India's Premier Sustainable AI Challenge

 Join ZIROH LABS for a 30-day AI Challenge, starting from 26th April and compete for a ₹7,50,000 prize pool.
Online
Free
Team Size: 1-5
BROCHURE

About the Kompact AI Hackathon

"The Build Next 2026, powered by Kompact AI is a national-level AI Challenge for students and and working professionals in India. Hosted by ZIROH LABS, this AI competition challenges you to build Next-Gen AI Applications that have real-world impact".

Build with the Kompact AI Runtime

  • We are deeply privileged to announce three Signature Memorial Prizes, dedicated to the memory of three icons of Indian science and technology.
  • Exclusive details will be shared with the selected teams. Follow our social sites for updates.

Win Over ₹7 Lakhs in Prizes and Get Hired

  • We are deeply privileged to announce three Signature Memorial Prizes, dedicated to the memory of three icons of Indian science and technology.
The Pushpak Bhattacharya  Memorial Award

₹2,50,000

The Priti Shankar  Memorial Award

₹2,50,000

The  Anup Kumar Gogoi  Memorial Award

₹2,50,000

2-Phase-Selection Process

Phase 1

Project Submission

The entry project submission link will be open till 18th April, 2026. Top 20 Finalist teams will be announced on our social media pages by 24th April, 2026.
Phase 2

Build Next 2026

The top 20 finalist teams will compete for the prize. 26th April is the tentative event start date. Additional exclusive information will be provided to teams that qualify for the Top 20 Finalists.

Honorees

Dr. Pushpak Bhattacharyya
Godfather of Indian NLP
July 1962 – October 2025
Prof Priti Shankar
A Trailblazer for Women in STEM
September 1947 – October 2011
Prof Anup Kumar Gogoi
A Founding Architect of EEE at IITG
March 1953 - March 2024

Who can apply?

Collegiate level, working professionals
Team Size - 1 to 5 members

No Lock-Ins. Every Environment Covered.

Cloud-Agnostic
Shift between providers at will. No Vendor lock-in.
Every Environment Covered
Cloud, on-prem, edge, or isolated networks.

Visibility & Control

Built-In OpenTelemetry
Track model health and performance in real time.
Operational Insights
Data to keep your AI running at its best.

Ready to Build Next
Gen AI Applications?

Deadline: 18th April, 2026

Register for Build Next 2026 Today
Join our Whatsapp Channel

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Build Next 2026?

 The Build Next 2026 is a premier, national-level AI Challenge hosted by ZIROH LABS. It's an exclusive event for India's brightest tech and business innovators to build the "Next-Gen AI Applications." The 20 top-selected teams will compete for a total prize pool of ₹7,50,000 and exclusive career opportunities at ZIROH LABS.

Who is eligible for this AI Challenge?

Eligibility is open to all current collegiate students and working professionals in India. We also welcome recent graduates (e.g., from the classes of 2023, 2024, and 2025) to participate. You can form teams of 1 to 5 members.

  • The runtime to execute the Models.
  • Remote REST‑based server for serving model inferences remotely.
  • Observability to track model and system performance.
  • Client-Side SDKs in Go, Python, Java, .NET, and JavaScript, which are OpenAI Compatible for writing downstream applications that use the Kompact AI models.
Is Build Next 2026 an online or offline event?

The main event i.e for the Top 20 teams competing, the venue will be announced soon. 1st Phase of the competition i.e the Project Submission to qualify for Top 20 will be online. The 2nd Phase of the event will be a mix of offline and online.

What is the prize money?

There is a total prize pool of ₹7,50,000. This will be distributed equally among the top three winning teams.

Beyond the cash prize, participants will also compete for job/internship opportunities and potential project sponsorship from ZIROH LABS.

What is the Kompact AI Runtime?

The Kompact AI Runtime is high-performance technology developed by ZIROH LABS. It is designed to run AI model inferences securely and efficiently at scale on CPUs. The 20 finalist teams will get exclusive access to this cutting-edge runtime, and its use will be a mandatory part of the Build Next 2026, allowing you to build powerful, Next-Gen AI applications.

Dr. Pushpak Bhattacharyya
Godfather of Indian NLP
July 1962 – October 2025

The "Godfather of Indian NLP": Recognized by industry leaders as the pioneer who shaped the landscape of Natural Language Processing and AI in India.

Academic Leadership: Served with distinction as the Director of IIT Patna (2015–2021) and was the first Indian to serve as the President of the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL).

Research Powerhouse: Headed the Centre for Indian Language Technology (CFILT) at IIT Bombay, authoring the seminal textbook Machine Translation and over 350 internationally acclaimed research papers.

Global Visionary: His groundbreaking work on IndoWordNet and Automatic Sarcasm Detection placed Indian language research on the global map, garnering coverage from MIT Technology Review and the Times (London).

Distinguished Recognition: A recipient of the Abdul Kalam Technology National Fellowship and the Patwardhan Award for his exceptional contributions to technology development.

Prof Priti Shankar
A Trailblazer for Women in STEM
September 1947 – October 2011

A STEM Trailblazer: The historic first female graduate of IIT Delhi (1968), shattering glass ceilings and paving the way for generations of Indian women in engineering.

The Compiler Architect: A global authority on Compiler Construction and co-editor of the definitive The Compiler Design Handbook, a foundational text used worldwide.

Mathematical Visionary: Pioneered groundbreaking research in Algorithmic Coding Theory and Formal Language Theory, including significant advancements in BCH codes.

Distinguished Educator: A legendary Professor at IISc Bangalore (CSA) and recipient of the Jaya Jayant Award for Teaching Excellence for her ability to simplify the complex.

Award-Winning Legacy: Recipient of the prestigious Vikram Sarabhai Award; her impact lives on through the eponymous memorial teaching award at IISc.

Prof Anup Kumar Gogoi
A Founding Architect of EEE at IITG
March 1953 - March 2024

A Founding Architect of EEE at IITG: One of the early faculty members to join IIT Guwahati (1997), he played a vital role in building the Department of Electronics and Electrical Engineering from its infancy into a premier center for research and learning.

Authority in Electromagnetics: A PhD graduate from IIT Kanpur (1991), he was a global expert in Electromagnetic Theory and Microwave Engineering. His work provided the theoretical bedrock for advanced RF circuit design and systems engineering in India.

Pioneer of Super-Wideband (SWB) Antennas: His groundbreaking research in Printed Monopole Antennas and polarization diversity led to the development of compact, high-efficiency SWB solutions, critical for modern high-speed wireless communication and satellite systems.

Bridging VLSI and Wireless Standards: Beyond antennas, he made significant contributions to high-throughput hardware, including the design of low-complexity FFT/IFFT processors and transceivers for global standards like IEEE 802.11ad and IEEE 802.15.6.

Visionary Academic Leader: Serving as the Dean of Outreach Education Programme at IITG and a member of the Planning Board for Tezpur University, his leadership extended far beyond the classroom, shaping the higher education landscape of Northeast India.

Kompact Hackathon

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