2025-2026 IMI BIGDataAIHUB Big Data and Artificial Intelligence Competition

Registration for the 2025-2026 IMI BIGDataAIHUB Big Data and Artificial Intelligence Competition is now open.

Click here to register for the Competition

Open to students from any academic discipline at U of T

The IMI BIGDataAIHUB Big Data and Artificial Intelligence Competition is designed as a developmental opportunity for students to gain additional hands-on exposure to big data and artificial intelligence through real-world data - with the chance to win $30,000 in cash prizes. This is a multi-faceted competition open to graduate students and undergrads with big data/AI experience from any academic discipline in any year of their academic career at the University of Toronto.

Register for the Competition here

Connect, learn, inspire.

Watch two-time winner Alexys Pereira shares his experience with the competition and how it kickstarted his career at Scotiabank.

Competition Information

2024-25 First Place Team with Scotiabank's Mirela Gondor, Cameron Jones, & Dr. Duncan Smith-Halverson, and IMI's Professor Kevin Yousie

Competition - $30,000 Cash Prize

The IMI Big Data & Artificial Intelligence Competition is a multi-faceted competition to work with with big data sets and AI models, as well as an opportunity for students to practice their formal presentation skills in a safe, fun and competitive environment.

2024-2025 IMI BIGDataAIHUB Big Data and Artificial Intelligence Competition

Read about the 2025-26 Competition, competitor experiences, and the winners.

Competition Details

October 2025 — March 2026

Hybrid

Entry is FREE and open to all U of T students.

Students can request to have their participation added to their Co-Curricular Record (CCR).

Competition Eligibility

To be eligible for this competition, students must demonstrate that they are enrolled at the University of Toronto throughout the entire competition period. As part of the registration process, competitors are required to complete a short information questionnaire. All team members must register individually on Eventbrite - they will then be able to create their teams on the Quercus shell.

This year, in addition to traditional big data and AI tools, we will be permitting the use of generative AI in the competition as well.

It is anticipated that there will be three to six participants per team, however, teams with a minimum of two members are invited to register as well.

Any teams initially registering fewer than four team members could potentially find that the competition organizers might add additional members to their team to top-up the number closer to four members per team depending upon the total number of registrants and availability of U of T computing resources. This is also designed to foster cross-disciplinary teams.

Individual registrations (i.e. rather than in pre-arranged teams) are also welcome, however, these individuals will be assigned to teams.

PLEASE NOTE: Each team must have at least one or two members with a strong background in data analysis and/or computer science, and possessing strong programming skills (e.g. python).

Diversity is encouraged. The commingling of students from different academic disciplines on each team is actively encouraged, but not a requirement.

Competition Timeline

PLEASE NOTE: the Competition kick-off took place on November 10th. The Eventbrite "event" for November 21st at 5 pm was merely extended so that students could continue to register for the event. There is NO Zoom event for November 21st.

1

Online registrations will be accepted until 5:00 pm on Friday, November 21st. Depending on the level of demand, registration may be capped. Early registration is strongly encouraged.

2

The Virtual Kick-Off Event is scheduled via Zoom from 11:30 am – 1:00 pm on Monday, November 10th. Each team is expected to have at least one member present at this event.

3

Initial team video submissions will be due Via Quercus Assignments before 5:00 pm on Monday, February 23rd, 2026. Five finalist teams will be selected from these submissions.

4

The date for the final round of in-person finalist presentations will likely be held the morning of Thursday, March, 26, 2026 (this may change) at the Scotia Tower in downtown Toronto.

5

Competitors will have access to a catalogue of curated technical videos to supplement their existing knowledge. These will be available on the competition Quercus site.

6

We will be hosting monthly Zoom information / question and answer sessions for competitors in December, January and February.