Intel Recognizes Young AI Changemakers at Global Impact Festival

What's New: Today, Intel announced the global prize winners at its fifth-annual AI Global Impact Festival. The festival celebrates student-led AI projects from 32 countries that address real-world challenges using responsible AI innovation. Teams from Moldova, the United States, Singapore, China, India and Vietnam won Global Awards out of numerous finalists, selected through a rigorous evaluation process that assessed AI innovation, responsible technology use and social impact. Winners underwent an extensive AI ethics audit conducted by Intel technologists to ensure their solutions meet the highest standards of responsible AI development.

"As artificial intelligence continues to redefine the boundaries of innovation, a new generation of technologists is emerging as a driving force behind this transformation. These young innovators are not only adopting AI, they're shaping its future by solving real-world problems. With fresh perspectives, technical agility, and commitment to ethical innovation, they are accelerating progress across industries. The future of innovation depends on their curiosity, their courage, and their critical thinking." –Kimberly Mayes, VP of Strategic Talent, Inclusion, Engagement and Corporate Social Impact at Intel

Why It Matters: AI has the potential to tackle global issues such as accessibility, sustainability, healthcare and education inequity. AI technology can create positive change and Intel is committed to advancing digital readiness and promoting responsible AI skills for all. The festival provides an opportunity for students worldwide to build responsible AI solutions that create meaningful social impact and showcase it.

The Winners: The following students were named Global Award winners for the AI Global Impact Festival:

For the 13- to 17-year-old age group:

• Adaptive AI Assistants Using RAG, Moldova — Anastasia Batrincea and Daniil Voznii: This innovative solution delivers a private, offline AI tutor that uses Intel optimizations to run real-time, multilingual Q&A on standard school PCs without GPUs. This accessible system enhances education by providing resource-constrained schools with a powerful, secure learning assistant.
• SightLine: AI Navigation Glasses, USA — Joshua Chilukuri, Trevor Bedson, Vidhatu Patel: Sightline is an AI-powered glasses system that uses PyTorch models and Intel's OpenVINO™ for hands-free environmental awareness through voice interaction. It aims to reduce global inequality by providing navigational assistance and increased independence for the visually impaired.
• GreenPulse: Smart Farm Monitoring, Singapore — Rohith Merala, Neil Pattani, Yu Feng Seah: GreenPulse is an AI-powered smart farm monitoring system that uses Intel technology to provide real-time plant health scoring, infestation detection, and personalized LLM-based advice. Its mission is to boost crop yields and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by optimizing soil health and fertilizer use.

For the 18-year-old+ age group:

• AI Platform for Smart Hardware Education, China — Yijie Chen, Qian Shi, Zhaoyang Ling: This educational platform transforms digital circuit education by providing an IDE-like experience with localized AI execution on an AI PC, ensuring real-time feedback and 100% source code privacy. It empowers learners to master hardware design securely through intelligent scheduling (NPU/GPU/Cloud CPU) and interactive guidance.
• Deepfake Detective: Securing Social Integrity Uncovering Faux AI Content, India — Jayan Shah, Pratham Shah, Shubham Kolaskar: Deepfake Detective is a unified multimedia detection platform that uses an ensemble of AI models to combat the urgent global threat of deepfakes and AI-generated misinformation across video, audio, image and text. It empowers journalists and the public to restore trust in digital media by promoting media literacy.
• Your Voice: Sign Language Translator, Vietnam — Huy Hoàng Gia, Canh Bui Xuan, Thuong Vi Hoai: Your Voice is an AI-powered application designed to break communication barriers by translating Vietnamese Sign Language (VSL) to text/speech and vice versa in real time using computer vision and animated avatars. The solution promotes social inclusion and empowers over 2.5 million deaf and mute individuals by providing accessible, two-way interpretation and support tools.

Intel’s Digital Readiness Programs, aimed toward making technology inclusive and expanding digital readiness for all, have already taught AI skills to more than 8 million people globally through partnerships with 29 national governments and 27,000 institutions, reinforcing Intel’s commitment to bringing ethical and accessible AI everywhere.

More context:  Watch a video announcing the winners and check out last year’s winning projects.