Zoho’s New AI Competition Challenged College Students to Build Solutions to Rural Environmental Crises

Global tech company Zoho introduced a new competition this year for college students that tested their skills in artificial intelligence to solve problems facing rural communities. 

The company’s first-ever AI hackathon, From The Ground Up, recognized its participants and celebrated its winners during a special event held in Zoho’s Pleasanton offices located at 4141 Hacienda Drive.

The projects submitted for the competition, which initially launched in the summer, addressed issues including wildfire risk, water scarcity and agricultural instability in areas of California and Texas – the two United States locations where Zoho has a presence. 

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, according to a September press release from the company. 

"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," said Raju Vegesna, Zoho's Chief Evangelist, in the press release. 

"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," Vegesna added. 

After narrowing the finalists down to five teams who presented a prototype and pitch deck to a judging panel of industry leaders at the finalist event in Pleasanton last month, the duo Edgar and Eduardo Bello Gonzalez from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley took home the winning title and a grand prize of $15,000. 

Their project, titled Dos Ojos, focused on agricultural sustainability as 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. 

“Out of an incredible pool of finalist teams, Dos Ojos’ solution reflects what this competition set out to prove: the people closest to a problem are often best equipped to solve it,” Zoho officials wrote in a social media statement announcing the competition winners. 

The Bello Gonzalez brothers grew up in Mexico, experiencing stretches where their city had no water, affecting local harvests and the livelihoods of farmers, according to Zoho officials. 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.

In addition to honoring the contest winners, Zoho officials recognized the work of all the teams who participated. 

“It’s hard to put into words how proud we are of what these teams accomplished, " officials wrote in a social media post. “Most of them spent several weeks not just building technology, but genuinely learning from the communities they set out to serve - wrestling with hard technical problems, rethinking assumptions, and showing up with something real. Whether or not a team walked away with a prize, every single finalist proved that meaningful AI innovation doesn’t have to come from a big lab. It can come from the ground up.”

While Zoho’s global headquarters is located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, their U.S. headquarters is in Austin, Texas and their US regional office has been in Hacienda since 2013. 

For more information about Zoho, visit www.zoho.com.