Announcing: The Microsoft Fabric & AI Learning Hackathon
Get ready for the Microsoft Fabric & AI Learning Hackathon! We’re calling all Data/AI Enthusiasts and Data/AI practitioners to join us for another exciting opportunity to upskill and build the next generation of Data + AI solutions with Microsoft Fabric!
This event follows up on the recent Microsoft Fabric Global AI Hackathon held earlier this year where participants from all over the world upskilled their knowledge of the platform to create a variety of innovatitve project submissions. This time, we’re getting the word out just ahead the European Microsoft Fabric Conference where you can expect exciting new features and additions to be revealed, while giving participants a most excellent reason to try them out in this Hackathon! The contest will be even bigger and better than ever, this time coordinating the Hackathon through the DevPost Platform over a 7-week submission period and offering a total of $10,000 in prizes for the lucky winners!
The hackathon is open to anyone looking to expand their learning through a special Microsoft Learn Skills Challenge focused on Microsoft Fabric and apply their expertise to create a solution aligned to one of the five Hackathon prize categories.
Whether you are a beginner interested in learning something new, a seasoned maker looking to create the next big thing, or a professional developer/DB admin/PowerBI enthusiast that wants to expand your skillset by building with Microsoft Fabric – all are welcome! 
How to participate
To participate in the Microsoft Fabric & AI Learning Hackathon, register for the event at https://microsoftfabric.devpost.com .
You will need to have access to a Microsoft Fabric capacity. If you don’t have one, you can obtain a Microsoft Fabric trial license by following these instructions.
Once you have registered and have access to Microsoft Fabric, you can start building your solution!
Eligible submissions will require a 3-5 minute video demonstration and a link to a documented repository containing the steps to recreate your solution.
Upskilling Opportunities and live AMAs
We want to ensure that all participants understand the underlying technologies and methodologies for building AI solutions with Microsoft Fabric and also offer live support for any issues you may encounter! To accomplish this, we’ve built an exciting live interaction schedule that involves members of the Fabric Engineering and Data Advocacy teams. You can join to learn new skills and ask questions to experts in a live setting, we can’t wait to see you there!
- Hackathon Informationals and Workshops on the Microsoft Reactor :
- Hackathon AMA events on the Microsoft Tech Community:
- Sep 17 2024, 09:00 AM – 10:00 AM (PDT) – Microsoft Fabric & AI Learning Hackathon Kickoff AMA: Ready, Set, Hack!
- Oct 08 2024, 09:00 AM – 10:00 AM (PDT) – Microsoft Fabric & AI Learning Hackathon Informational AMA: What will you build?
- Hackathon Support Channels:
- In addition, you can join us in the Microsoft Fabric Community Forums and DevPost Dischord for QnA / support!
Hackathon Submission Categories and Prizes:
We’re excited at the recent expansion of features in Microsoft Fabric and have designed our challenge categories to align to multiple areas of expertise related to these updates, allowing for a variety of opportunities for you to be a winner! With $10,000 in prizes up for grabs, this event will provide the lucky winners with cash awards in addition to exposure on Microsoft online channels.
The Microsoft Fabric & AI Learning Hackathon challenges participants to build solutions that address one or more of the following categories:
- Note: For all categories, additional consideration will be given if you are able to document how you were able to accomplish your solution using any of the available Copilots in Microsoft Fabric
- 🏆 Grand Prize winner:
- The best of the best! This category rewards the solution that meets all judging criteria, wows judges, has potential real-world value, and demonstrates innovative use of Artificial Intelligence in Microsoft Fabric.
- $2,500 USD
- Social media recognition
- Featured in a Microsoft blog post following winner announcements
- Microsoft participation badge
- The best of the best! This category rewards the solution that meets all judging criteria, wows judges, has potential real-world value, and demonstrates innovative use of Artificial Intelligence in Microsoft Fabric.
- 🥇Microsoft Fabric + AI Innovation
- A solution that solves a real world problem with Microsoft Fabric by implementing any concept or collection of concepts related to Artificial Intelligence.
- This could include a document analysis service that uses AI Skills or an Azure OpenAI based solution to implement a retrieval augmented generation architecture, training and deployment of a custom object detection model, anomaly detection, predictive forecasting, or any other modern application of AI within Microsoft Fabric.
- $1,500 USD
- Social media recognition
- Featured in a Microsoft blog post following winner announcements
- Microsoft participation badge
- 🥇Real-Time Intelligence in Microsoft Fabric
- A solution that uses Real-Time Intelligence (RTI) in Microsoft Fabric to solve a real world problem.
- RTI is all about data integration, so showcasing how you can use RTI to integrate data from multiple sources and make real-time decisions based on that data is key. Any good RTI solution would include real-time data processing, real-time analytics, real-time monitoring, real-time alerting, or any other real-time application within Microsoft Fabric.
- Using RTI as a source of data for your AI application is also a great way to showcase the power of RTI. Showcasing open-source integrations like Apache Kafka or AMQP, and showing cross-cloud or hybrid cloud integrations is also a plus, but not required.
- $1,500 USD
- Social media recognition
- Featured in a Microsoft blog post following winner announcements
- Microsoft participation badge
- 🥇Azure Database for PostgreSQL Integration
- A real-world solution that uses Azure Database for PostgreSQL as an OLTP main transactional database and the transactional data has to be offloaded to Fabric for near real-time analytics. This could involve using Event streaming connector for Azure Database for PostgreSQL or other techniques such as Dataflows (Gen2), Notebooks, or Data Factory Pipelines. Data landing in Fabric can be used in near real-time intelligent scenarios such as anomaly detection, predictive maintenance and other predictive scenarios, or personalized recommendations amongst others.
- $1,500 USD
- Social media recognition
- Featured in a Microsoft blog post following winner announcements
- Microsoft participation badge
- A real-world solution that uses Azure Database for PostgreSQL as an OLTP main transactional database and the transactional data has to be offloaded to Fabric for near real-time analytics. This could involve using Event streaming connector for Azure Database for PostgreSQL or other techniques such as Dataflows (Gen2), Notebooks, or Data Factory Pipelines. Data landing in Fabric can be used in near real-time intelligent scenarios such as anomaly detection, predictive maintenance and other predictive scenarios, or personalized recommendations amongst others.
- 🥇SQL And AI Integration
- A real-world solution that is built on Microsoft Fabric that leverages Azure SQL Database or SQL Server, and augmented by AI capabilities. This could involve using Mirroring,Eventstream’s Change Data Capture (CDC) Connector for Azure SQL DB, or using ingestion techniques such as Dataflows (Gen2), Notebooks, Data Factory Pipelines, and AI-driven analytics and insights.
- $1,500 USD
- Social media recognition
- Featured in a Microsoft blog post following winner announcements
- Microsoft participation badge
- A real-world solution that is built on Microsoft Fabric that leverages Azure SQL Database or SQL Server, and augmented by AI capabilities. This could involve using Mirroring,Eventstream’s Change Data Capture (CDC) Connector for Azure SQL DB, or using ingestion techniques such as Dataflows (Gen2), Notebooks, Data Factory Pipelines, and AI-driven analytics and insights.
- 🥇Azure Cosmos DB + Microsoft Fabric Integration
- A real-world solution that is built on Microsoft Fabric, leveraging Azure Cosmos DB. This could involve using Mirroring for enabling analytics/BI on Cosmos DB data, Eventstream’s Change Data Capture (CDC) Connector for Cosmos DB, or using ingestion techniques such as Dataflows (Gen2), or Data Factory Pipelines.
- $1,500 USD
- Social media recognition
- Featured in a Microsoft blog post following winner announcements
- Microsoft participation badge
- A real-world solution that is built on Microsoft Fabric, leveraging Azure Cosmos DB. This could involve using Mirroring for enabling analytics/BI on Cosmos DB data, Eventstream’s Change Data Capture (CDC) Connector for Cosmos DB, or using ingestion techniques such as Dataflows (Gen2), or Data Factory Pipelines.
- 🏆 Grand Prize winner:
