Advancing AI requires more than breakthrough models. It depends on communities of builders and researchers who experiment, test assumptions, and share what they learn. That belief is guiding how Amazon engages developers and academics around Amazon Nova, Amazon’s portfolio of AI offerings including the Nova models, Nova Forge and Nova Act.
Today, two Nova initiatives launch in parallel, each designed for a distinct audience but connected by a common purpose: to help people innovate, build skills, and tackle challenging real-world problems with AI.
One program invites developers everywhere to learn by building. The other brings together university teams to advance research on secure and trustworthy AI agents. Together, they reflect a multi-layered approach to community engagement, spanning hands-on experimentation and long-term scientific inquiry.
Learning by building: The Amazon Nova AI Hackathon
The Amazon Nova AI Hackathon is a six-week open innovation event for developers around the world: professionals, students, and hobbyists alike. Participants are invited to build generative AI applications using Amazon Nova foundation models and services, including Nova Act. This is an opportunity to innovate with the latest AI capabilities, tackle challenging problems, showcase your skills, and compete for cash prizes.
The hackathon is intentionally broad in scope. Developers can submit projects across five categories:
- Agentic AI
- Multimodal understanding
- UI automation
- Voice AI
- Freestyle experimentation
Participants are encouraged to use the tools, frameworks, and workflows they prefer, but your solution should use a Nova foundation model and/or the Nova Act service with the goal of learning through experimentation. Submissions focus not only on technical implementation, but also on creativity and potential enterprise or community impact.
Hackathons have long been a way to surface new ideas, strengthen developer relationships, and gather practical feedback. For Nova, this event builds on momentum from recent launches—including Nova 2 models and Nova Act—while creating space for developers to explore what these capabilities enable in practice.
Over the six-week submission period, participants will share demos, code, and write-ups with the broader developer community. The emphasis is on hands-on learning, skill development, and community exchange, rather than polished products.
Learn more about the Hackathon: https://amazon-nova.devpost.com/
Advancing research: The Amazon Nova AI Challenge
Kicking off alongside the hackathon is the Amazon Nova AI Challenge, an eight-month academic research competition focused on trusted AI agents. Now in its second year, the challenge brings together ten university teams from five countries, including returning champions and new participants.
As generative AI systems evolve from single-prompt tools to agents that plan, execute, and validate multi-step tasks, questions of reliability and security become increasingly important. The 2026 challenge is centered on this shift.
Teams are tasked with building AI agents that can handle complex software development workflows while maintaining appropriate safeguards. Progress is evaluated along two dimensions: utility and safety. Red teams work in parallel to test systems for vulnerabilities, creating an environment where approaches are continuously evaluated and improved.
A defining feature of this year’s challenge is access to Amazon Nova Forge, which allows teams to customize Nova models by integrating their own data and techniques throughout the training process. This level of access, historically difficult for academic programs to obtain, enables research that more closely reflects real-world AI development constraints.
Beyond competition outcomes, the challenge emphasizes practical research. All teams publish papers documenting their methods and findings, contributing insights that extend beyond the challenge itself and inform broader discussions around responsible AI development.
Engaging the community, end to end
AI progress depends on those who build, test, question, and iterate. By supporting both open developer experimentation and structured academic research, Amazon aims to engage the AI community at multiple levels.
Over the coming months, projects, research findings, and lessons from both programs will be shared with the wider community. The goal is not only to showcase what Nova can do, but to highlight how people learn and innovate when given the opportunity to build and explore together.
Whether you’re a developer curious about agentic AI or a student researching trusted AI systems, these initiatives offer different ways to participate in shaping the next generation of AI.
