Hack for Humanity : Miami

It’s time to see how much you can build with a lightweight, open model. Gemma 4 packs multimodal intelligence into an open-weights model that you can access through the Gemini API. So, what can Gemma 4 bring to your project?

• Multimodal Experience: Work with text and images to create an assistant that understands more of what users share.
• Focused AI Tools: Build a focused AI tool for learning, creativity, productivity, or your community.
• Rapid Prototyping: Experiment with an open model while using the Gemini API to move quickly from an idea to a working prototype.

Bring your idea to life… what will you build with Gemma 4 today?

Build an original project that uses open-source or open-weight AI as an important part of how it works. Teams could create an agent skill, build with an open-weight large or small language model, or build or adapt an open-source model harness. These are examples within one challenge, and teams may combine them.

Open-source or open-weight AI must be an important part of the project.

The project must be published in a public GitHub repository and use an open-source license.

An agent skill must comply with the Agent Skill Open Standard.

A model-harness entry must include an original implementation or meaningful changes to an existing open-source harness.

Miami lives with four forces - water, air, land and fire - and each one lands hardest on the neighbors with the fewest options. Pick one force, or combine them, and build for the people living with it.

Start from a person, not a technology: “construction crews in Brickell on a heat-advisory day” beats “a heat app.” Climate disaster readiness can cut across all four forces.

Each force lists problems worth solving; the build ideas below show where to start.

Build ideas by force

Force Build ideas
Water Street-level flood alerts from tide and rain data; flood-safe routing for commuters and ambulances; a water-quality checker for beaches and canals
Air A hurricane-prep copilot in English, Spanish and Haitian Creole; an offline-first info hub for when cell networks go down; air-quality alerts for people with asthma
Land A benefits navigator that matches families to the programs they qualify for; a live shelter-bed and food-pantry finder; a traffic-and-flood commute planner
Fire Heat-risk alerts for outdoor and construction crews; a cooling-center finder; a climate-risk and home-insurance explainer for homeowners
Guidelines

Name your force (or forces) and the specific people you serve, in your README and your demo.
Ground it in Miami: local data, real neighborhoods, and the languages people here speak.
Show the moment of use: who opens it, when, and what they do next.

Miami shares its streets with iguanas, ducks, chickens and Everglades wildlife, and too many of them end up hurt, lost or hit by cars. Build tools that protect animals and the people around them.

Challenge Build ideas
Urban wildlife and invasive species (iguanas, pythons) A photo-to-species agent that tells residents what the animal is, whether it’s dangerous, and who to call
Roadkill A hotspot map from crash and sighting reports that recommends crossing signs or speed changes
Everglades and endangered species (Florida panthers, manatees, sea turtles) A sighting and injury reporting tool that routes each case to the right rescue group
Rescue and shelters A lost-and-found pet matcher, a foster and adoption matchmaker, or a hurricane pet-evacuation planner
Cruelty and neglect A fast, anonymous reporting flow that captures location, photos and urgency
Guidelines

Animal welfare comes first: never encourage people to chase, handle or harm wild animals themselves - route them to professionals.
Know who acts on your output (a rescue group, animal services or a resident) and design that handoff.
Public health counts: projects that reduce human-wildlife conflict are in scope.

Miami attracts talent; keeping it is the hard part. Build tools that help people grow a career here and stay. This track ties into Hack for Humanity’s global themes: job displacement, technical literacy and accessibility.

Challenge Build ideas
Graduates leaving after school A career pathway navigator that maps a student’s skills to Miami employers, internships and mentors
AI reshaping jobs A reskilling coach that shows a worker which skills transfer and the shortest path to a growing role
Cost of living An affordability planner that weighs salary, rent, commute and flood risk by neighborhood
Newcomers without a network An onboarding guide to Miami’s communities, meetups and mentors, matched to someone’s goals
Access for everyone Career tools that work for non-English speakers, people with disabilities, and people without a degree
Guidelines

Design for one specific person: a graduating senior, a hospitality worker, a relocated engineer.
Show what would make them stay, and how your tool moves that needle.
Skip generic job boards: the value is in Miami-specific matching, guidance or community.

Our theme challenge: pick one of four tracks and build for the people who live here. Every team enters with one primary track.

Track The question You might build
01 Four Forces, One City How does Miami stay safe and livable as water, air, land and fire push back? Street-level flood alerts, heat-safety copilots for job sites, storm-ready offline info hubs
02 Wild Miami How do we protect the animals we share Miami with, and keep neighbors safe too? Injured-wildlife reporting agents, roadkill hotspot maps, shelter adoption matchers
03 Brain Gain How does Miami keep the talent it attracts? Career pathway navigators, AI reskilling coaches, newcomer onboarding guides
04 Data to Action What does the data say, and what should Miami do about it? Dashboards, maps, alerts or agents built on open city data