ABOUT THE PROJECT
Day of AI Australia, in partnership with UNSW, has been awarded funding to develop several games to help high school students develop AI literacy skills.
About Day of AI Australia
Day of AI Australia is an educational initiative helping students and educators build AI literacy in every state and territory of Australia. It offers lessons and activities on AI basics, ethics, and real-world uses.
The program fosters curiosity, critical thinking, and responsible AI use. Hands-on activities give students practical experience with AI tools, helping them understand how AI works and its ethical impacts, and preparing them for an AI-powered future.
What is AI literacy
AI literacy means understanding what AI is, how it works, and its societal impact. It covers how AI systems process data and use algorithms to make predictions, alongside ethical issues like bias and responsible use. AI literacy empowers students to safely and critically engage with AI, reflect on its effects, and develop skills for a future where AI is ubiquitous. It also encourages awareness of AI-powered digital tools in education, creativity, and problem-solving.
NB: AI literacy is NOT AI fundamentals, computer science, or programming education.
THE COMPETITION
Develop a concept and prototype for a web application/interactive game aimed at students in Years 7-10. Your game should teach at least one fundamental AI concept or AI literacy skill.
Example Games Used in Our Lessons:
- Teachable Machine: Data-driven learning, training, and the importance of diverse data, data –> algorithm –> prediction
- Quick, Draw!: Pattern recognition, iterative learning, large datasets, real-time inference
- Harmony Square: AI and disinformation, critical thinking in an AI-driven information landscape, media bubbles.
Other examples to explore: AI for Oceans, Signs AI, Whisk, Say What You See.
Use these experiences as inspiration, but we are looking for original ideas and contributions.
Some thought starters
There are lots of topics or key concepts that you might want to explore. Here are some suggested topics that might lend themselves to a gamified learning experience:
- Temperature
- Inference
- Feature engineering
- Hallucinations
- Overfitting
- Adversarial attacks
- Latent space
- Explainable AI
- Privacy
- Bias in models
- Human in the loop
- Transparency
- Accountability
- Recognising AI in everyday life
- Data quality
- AI is probabilistic
- Overfitting
- Attention in a Transformer model
- Zero-shot and few-shot learning
- Responsible use of AI
- Context window
SUBMIT YOUR ENTRY
HOW TO ENTER
Submit a working prototype along with the following requirements
- The Video Demo (3 minutes or less): This is the most important part of your submission. Create a dynamic, engaging, and high-quality video that demonstrates your experience in action.
- Format: You can post your video to YouTube, or any other public platform. You must provide a direct link to the video. It must be viewable by the judging panel without requiring a login.
- The Technical Writeup (The Proof of Work): This paper- or blog-style report is your technical verification. It must clearly explain the architecture of your app, how you specifically used Generative AI, and how you safeguard its use to ensure child safety, the challenges you overcame, and why your technical choices were the right ones. Its primary purpose is to prove to the judges that your video demo is backed by real engineering. This information is to be provided as a PDF document. No limit to the number of pages.
- Public Code Repository: Provide a link to a public repository (e.g., GitHub). The code must be well-documented and clearly show the implementation of Generative AI in a web-based app. This is non-negotiable and will be used to validate the authenticity of your project. If possible, provide a URL to a working deployment of the experience that judges can access without login.
Note: You may use Generative AI tools to support the development of your submission and of the codebase, but we want to see your authentic personality come through with your submission!
Keep in mind that your game should be:
- Fun, creative and intuitive
- Include moments of delight or surprise
- Accessible (both in terms of knowledge and skills, and web accessibility guidelines)
- Safe and age appropriate for high school students
- Avoid free text input/output
WHO CAN ENTER
- One team member must be either:
- A UNSW student currently enrolled in a Computer Science and Engineering unit, OR
- A current or past Day of AI Australia Classroom Champion
- Individuals or teams of three are permitted to enter.
PRIZE
One winning entry (individual or team) will be selected and will win a cash prize of $5,000. The winner of the Competition (Winner) will be offered an opportunity to develop and refine a prototype of the winning entry with a UNSW Engineering team. For further information contact s.pancholi@unsw.edu.au
JUDGING CRITERIA
- Originality (30 points): Novelty and creativity of the idea, has the panel seen ideas like this before?
- Relevance (30 points): Alignment with Day of AI program and AI literacy topics, could this experience be implemented into the curriculum?
- Technical depth and execution (30 points): Can your demo be verified by the code repository and writeup? How innovative is the use of Generative AI? Is the technology real and feasible, and not just faked for the demo?
- Communication (10 points): Clear, structured, and engaging proposal
TIMELINE
- 0900 AEST 25 August 2025: Competition opens.
- 2359 AEST 21 September 2025: Final submission deadline.
- By 26 September 2025: Winner notified and discussion about timing for further development commence.
The organisers reserve the right to update the timeline if deemed necessary.
JUDGES
Dr Jake Renzella, Senior Lecturer, UNSW
Natasha Banks, Program Director Day of AI Australia
Oscar Wahltinez, Senior Developer Programs Engineer, Google
If you have any questions about the competition, please contact s.pancholi@unsw.edu.au
COMPETITION TERMS AND CONDITIONS
You must review the full competition terms and conditions before submitting your entry:
Design a Day of AI Australia AI Literacy Game Competition Terms and Conditions.
