RBU AI Assignment

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From your first API call to your first real build, in one week.

This assignment is designed to take you from a curious spectator to a confident creator using the OpenAI API. Whether you are looking to get your feet wet or push the boundaries of what AI can do, this event focuses on practical execution.

No advanced coding experience? No problem. We have built this experience to meet you exactly where you are. Each section has a problem statement. Read carefully, ideate the project architecture and solve it. You can use the Co-Pilot in the project playground and the skills which are created to help you ideate and build better.

Engineering Beats Flash: You will be graded on the exact same rubric. We reward robust API design over surface-level flash. Choosing the right model, handling errors gracefully, and optimizing for cost will always beat a "clever" idea held together with tape.

Join us to build something real, engineered with care. Let’s get to work!

Sponsor Tracks & Prizes

$0 Prize Pool

Section A

Talking to the Model

Mastering prompt engineering to extract highly useful, predictable text responses.

Core Skill: Sending input to the Responses API, shaping behavior with a system prompt, and keeping a conversation going.

The Socratic Tutor

Goal: A multi-turn tutor that helps a student reach an answer without ever stating it directly — it asks guiding questions, adapts to wrong answers, and only confirms once the student gets there.
Build: A chat loop that keeps conversation history, with a system prompt enforcing the "never give the answer" rule and a graceful path for when the student is totally stuck.
OpenAI Basics: Maintaining message history across turns, prompt design for behavior constraints.
Submit: The script + a transcript of one full tutoring session.
Hint: Re-send the running conversation each turn; the model has no memory on its own.

Mentors | Speakers | Judges

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

How many members can be on one team?

This is a solo participant event.

What do we submit?

A project title, short pitch, detailed description, and links to your repo/demo.