BeiwEI Community AI Hackathon Kicks Off in Zhongguancun: From Idea to Roadshow in Three Days

On October 23, the three-day BeiwEI Community AI Hackathon officially kicked off at the Zhongguancun AI BeiwEI Community. The event is guided by the Industry Division I and Industry Division IV of the Zhongguancun Science City Management Committee, the Haidian District Talent Work Bureau, the CPC Committee of Xibeiwang Town, and the People's Government of Xibeiwang Town; hosted by the Zhongguancun AI BeiwEI Community; and organized by BeiwEI Harbor (Beijing) Technology Development Co., Ltd. Over the three days, participants from various fields including AI development, entrepreneurship, product, and design will start from real-world scenarios and, through cross-disciplinary collaboration, complete a practical exploration from creative ideation to project pitch.

Seventy years ago, the Dartmouth Conference ushered in the era of artificial intelligence; seventy years later, large models and agent technologies are reshaping the industrial ecosystem at an unprecedented pace. As the intelligence of carbon-based life and the computational power of silicon-based intelligence converge at an accelerating rate, a profound transformation in human-machine collaboration, knowledge creation, and future industries is unfolding. Unleashing new creativity from carbon-silicon collaboration means not only a leap in technological capability, but also a redefinition of how humanity explores the unknown and solves complex problems.

Yet as AI capabilities continue to break through, the key to innovation lies not only in the technology itself, but also in how to bring technology truly into industry, integrate it into life, and respond to real-world needs. The Zhongguancun AI BeiwEI Community is a core strategic pillar of the northern industrial development belt, which the district committee and district government have focused on building based on the "two zones and one belt" spatial layout. It is also a benchmark demonstration project for promoting the northward extension of Zhongguancun Science City's innovation resources and cultivating new quality productive forces in artificial intelligence, and has become a landmark window in northern Haidian showcasing university-local collaboration, industrial clustering, and collective economy transformation. Relying on this innovation ecosystem, the BeiwEI Community AI Hackathon does not stop at tool instruction, but unfolds around a complete chain of "learning—practice—creation": the first day builds industry awareness and improves tool application capabilities, the second day focuses on project development and iteration, and the third day showcases innovative practice through outcome pitches, enabling participants to explore, through cross-disciplinary collaboration and real tasks, more possibilities for AI technology to move from capability breakthroughs to scenario applications, and from creative ideation to value creation.

Gaining insight into industry trends, letting technology and business resonate in sync

On the morning of the first day, two keynote sharing sessions unfolded from the two dimensions of industry trends and business practice, establishing an underlying framework for project thinking for the participating trainees.

"AI Track Industry Insights—How to Choose the Right AI Track" centered on the AI track landscape, development directions, and application opportunities, helping trainees understand the industrial logic behind the technological wave and think about innovation directions worth investing in in the future. Subsequently, "Best Practices in AI Business Monetization" further extended the perspective from technology to business practice, combining the real path of AI applications from idea to commercial closed loop, and exploring how technology can truly create value.

From insight into industry opportunities and understanding of business value, to the afternoon session on how to use Agents to open the hackathon journey, the event further moved from cognition to practice, guiding trainees to explore how to use Agents to spark creativity and advance project ideation. Through hands-on exercises, it helped trainees deepen their understanding of how AI agents are applied, explore how to integrate technological capabilities into specific scenarios, and lay the foundation for subsequent team formation, creative ideation, and project development.

From seeing trends clearly and understanding value to hands-on practice, the three components progressed layer by layer, linking an exploration path from industry cognition to technology application. For the rapidly developing AI industry, what truly matters is not just chasing hot spots, but, on the basis of understanding industry patterns and real needs, transforming technological capabilities into innovative solutions that can solve practical problems.

Starting co-creation, letting people from different backgrounds create the future together

The afternoon's theme announcement and lottery grouping pushed the atmosphere to a climax. The competition unfolded around AI+N directions (education, law, finance, companionship, marketing, etc.), and five teams determined their respective challenge themes through on-site lottery.

Random grouping means that each team is composed of members with different backgrounds and different specialties. Developers, product managers, designers, entrepreneurs, and AI explorers sat together, from ice-breaking introductions to role division, and then to creative project initiation; every discussion became a collision between different ways of thinking. The mentor team also simultaneously entered each group to provide on-site guidance, helping teams sort out problems, define paths for optimizing solutions, and clarify project directions.

Let every idea have a chance to become reality

Artificial intelligence is changing industry, and it is also changing the way innovation happens.

Today, more and more breakthroughs are not born from a single discipline, but are completed through the joint collaboration of people with different professional backgrounds; more and more innovations no longer stop at an idea, but continuously approach reality through ongoing validation.

What the BeiwEI Community AI Hackathon hopes to provide is exactly such an innovation testing ground—letting technology meet scenarios, letting ideas undergo practical testing, and giving every explorer the opportunity to turn an inspiration into a work that can truly be seen, discussed, and created.

On October 24, the competition will enter the stage of project co-creation and in-depth refinement. The five teams will continue to improve their works with the full accompaniment of mentors and sprint toward the final pitch stage. Next, what creative sparks will each team strike? Which AI works will stand out? Please continue to follow the BeiwEI Community AI Hackathon, witness ideas taking root, and look forward together to the exciting results!