THE DROIDSSTRIKE BACK
AI & ROBOTICS HACKATHON
Build AI agents for robotics in simulation and software. A full day of intelligent systems and innovation.
Afore Capital Pre-Seed Program
$500K–$2M+ in Funding
Exceptional robotics teams may be considered for pre-seed investment
Software & Simulation tracks • Expert mentorship • Workshops
$5,000+ Prize Pool
Hosted by
In partnership with
Our Partners
Brought to You By Leaders
Leading organizations in AI and venture capital
Partner Organization
Supporting Sponsors
About the Challenge
Robotics ChallengeEpisode II
Episode II brings AI agents to robotics. Build intelligent systems in simulation environments. From reinforcement learning to vision models — create robots that sense, think, and act.
AI for Robotics
Build intelligent agents that navigate, manipulate objects, and make decisions in simulation environments.
Perception & Planning
Implement vision systems, path planning, and decision-making algorithms for robotic applications.
Simulation & Software
Explore powerful simulation tools like Isaac Sim, MuJoCo, PyBullet, or create pure software solutions.
🎮 Simulation Track
Build in virtual environments! Explore with Isaac Sim, MuJoCo, PyBullet, or other simulation platforms. Test and iterate rapidly in realistic physics environments.
💻 Software Track
Build pure software solutions! Create AI agents, control algorithms, digital twins, or robotics frameworks. Focus on intelligence and innovation.
Note: We're actively sourcing hardware kits and would love to provide them if available in time. Check back for updates!
Hackathon Series
Our AI Events
Join us for cutting-edge AI hackathons that push the boundaries of innovation
Droids Strike Back
Build AI agents for robotics in simulation and software
Key Highlights
- •$5,000+ in prizes
- •Software & simulation tracks
- •Expert mentorship
- •$500K-$2M+ funding opportunities
A New Agent
Our inaugural AI agent hackathon that brought together 200+ builders
Key Highlights
- •Autonomous AI systems
- •Pre-seed funding opportunities
- •Industry expert judges
- •Innovative AI solutions
Return of the Agents
The grand finale. Build the future of Generative AI.
Key Highlights
- •$5,000+ in prizes
- •Generative AI focus
- •Venture-scale products
- •Top investors & experts
Stay Updated
Get notified about upcoming hackathons and AI events. Join our community of 1,000+ builders.
Join AI Valley CommunityEvent Timeline
Mission Timeline
November 22, 2025 • San Francisco, CA
Event Schedule
Saturday, November 22
Rewards & Recognition
Robotics Prizes
$5,000+ Prize Pool - Software & Simulation Tracks
Afore Capital Pre-Seed Program
Beyond cash prizes, exceptional teams may be considered for
Transform your AI robotics innovation into a funded startup with backing from Silicon Valley's premier early-stage fund.
1st Place
Plus cloud credits & mentorship
2nd Place
Plus API credits & workspace access
3rd Place
Plus cloud credits & AI platform access
Expert Panel
Judges & Mentors
Expert judges from robotics, AI, and venture capital will evaluate your creations
Apurv Naman
Sr Product Manager
Nvidia
My work is mostly focused on Physical AI, robotics and Autonomous vehicle. Working in domain of simulation technology, synthetic data for training Phy...
Nandakishor Koka
Principal Software Engineer
The Walt Disney Company
Nandakishor Koka is a Principal Software Engineer at The Walt Disney Company, specializing in computer vision, applied machine learning, data platform...
Amar Saurabh
Product Leader
TikTok
Amar Saurabh is a Product Leader with over 12 years of experience driving multi-billion-dollar products at Meta, TikTok, and PayPal. He's led initiati...
Arya Talebzadeh
Member of Technical Staff, Production Learning & Experimentation
OpenAI
Building continuous learning loops to advance frontier model capabilities on the problems that matter most to users.
Blerim Abdullai
Founding Engineer
Zeon Systems
Blerim Abdullai is a Robotics Engineer specializing in 3D perception for robotics in chemistry lab automation. He has experience in deep learning for ...
Kawin Leephakpreeda
Co-Founder
ClaimGlide
Kawin is a co-founder of ClaimGlide, an AI automation tool for medical billing and claims processing. Previously, he has developed AI automation solut...
George Kalangi
Technical Product Manager
Apple
George Kalangi is a Technical Product Manager at Apple focused on AI powered customer systems and large scale conversational architecture. He builds h...
Gaurav Jain
Senior Staff Engineer
Pure Storage
Gaurav Jain is a Senior Staff Engineer at Pure Storage, where he leads the customer-facing GenAI Copilot initiative. A Carnegie Mellon alumnus, he com...
Viswesh N G
CTO
Canary
Specializing in applied AI and building agentic systems. Currently building an automated testing platform that identifies breaking regressions and eli...
Pratik Agarwal
Senior Software Engineer
Figma
Pratik Agarwal is a senior software engineer at Figma working on distributed systems, databases, and AI infrastructure.
Prateek Punj
Senior Data Scientist
Microsoft
Prateek Punj is a Senior Data Scientist at Microsoft with expertise in machine learning, data science, and AI Agent evaluation, focusing on developing...
Massimiliano Viola
Researcher
Stanford University
Massimiliano is a researcher at Stanford focusing on 3D vision and generative models. He previously scaled computer vision in manufacturing at Cerrion...
Pratik Satija
Co-Founder
Solstis
Pratik is the co-founder of Solstis - a platform that lets users build and deploy AI Agents in natural language to automate manual tasks within their ...
Oliviero Pinotti
Co-Founder
Solstis
Co-Founder @ Solstis - AI Agent builder for ERPs. Prev NUS, Stacksync (YC W24)
Adrien Lemercier
Founder
Stealth
Founder at Stealth. 3x IMO medalist, Stanford alum, ex Quantitative Researcher at Jump Trading, LeRobot/HuggingFace hackathon 3rd place.
Illia Kasian
Co-Founder & CTO
Matcha
Illia Kasian, Co-Founder & CTO at Matcha. Full-stack engineer with applied ML expertise, focused on building scalable, reliable systems.
Anubhav Sharma
Head of Agentic AI
Jeeva AI
Anubhav Sharma is the Head of Agentic AI at Jeeva AI, leading the vision, strategy, and development of scalable autonomous agent infrastructure and mu...
Vijay Pitchumani
Director of Product Management
Okta
Vijay Pitchumani is currently the Director of Product Management at Okta, focusing on building modern Identity Security solutions for Human, Non-Human...
Viswanathan Ranganathan
Senior Distributed Systems Engineer
Netflix
Viswanathan Ranganathan is a senior distributed systems engineer at Netflix's Delivery Engineering team, where every service deployment at Netflix flo...
Adnan Abbas
Co-founder & CTO
Unsiloed AI (YC F25)
Adnan Abbas, Co-founder & CTO at Unsiloed AI (YC F25) and we are building the most accurate VLMs to parse unstructured data and make them LLM-ready.
Dhyey Mavani
Software Engineer - AI Inference
Dhyey Mavani is recognized for his pioneering work in artificial intelligence and applied computational mathematics. At LinkedIn, he has led large-sca...
Judge Categories
Robotics Experts
Leaders in autonomous systems and robotics AI
AI Researchers
Pioneers in computer vision and control systems
VCs & Founders
Investors focused on robotics startups
Additional judges will be announced soon. Stay tuned!
Your Questions Answered
Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know about the robotics hackathon