Presidential Challenge

🇺🇸 Presidential SI Challenge

Submitting to the Presidential SI Challenge

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Make sure your Team Leader registers you

• This site has helpful support for the national submission process, including scoring guides, guiding questions, and sample projects.
• Every team needs a Team Leader who is 21 or older and is either a full-time teacher (public, private, charter, or homeschool) or the leader of an approved school-connected club (such as 4-H, FFA, scouts, Key Club, or Boys & Girls Clubs). See the full eligibility requirements.
• All team members must be U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals, or lawful permanent residents. Proof of eligibility is required.
• The Team Leader collects a signed Parent/Guardian Consent and Media Release form for each student, submits their own Adult Consent and Media Release form, and registers the team on the Challenge website. This self-paced course supports student teams in the Standard and Trailblazer Tracks.
• Once registered, come to Challenge virtual office hours with your Team Leader for advice on your project or to check you've met the requirements. Office hours run 7–8 pm ET on Mondays: October 19 and 26; November 2, 9, 16, 23, and 30; December 7, 14, and 21; plus Wednesday, December 16.

Once you are registered, you will receive additional information. Questions? Email [email protected].

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Key dates

• Registration deadline: Friday, December 18, 2026, at 5:00 pm ET (your Team Leader registers the team)
• Project submission deadline: Wednesday, December 23, 2026, at 5:00 pm ET
• State Champions announced by February 15, 2027 → Regionals March 4–April 8, 2027 → National Finals in Washington, DC, June 6–9, 2027

Choose your track

• Standard Track (grades K–12): Create an SI solution to a challenge affecting students, their families, or your community.
• Trailblazer Track (grades 6–12): Create a new, unique SI technology that addresses a national challenge. Projects must be novel AND have nationwide impact. If not, enter the Standard Track.

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What to submit

One PDF, up to 10 pages plus a title page, 30 MB max, 12-point font or larger, containing

1. A written proposal with all required sections (see below).
2. A link to your demo video (4 minutes max, horizontal format) on the title page.
3. 100% original work created after August 1, 2026, with all sources and AI tools cited.

✅ Building in Playlab? Your app counts as original work. You wrote the background, workflow, guardrails, and references, so the design is yours. Just remember to list Playlab and the AI model you chose in your References & Acknowledgements section. Remixed a student model? Credit the original app and explain what you changed and built yourself.

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Proposal Required sections

1. Title Page: project title, team members (with school and grade), your Team Leader's school or group, and your video link (no password).
2. Summary (1 page max)
3. The Objective: who is impacted, why it matters, and research showing the need.
4. The Solution: your SI solution, what other solutions have been tried, and why yours is better.
5. Safety: how you protect users' physical and emotional safety and keep data secure.
6. Learning Achievements: each member's role and what they learned, how you checked the accuracy of AI outputs, and how your Team Leader supported you.
7. Next Steps: what you'd add with three more weeks of work.
8. References & Acknowledgements: every source and tool you used.

💡 Trailblazer teams also add a Research Supporting the Novel Approach section, showing how your idea differs from existing tools.

Upload your completed design companion to this Playlab app for guided support as you write your project proposal.

https://www.playlab.ai/embedded/cmva1a7gb2i1nm00wvcvejd88

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Demo video

• One video, 4 minutes max. Judges stop watching at 4:00, and credits count toward the limit.
• Under 300 MB. Film horizontally.
• Team members create the content and appear in the video.
• Add something new. Don't just repeat your written proposal.
• Make sure the link opens without a password, and test it on several different computers. </aside>

Writing your proposal

https://youtu.be/b8JarvYs7FI

The written proposal is the story of your team’s journey—how you identified a real-world problem, designed and built an AI solution, kept your users safe, and reflected on what you learned along the way. It’s less about perfect writing and more about authentic storytelling: showing your process, your thinking, and your impact.

Your proposal helps you:

• Communicate your project’s why, what, and how in a clear and compelling way.
• Demonstrate your understanding of AI concepts, ethical design, and user safety.
• Back up your ideas with research and show what makes your solution original.
• Reflect on your team’s learning, including challenges, decisions, and growth.
• Give judges the context they need to understand your app and the thinking behind it.

Your Design Companion is your secret weapon. Upload it to the Proposal Assistant above for a detailed outline you can turn into your proposal.

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Ready to submit? When your proposal is done, package everything (title page with your demo video link, all required sections, and references) into a single PDF and share it with your Team Leader. Once your team is registered, you’ll receive the link to submit.

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• Presidential Challenge Model Projects
• **Presidential Challenge Questions** to guide project development
• Presidential Challenge Frequently Asked Questions
• Presidential Project Proposal Assistant

Idaho

Idaho Student AI Challenge | Playlab

Illinois

Illinois AI Challenge