New Taipei City joins Taipei to host an AI Mega Hackathon

To advance smart city development and accelerate the application of artificial intelligence in urban governance, the information management centers of New Taipei City and Taipei City jointly hosted the 2026 New Taipei–Taipei Coding Festival – City Dashboard Mega Hackathon, a cross-city initiative promoting collaborative smart governance. The 32-hour competition was held from May 2 to 3 and brought together participants from government, academia, and industry to explore innovative solutions for public service and urban management.

Building on the open-source Taipei City Dashboard, the competition focused on six key themes: smart commuting, resilient disaster preparedness, sustainable environment, food safety and health, labor welfare, and cultural inclusion. For the first time, AI applications were integrated into the event framework, strengthening the cities’ capacity for data-driven governance and creating new momentum for innovation. The hackathon served not only as a technical competition, but also as a practical testbed for transforming open data into actionable public value.

The event attracted 476 participants across 109 teams, reflecting a broad and diverse talent base. Participants included students from leading universities such as National Taiwan University, National Tsing Hua University, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, National Central University, and National Taipei University, as well as professionals from major technology companies including TSMC, Inventec, Qualcomm, and ASUS. This cross-generational and cross-sector composition underscored the strong collaborative potential of Taiwan’s innovation ecosystem. On-site technical consultations were provided to ensure that teams could effectively apply AI tools and dashboard development practices, while also deepening their understanding of real-world governance needs.

The competition produced a range of highly promising solutions with significant smart city application potential. First prize went to “Bao Bao King”, a team that integrated commuting, signal, and housing data from both New Taipei and Taipei to visualize interdistrict commuting costs, providing valuable insights for urban planning and policy evaluation. Second place was awarded to “Cashifa,” which linked 13 food safety data sources into a four-layer framework, enabling multiple use cases for government agencies, businesses, and consumers while helping reduce food safety risks. Third place went to “Gu Zhong Zhao Huang Lin,” which addressed risks related to food delivery around school campuses by integrating geographic information and supply chain data. Using Sankey diagrams, the team strengthened traceability for campus delivery services and helped improve the allocation of government inspection resources. These results demonstrated both strong technical integration and the ability to propose innovative, scalable solutions for data-driven governance.

According to Director Chen Fu-Tien of the New Taipei City Information Management Center, “This competition once again allowed us to see the innovative potential of younger generations and technology talents from across sectors. New Taipei City has long been committed to smart city development, and through public-private collaboration, we are transforming the creativity of these developers into concrete public innovation outcomes.”

Through the 2026 New Taipei–Taipei Coding Festival Mega Hackathon, the two cities successfully promoted cross-city open data exchange and technical collaboration. Looking ahead, the two cities will continue to deepen AI-driven smart governance models, transforming open data into a powerful engine for policy optimization and for safeguarding the daily lives of citizens.