Hailo Hackathon 2024-2025: Pushing the Limits of AI Innovation on Raspberry Pi
The third annual Hailo Hackathon was bigger, bolder, and more innovative than ever! Over 24 hours, 60 Hailo employees came together to push the boundaries of edge AI using the Hailo AI HAT+ (26TOPS) on the Raspberry Pi 5. This wasn’t just a coding event—it was a celebration of creativity, collaboration, and problem-solving.
With great food, an overnight coding marathon, and an electric atmosphere of team spirit, this hackathon proved that AI innovation can be both exciting and impactful. Participants developed real-world AI applications that are now available for the community to explore and expand upon.
You can find the projects in our Community Projects.
Note: Some of the projects are built to work only with the 26 TOPS Hailo AI HAT+.
Check out our Hackathon video
How We Judged the Projects
Our expert panel evaluated the projects based on several key criteria:
- Diversity & Creativity – Unique approaches and teamwork. Extra points were given to teams with members from various departments, such as marketing, design, and product management, showcasing the value of diverse perspectives and non-coding skills.
- Real-World Impact – Potential applications and benefits in everyday life.
- Implementation Quality – Code efficiency, performance, and robustness.
- Diversity & Creativity – Unique approaches and teamwork. Extra points were given to teams with members from various departments, such as marketing, design, and product management, showcasing the value of diverse perspectives and non-coding skills.
Hackathon Takeaways
- The Hailo Hackathon 2024-2025 demonstrated that powerful AI applications can be developed in just 24 hours with the right tools. The Hailo AI HAT+ for Raspberry Pi provided teams with an efficient, low-power AI acceleration platform, enabling real-time processing for applications that would traditionally require expensive, cloud-based computation.
- The event also reinforced the importance of developer experience. By using our tools in a fast-paced, hands-on environment, teams identified ways to improve documentation, streamline integration, and expand the capabilities of our platform.
What’s Next?
- Following the success of this hackathon, we are working on open-sourcing some of the projects to the Hailo community. Stay tuned for tutorials, GitHub releases, and more opportunities to explore edge AI with Hailo.
- The future of AI at the edge is bright, and at Hailo, we’re excited to be leading the charge. If you’re passionate about AI and embedded computing, join our developer community and start building!
Hackathon Winners
1st Place: TAILO – AI-Powered Smart Pet Companion
TAILO is a smart AI-driven pet companion that keeps pets happy, active, and monitored through tracking and interactive play.
Features:
- Behavioral reinforcement with treat dispensing.
- Custom voice command prompts for training.
- AI-driven smart camera tracking.
- Privacy-first design—fully local, no cloud dependency.
Future Applications:
- Multi-pet recognition and activity tracking.
- Smart home integration with automated pet care.
- Veterinary insights based on pet behavior.
2nd Place: TEMPO – AI-Generated Music Based on Heart Rate
TEMPO brings biofeedback AI music generation to the edge, dynamically creating music based on heart rate.
Features:
- AI-generated MIDI music tailored to your heartbeat.
- Works with a heart monitor for real-time synchronization.
- Web-based UI for manual BPM adjustments.
Future Applications:
- Adaptive workout music that syncs to running pace.
- AI-generated soundtracks that respond to gameplay in real time.
- Personalized music therapy for relaxation or focus.
3rd Place: AD GENIE – Personalized Advertisement
AD GENIE transforms public advertising with real-time, AI-powered outfit-based content recommendations.
Features:
- AI-driven outfit recognition.
- Smart fashion-based ad recommendations.
- Works fully offline—no cloud needed.
Future Applications:
- Interactive billboards that adjust based on audience style.
- Retail AI assistants for personalized shopping recommendations.
- Gamification of advertising using AI-driven engagement tools.
Additional Notable Projects
Dynamic Captioning
The team enabled Image captioning with Florence2 on Hailo8 (26TOPS).
Not all the pipeline is accelerated on Hailo however porting a big part of it allows for a major speed up.
The latent space is monitored and caption is updated only when the scene changes.
NavigAItor
A robot that navigates autonomously using visual landmarks, with no need for GPS or Gyros.
B-AI-BY Monitor
A smart baby monitor detecting cries and activity with real-time alerts
HailoGames (Sailted Fish)
An AI-powered Red Light, Green Light game using pose estimation
Summary:
The 3rd annual Hailo Hackathon brought together 60 Hailo employees for a 24-hour challenge to push the limits of edge AI on the Raspberry Pi 5 using the Hailo AI HAT+.
The event highlighted the power of the Hailo software stack, which enabled a mixed team from multiple disciplines to rapidly deploy AI applications on the edge.
