Fig AI Design Makeathon 2026
FIG AI Design Makeathon 2026
November 7–11 · 5-Day Online Makeathon
November 14 · Winner Demo + Awards + Mixer Day · Third Coast Foundry, San Francisco
Five Days to Explore, Experiment & Have Fun Building!
AI is creating new products, behaviors, workflows, and creative possibilities faster than ever.
Join a five-day online makeathon to tackle emerging challenges created by AI, experiment with new tools, and bring your ideas to life.
We’re extending the makeathon to five days and introducing two exciting tracks, giving you more time to explore, collaborate, create, and most importantly, have fun building!
This is not another design exercise.
Form a team, explore a real-world challenge, and turn your creativity into something people can actually experience.
Who Should Join
Design and HCI students, recent graduates, designers, filmmakers, videomakers, storytellers, marketers, creative technologists, builders, and anyone interested in exploring what’s possible with AI.
Whether you’re interested in designing AI-powered products or creating with generative video, there’s a place for you.
Join solo or form a team of 2–5. No coding experience required.
All experience levels are welcome to participate. Competition award eligibility is subject to the requirements outlined below.
The Challenge
Track 1 — Product Design for AI Agents
Design and build new experiences for emerging AI products, autonomous agents, and human-AI collaboration.
Explore real-world design challenges, including:
How should humans interact with multiple AI agents?
How can users understand, monitor, and control autonomous AI workflows?
How do we design AI systems people can understand and trust?
What new interfaces are needed when software becomes increasingly autonomous?
Go beyond static concepts to create functional prototypes that demonstrate meaningful AI-powered experiences.
Vibe coding tool credits supported by Lovable will help participants turn ideas into working prototypes.
Track 2 — AI Video & Creative Storytelling
Featuring Pika & Storyverse
Explore new possibilities in AI-powered video creation, filmmaking, and creative storytelling.
Experiment with generative video tools, bring imaginative ideas to life, and discover new ways to create visual content.
AI tool credits and prize support will be available for this track. Further details will be announced.
Final challenge briefs, submission requirements, and track-specific judging criteria will be shared with registered participants before the event.
How It Works
Register → Meet Teammates → Explore & Build → Checkpoint → Submit → Judging
The full competition runs through the FIG Event Platform, from registration and team matching to submission and judging.
Along the way, join workshops, panels, and office hours for practical tool guidance, creative inspiration, product feedback, and industry perspectives.
Five days to explore ideas, experiment with AI tools, collaborate with teammates, and build something exciting!
Meet the Judges
Lewis Liu — Product Lead @ Microsoft, building agents and knowledge systems; ex-Google (Gemini); startup advisor
Xinyu Qu — Applied AI Engineer @ OpenAI; ex-Amazon AI Engineer
Fred McHale — Executive Director of Product Design @ Academy of Art University; Figma Educator Advisory Board 2026–2027; ex-Design Manager @ Cisco
Neha — UX Designer @ Amazon
Hao Wang — Chief Strategy and Business Growth Officer @ NetMind.AI
Ziyuan “Zoey” Zhu — Creative Technologist and Project Lead @ IDEO AI Lab; co-founder of FuturePIXEL
Xuyan Zhao — Principal Product Manager, AI @ Turo; ex-Collectors and eBay
Yitong Wang — User Experience Designer @ Lenovo
Heewon Moon — Product Designer @ Microsoft
Kaushal Patel — Software Engineer @ Reflection AI; ex-OpenAI, Meta, and Google
Judges from The University of Chicago and University of Michigan will be announced soon.
Additional judges may be announced for each track.
Prizes & Rewards
Potential rewards include AI tool credits, product access, partner-sponsored prizes, swag, and opportunities to showcase your work across the FIG community.
Selected winning teams will also be invited to present their projects at our in-person Winner Demo + Awards + Mixer Day in San Francisco.
Confirmed prizes, rewards, and track-specific award categories will be announced before the event.
Tentative Schedule
November 7 — Kickoff & Challenge Reveal
Challenge announcements, competition briefing, tool onboarding, team formation, and building begins.
November 8–10 — Explore, Experiment & Build
Develop your project, collaborate with teammates, and join workshops, panels, office hours, and checkpoint sessions.
November 11 — Final Build & Submit
Complete and submit your project through the FIG Event Platform.
November 12–13 — Online Judging
Judges review submitted projects asynchronously.
November 14 — Winner Demo + Awards + Mixer Day
Selected winning teams will be invited to showcase their projects in San Francisco.
Exact session times and submission deadlines will be announced before the event.
Winner Demo + Awards + Mixer Day
November 14 · Third Coast Foundry · San Francisco
Selected winning teams will be invited to present their projects in person, celebrate their achievements, and connect with judges, partners, and fellow builders.
The event will feature live demos, awards, industry conversations, and a community mixer.
Attendance is limited to selected teams and invited guests.
Travel and accommodation are not currently provided. Further participation details will be shared with selected teams.
Who We Are
FIG Studio is a Bay Area–based AI incubator and community bringing together designers, engineers, founders, researchers, and investors to explore and build what’s next in AI.
Through hackathons, makeathons, demo days, and mixers, we connect emerging talent with industry practitioners, help turn ideas into working products, and give teams a stage—and a path forward.
We run the FIG Event Platform, supporting the full journey from registration and team matching to submission, judging, and post-event project discovery.
FIG Event Platform: [platform link]
Participants will have the opportunity to help shape the platform through their experience and feedback.
Important Notes
The event is in active planning. Challenge details, sessions, tool access, judges, rewards, participation rules, submission requirements, and schedules may change. Registered participants will receive confirmed details and material updates before the event.
Award eligibility: Under the current competition policy, all members of award-winning teams must be currently enrolled students or have graduated within the 24 months preceding November 7, 2026. Proof of enrollment or graduation may be required. Any track-specific exceptions will be announced before the event.
A listed judge’s affiliation does not imply organizational sponsorship.