Bachelor’s in Computer Engineering from Silver Oak University, where I actively contributed to the tech community through DSC Silver Oak (Google Developers) and various IEEE leadership roles.

Today, I merge my technical expertise with my love for community building—whether through data science innovations at MTA, improving NYC transit for 6M+ daily riders, or empowering developers through GDG NYC events.

Let’s connect and create something impactful together! 🚀

Shivika Arora, Executive Director, Product

I am currently responsible for driving modernization, innovation and engineer experience agenda in four strategic tech location for JP Morgan - Manhattan, Brooklyn, Silicon Valley and Seattle. Prior to this role, I was the Product and Solutions Lead for Trusts and Estates under Asset Wealth Management, where I was responsible for executing both brokerage op models as well lending framework for the ultra-high net worth clients.

Outside of work, I am Google’s WomenTechmaker Ambassador for NYC as well as GDG NYC Organizer; Champion Coach for JPM’s Women On The Move Network' and Fast Forward Small Business Mentor.

On a personal front, I love to read, dance to any good music and go on food tours around various cities.

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Partner

AI Futures Fund (https://dub.sh/AI-Futures-Fund)
Working with startups to build what’s next in AI

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