Zoho Announces Finalists for From The Ground Up, Its First-Ever AI Hackathon Featuring College Student-Built AI Solutions to Rural Environmental Crises

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Postmedia has not reviewed the content. by Business Wire Zoho Announces Finalists for From The Ground Up, Its First-Ever AI Hackathon Featuring College Student-Built AI Solutions to Rural Environmental CrisesAuthor of the article:Competition continues Zoho’s longstanding efforts toward a technology-enabled rural revivalHackathon submissions originated from students enrolled in universities from historically underserved parts of California and TexasProjects focus on AI systems that address growing risks of wildfires, water scarcity or agricultural instabilityTHIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLYSubscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.Exclusive articles from Barbara Shecter, Joe O'Connor, Gabriel Friedman, and others.Daily content from Financial Times, the world's leading global business publication.Unlimited online access to read articles from Financial Post, National Post and 15 news sites across Canada with one account.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword.SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLESSubscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.Exclusive articles from Barbara Shecter, Joe O'Connor, Gabriel Friedman and others.Daily content from Financial Times, the world's leading global business publication.Unlimited online access to read articles from Financial Post, National Post and 15 news sites across Canada with one account.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword.REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLESCreate an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one account.Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.Enjoy additional articles per month.Get email updates from your favourite authors.THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one accountShare your thoughts and join the conversation in the commentsEnjoy additional articles per monthGet email updates from your favourite authorsSign In or Create an AccountAUSTIN, Texas — Zoho Corporation, a global technology company, today announced the five teams that have reached the finals in From The Ground Up, Zoho’s first-ever AI hackathon that addresses problems such as wildfire risk, water scarcity and agricultural instability in areas of California and Texas. The competition, which was open to students currently enrolled at a preselected list of rural and rural-serving universities where traditional AI resources and funding are often scarce, continues Zoho’s efforts toward a technology-enabled rural revival.“For decades, one of Zoho’s guiding principles was the belief that world-class software can be built from anywhere, including rural communities. It’s the reason why we’ve had an office in a rural village in Tenkasi, India for over a decade, and why we continue to discover new talent in Texas’s Rio Grande Valley,” says Raju Vegesna, Zoho’s Chief Evangelist. “We have long heard vague suggestions towards the transformative potential of AI to solve global problems from Silicon Valley CEOs, but by providing tools and financial support to dedicated students from rural communities, From The Ground Up puts them into action, while continuing Zoho’s longstanding commitment to supporting the places beyond our major cities.”Get the latest headlines, breaking news and columns.By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.The next issue of Top Stories will soon be in your inbox.We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try againAI technology is often cited as a revolutionary tool to address modern societal problems, yet these tools are often developed in labs far away from the communities that need it most, and are often too expensive for anyone but the largest players to implement. From The Ground Up was created to help support those with first-hand knowledge of the issues facing rural communities, as Zoho believes that the best AI solutions for these areas are built within them, not handed down to them.Teams of up to three students were asked to design an AI system or suite of lightweight, interoperable AI tools that address the crises of wildfire risk, water scarcity, or agricultural instability, focusing on empowering rural communities and indigenous tribes without displacing their expertise, draining their resources, or extracting their data. Team members were required to be currently enrolled at an eligible university, selected by Zoho based on the Hackathon’s focus on rural and rural-serving California and Texas communities — states experiencing growing problems with wildfires, water resources, and agricultural sustainability, and where Zoho has a physical presence.Applicants were asked to design their projects according to the following concerns:Community sovereignty: Indigenous communities and rural farmers should be genuine partners in design, not just end users or data sources. Solutions should be tools that communities wield on their own terms.Appropriate scale: Teams should prioritize small, purpose-trained, locally-run models over large general-purpose systems wherever the task allows. Edge deployment on modest hardware (e.g., solar-powered sensors in fields or tribal territories) is preferable to cloud-dependent queries.Interoperability: Wildfire risk, water availability, and agricultural decisions are not separate — contestants’ tools should reflect that. For example, soil moisture data should inform both irrigation scheduling and cultural burn timing. Groundwater modeling should connect to crop viability planning.Equity of access: The communities with the most to gain are often those with the fewest resources. Solutions should be low-cost to adopt, usable with limited connectivity, and designed for operators without data science staff.Honest environmental accounting: Account for the computational and water footprint of the AI tools themselves. Prefer lean, efficient deployments and justify any heavier computation by the scale of the benefit.Applicants submitted a written proposal, five of which were selected to be finalists. The five finalist teams will receive mentorship from Zoho leaders and travel support, presenting a prototype and pitch deck to a judging panel of industry leaders at the finalist event, to be held at Zoho’s office in Pleastanton, California on Tuesday, September 22nd, 2026. The winning team, selected at the event, will win a $15,000 prize.Team NoNiMoStudents: Noah Wilborn, Misha Stegall, and Mohammed Asad KhanSchool: Texas A&M University—Corpus ChristiCore Topic Addressed: Water Resource ManagementSolution: BASIN is a locally run, transparent AI tool that generates and ranks auditable drought “what-if” scenarios from public precipitation data, helping Region N planners, hydrologists, and rural water providers prioritize which worsening drought conditions deserve costly formal hydrologic modeling. Team NoMiMo is made up of computer science students at TAMUCC who are currently experiencing the 2026 water crisis in Corpus Christi, TX, which is on track to become the first city in the United States to run out of water. The region’s water supply models rely on outdated hydrology data from 2015, yet updating these models for every new emergency scenario would require costly hydrologist consulting, a price tag that remains out of the community’s budget.Team Land Memory AIStudents: Kuralay Biehler and Lazzat DuiseshovaSchool: Austin Community College—Round RockCore Topic(s) Addressed: Water Resource Management, Wildfire & Land Stewardship, Agricultural SustainabilitySolution: Land Memory AI is a mobile/web tool that helps Texas farmers and rural landowners combine their personal land knowledge—historical records, photos, and observations—with environmental data to make more informed land, water, and wildfire-preparedness decisions, without replacing their judgment. Team Land Memory AI has combined academic and personal experience across farming, research, law, design, and business administration, which grounds their approach in real-world organizational and practical considerations.Team Dos OjosStudents: Edgar Bello Gonzalez and Eduardo Bello GonzalezSchool: University of Texas Rio Grande ValleyCore Topic(s) Addressed: Agricultural SustainabilitySolution: Dos Ojos is an AI-driven crop-stress monitoring tool that pairs free Sentinel-2 satellite imagery with targeted drone flights to give small Rio Grande Valley farmers simple, bilingual SMS guidance on where to direct scarce irrigation water during drought, helping them stay in business despite harsh climate conditions. Team Dos Ojos is comprised of Edgar and Eduardo Bello Gonzalez, brothers who grew up in Mexico, experiencing stretches where their city had no water, affecting local harvests and the livelihoods of farmers. Since relocating to the Rio Grande Valley, they have noticed similar recurring droughts, and intend to use their engineering education to help their new community.This advertisement has not loaded yet.This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.Team CoderOPStudents: Maharshi Barot and Saumya PatelSchool: Texas A&M University—Corpus ChristiCore Topic(s) Addressed: Water Resource ManagementSolution: Coder OP is building an AI tool that uses nighttime flow logs and free satellite imagery to flag likely leak zones for rural, under-resourced Texas utilities, converting that into a plain-language worklist with estimated gallons/day lost, cost, and location so non-technical staff can recover more already-treated water during the ongoing drought. As graduate students living through the drought crisis in Corpus Christi, Maharshi and Saumya watched as the conversation turned to the city’s infrastructure, and were inspired to create a solution.Team IrrigaStudents: Jessica Parra Serena and Thi Xuan My TranSchool: East Texas A&M UniversityCore Topic(s) Addressed: Water Resource ManagementSolution: Team Irriga is developing a dual-model AI system that uses existing soil, well, and weather sensor data from NPGCD to give small Texas Panhandle farmers access to quality irrigation advice both online and offline, helping them cut water use and slow the Ogallala Aquifer’s decline without expensive one-on-one mentorship. Team Irriga became invested the Ogallala Aquifer upon learning just how significantly its water level has declined since large-scale pumping began decades ago, and the massive gap between the amount of groundwater data collected by the NPGCD and how little of that data reaches local farmers.How the public can participate:Members of the public are encouraged to vote for their favorite of the five From The Ground Up finalists. The winner of this year’s hackathon will be determined by a team of judges on September 22nd, where public votes will count for a portion of each team’s overall score during the finalist event. Voting is open now through September 22nd at 9 AM PT.With 55+ apps in nearly every major business category, Zoho Corporation is one of the world’s most prolific technology companies. Zoho’s global headquarters is in Chennai, India, with its U.S. headquarters in Austin, Texas. Zoho is privately held and profitable, with 90+ offices across 28 countries and more than 19,000 employees worldwide. For more information, visit www.zoho.com.View source version on businesswire.com: Media ContactAriel Rhodesariel.r@zohocorp.comNotice for the Postmedia NetworkThis website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. Read more about cookies here. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.