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Dept of CSE(AI & ML) & CSE(CY) x CyreneAI

ASYNC'26

Problem Statements

TOTAL PRIZE POOL₹1,00,000₹25,000 per track
IDEA SUBMISSION22 SeptDeck only
BUILDING PHASE & MENTORING22–28 SeptGuided build with mentors
FINAL BUILD24 HoursOn campus, 30 Sept — 1 Oct
ASYNC'26 · AIONPAGE 01 OF 06
TRACK 1TRACK PRIZE₹25,000

Sovereign AI

Build AI that you can actually own.

The challenge

As AI becomes deeply embedded into organizations and everyday life, individuals, mission-driven teams and businesses need the ability to run intelligent systems without handing over all of their data, knowledge and operational context to a third party.

The challenge is to build towards a Sovereign Second Brain — an AI system that can privately understand an individual or organization's knowledge, remember what it learns, reason across that information and safely execute useful tasks.

What could you build?

Think beyond a chatbot. A strong solution could combine open-weight/local models, a personal knowledge base, long-term memory, semantic retrieval, automatic ingestion, agentic tool execution (MCP), and local-first deployment.

  • Open-weight/local models for private inference.
  • A personal or organizational knowledge base.
  • Persistent long-term memory.
  • Semantic, keyword or graph-based retrieval.
  • Automatic ingestion of documents and user-owned data.
  • Connections between people, projects, concepts and decisions.
  • Agentic tool execution through systems such as MCP.
  • Controlled execution where actions can be reviewed and audited.
  • Local-first or self-hosted deployment.

Technologies teams can explore

GBrainObsidianUtopiaGraphitiZepMem0LettaPostgreSQL/pgvectorOllamallama.cppvLLM

Expected direction

Teams should demonstrate a working system where:

  1. 1Data
  2. 2Knowledge
  3. 3Memory
  4. 4Reasoning
  5. 5Action

The winning project should feel like the beginning of an AI that an individual or organization could actually own.

ASYNC'26 · TRACK 1SOVEREIGN AIPAGE 02 OF 06
TRACK 2TRACK PRIZE₹25,000

Wellness & Lifestyle

With AI doing more of the work, what will you maxxx?

The challenge

Wearables and smartphones can already collect enormous amounts of data about sleep, movement, heart rate, recovery, habits and everyday activity.

The harder problem is turning that data into something people understand — and something that actually helps them improve their lives.

Inspired by the quantified-self movement and people such as Bryan Johnson pushing measurement to its limits: what aspect of your life will you maxxx?

What could you build?

Build systems that turn everyday data into engagement, understanding and improvement — not just another dashboard.

  • Sleep and recovery improvement.
  • Movement and exercise consistency.
  • Stress and mindfulness.
  • Screen-time reduction.
  • Habit formation.
  • Nutrition tracking.
  • Energy and productivity.
  • Personalized challenges.
  • AI wellness companions.
  • Health-data visualization.
  • Correlations between lifestyle choices and wellness signals.
  • Gamified wellness experiences.

Expected direction

A strong project should ideally demonstrate:

  1. 1Track
  2. 2Understand
  3. 3Act
  4. 4Measure
  5. 5Improve

Instead of simply displaying charts, help users understand: What changed? Why might it have changed? What can I do differently today? Did it work?

ASYNC'26 · TRACK 2WELLNESS & LIFESTYLEPAGE 03 OF 06
TRACK 3TRACK PRIZE₹25,000

Cybersecurity & Defense

Defend humans in an AI-powered internet.

The challenge

AI is dramatically increasing the speed and scale at which scams, phishing, impersonation, malicious automation and cyberattacks can be created.

At the same time, security increasingly extends beyond purely digital systems. Publicly available signals such as satellite imagery, ADS-B aircraft data, maritime data, radio communication patterns, sensors and other real-world data streams can help build better situational awareness and detect unusual activity.

The challenge is to build systems that help individuals or organizations understand risk, detect threats and respond in real time while protecting privacy and security.

What could you build?

Build systems focused on defensive security, situational awareness, user protection, resilience and privacy.

  • AI-powered phishing and scam detection.
  • Malicious-link analysis.
  • Network anomaly detection.
  • Privacy and credential exposure monitoring.
  • Browser or endpoint security tools.
  • AI-assisted SOC and incident-analysis systems.
  • Spam and social-engineering detection.
  • Automated defensive response and containment.
  • Tools that explain security risks to everyday users.
  • Systems that correlate satellite, ADS-B, radio, geospatial or sensor data to identify unusual real-world patterns.
  • Situational-awareness tools for campuses, infrastructure, organizations or public spaces.
  • Systems that combine digital and physical signals to detect emerging threats.

Expected direction

A good project could demonstrate:

  1. 1Observe
  2. 2Detect
  3. 3Explain
  4. 4Respond

The emphasis should be on defensive security, situational awareness, user protection, resilience and privacy.

ASYNC'26 · TRACK 3CYBERSECURITY & DEFENSEPAGE 04 OF 06
TRACK 4TRACK PRIZE₹25,000

Open Track

Build something that matters — or build it just because you can.

The challenge

Not every great idea fits inside a predefined category. This track is intentionally open.

What could you build?

Hardware, software, AI, robotics, decentralized systems, developer tools, creative technology and combinations of them are all welcome.

  • That solves a problem nobody is paying attention to.
  • That creates positive social impact.
  • That helps your campus or community.
  • That explores a new technology.
  • That makes existing technology dramatically easier to use.
  • That is weird, experimental or ambitious.
  • That you have always wanted to build but never had a reason to start.

How it is judged

There is no prescribed direction here. Open Track ideas are held to exactly the same bar as every other track — the idea has to be clear, original, technically real and worth building.

Pick this track only if your idea genuinely does not fit one of the three themed tracks. Every track competes for the same prize.

ASYNC'26 · TRACK 4OPEN TRACKPAGE 05 OF 06
GUIDEDEADLINE22 Sept

Idea Submission Guidelines

Idea stage only — no prototype, demo or build progress is required.

How it works

  1. 01RegisterRegistration is compulsory before an idea submission is accepted.
  2. 02Pick a trackChoose exactly one of the four tracks for your idea.
  3. 03Submit the deckBuild on the official template and upload it to the submission form.

What your deck must cover

  1. 01Project name.
  2. 02Team details (team name and all member names).
  3. 03Selected track.
  4. 04Problem being addressed.
  5. 05Your project idea.
  6. 06Proposed solution and how it works.
  7. 07Basic technical architecture or workflow.
  8. 08Technologies you plan to use.
  9. 09What makes your approach different.

How ideas are evaluated

30%Technical ExecutionArchitecture & approach
20%InnovationNovelty & insight
20%ImpactReal-world value
15%Product ExperienceUsability & design
15%Demo & CompletenessClarity & readiness

Ground rules

  • Registration must be completed before submitting.
  • One idea submission per team.
  • Exactly one track per idea.
  • Use the official ASYNC'26 PPT template.
  • Keep the deck concise — clarity beats length.
  • No prototype or build progress required at this stage.
ASYNC'26 · SUBMISSIONIDEA SUBMISSION GUIDELINESPAGE 06 OF 06