​Shanghai Impact Hackathon 2026

​Advancing education innovation and international technology collaboration.

​Event Details

• ​Date: Saturday, November 21, 2026

• ​Time: 08:00 AM – 20:00 PM

• ​Location: Fuxing Island, Shanghai

• ​Language: English

• ​Capacity: 96 Selected Builders (24 Teams)

​About the Event

​The Shanghai Impact Hackathon brings together Shanghai’s most ambitious builders for one intensive day.

​Our goal? To advance education innovation and create new pathways for international technology collaboration. Multicultural teams will work across disciplines to expose real needs, solve frictions, and build cross-industry connections that last far beyond the event.

​Who Will Be in the Room?

​We are gathering 96 of Shanghai's strongest builders, prioritizing those with a track record of building, useful skills, and a passion for cross-cultural collaboration.

• ​Top Universities: Tetr College of Business, Tongji University, Fudan University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, East China Normal University, and NYU Shanghai.

• ​Builder Ecosystem: The Arch residents, AI and technology communities, accelerator/incubator members, founders, young professionals, and international fellowship networks.

​The Challenges

​The hackathon features two challenge rooms. Teams will choose one track to build a pilot-ready workflow or system.

​💡 Challenge 01: How to figure out China?

​The Problem:

• ​For foreigners, China often feels like a black box. Finding a trustworthy supplier, the right product or a useful business contact is hard if you don’t speak Chinese. The best supplier platforms and business networks run in Chinese, inside apps foreigners rarely use. The English-language options, such as AliExpress and Alibaba.com, are cumbersome and slow, with a lot of manual back-and-forth. So many people end up relying on social media, where information is limited, scattered and hard to trust

​Your challenge

• ​Build a solution that helps non-Chinese speakers do business in China more easily.

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​💡 Challenge 02: How to learn in the era of AI?

​The problem

• ​Most classes still follow the same format they did before AI: lectures, homework and exams. AI has changed what students can do on their own. They can get an explanation, a summary or an answer in seconds. So the old format feels outdated to students. AI on its own, though, often leads to shallow learning, where students get answers without real understanding. Neither the old way nor AI alone is working well. What’s missing is a way of learning designed for a world where AI is everywhere

​Your challenge

• ​Design a new way of learning built for the age of AI. Rethink how knowledge is taught, practised and checked so that students learn more deeply and efficiently than with traditional classes or AI alone.

​Call for Partners & Experts

​We are looking for industry leaders to join us. Choose your role and make a direct impact:

• ​Speakers: Share a 15-20 minute practical perspective on China, manufacturing, or innovation (No sales pitches).

• ​Mentors: Join a 2.5–3 hour build block to pressure-test teams and share specific operating feedback.

• ​Judges: Join from 15:30 to 19:00 to review demos, score solutions, and provide expert insights.

• ​Sponsors: Fund a prize/pilot, or provide tools, cloud credits, F&B, or equipment.

​VCs and investors are welcome to join the demos and networking sessions to connect with opt-in teams for future pilots, internships, and investments.

​📩 For partnership inquiries, contact: alanayalag@gmail.com, business@globalpropeller.com