RAISE-27

Artificial Intelligence – Informatics – Data Science AI Competition

AI Came, AI Saw, AI Conquered?

Promise of Value Creation versus Illusory Irrational Exuberance

RAISE-27 invites undergraduate and graduate students from all disciplines to explore one of the defining questions of our time: What can we realistically expect AI to accomplish, under what conditions, with what limitations, and with what evidence of value?

AI came. AI saw. But has AI conquered?

RAISE-27 invites students to examine the evidence, challenge the assumptions, separate value from illusion, and help shape a more informed understanding of the AI-driven future.The challenge is to examine what we realistically expect AI to accomplish. Can AI solve every important problem facing humanity? Do we understand the kinds of problems AI is well suited to solve and the problems it cannot? Where does genuine technological progress end, and where does irrational exuberance begin?

Quick Facts

Open to: Undergraduate & Graduate Students (All Disciplines)
Prize Pool: Up to $17,000
Format: Virtual Submission + Final Event at Rutgers
Finals Date: April 16, 2027

Key Questions

- Has AI truly begun to transform society, or are expectations moving faster than measurable outcomes?
- Where is AI creating genuine economic, scientific, social, or human value and where is it mostly hype?
- Is the race toward AGI driven by realistic technological progress, competitive pressure, speculative enthusiasm or all three?
- Are AI agents and increasingly autonomous systems delivering meaningful productivity gains, or simply adding new layers of technological complexity?

Most importantly: what would responsible, sustainable, and genuinely valuable AI progress look like?
AI came. AI saw. But has AI conquered?

Information Sessions

Virtual information sessions will be hosted to provide information and guidance on the competition structure, materials, schedule, and expectations. All sessions will cover the same topics and will be followed by an open Q&A. All instructions will be provided in the documentation which will be shared with registered participants. However, due to the large number of participating student teams from all over the US, it is advisable to attend one of these sessions as it may be difficult to respond to all emails promptly with the required clarity.

Certificates

Participation Certificates: Digital certificates for all registered participants
Finalist Certificates: Digital certificates for teams that submit their final entries
Winner Certificates: Digital + Printed certificates to be provided to winning teams who are present in person at the event

Focus Areas

Participants may explore topics including agentic AI, artificial general intelligence, human-AI interaction, ethics and governance, misinformation, digital behavior, computational social science, and data-driven societal analysis.

Understanding the Theme

AI risks being viewed as a technological elixir: a force expected to continuously deliver productivity, intelligence, prosperity, and solutions to humanity’s most difficult challenges. AI may contribute to addressing these challenges, but it does not follow that AI can conquer them.

The goal is not to reject technological optimism, but to develop disciplined optimism – an evidence-based understanding of what AI can realistically contribute without mistaking powerful tools for universal solutions.

RAISE-27 asks students to investigate the space between AI’s extraordinary promise and its real-world impact.

Rather than treating AI simply as an inevitable technological revolution, participants are encouraged to question its assumptions, evaluate its successes and failures, and explore what meaningful AI-driven progress should actually look like. Where is AI improving productivity, discovery, decision-making, creativity, accessibility, and quality of life? Where is it merely replacing existing processes without creating meaningful value? And where might the excitement surrounding AI be obscuring its limitations, risks, costs, and unintended consequences?

This cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence, Informatics, and Data Science Competition from the MPI Program at the Bloustein School, Rutgers University invites students to investigate the opportunities, contradictions, risks, and responsibilities emerging from an increasingly AI-driven world.

Students — This Is Your Moment

Whether you code, design, research, write, build, or imagine, RAISE-27 is your platform to explore how AI is transforming humanity and the material world.

Students from all disciplines are welcome.

Registrations Opening Soon!

Questions? informatics@ejb.rutgers.edu

About the Hosts: Public Informatics at Rutgers University

The Bloustein School’s Master of Public Informatics is a distinguished program for educating highly talented professional student cohorts in the competencies needed in public informatics, advanced data science, and analytics, which includes topics such as machine learning, global data analytics, artificial intelligence, textual analytics and natural language processing, statistics, programming, data management, GIS, visualization, spatial analysis, domain applications, and the application of these skills for domain-specific value creation. The MPI program at Rutgers provides excellent state-of-the-art research-driven project opportunities. Graduates of the MPI program will provide a deep understanding of advanced data science and analytics methods, context, and public benefit perspectives in this fast-growing and high-demand domain.

Interested in being a RAISE-27 Collaborator or Speaker or Contributor / Donor?

Please contact our team: informatics@ejb.rutgers.edu

Thanks to Our Collaborators and Supporters!

Public informatics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Informatics