24-hour youth hackathon

Touch
Grass

The air we breathe, the water we drink, the ground we live on, the winters we survive. Build something for the health of Mongolia in 24 hours.

Registration opens October 12 Read the FAQ

Why health and the environment

In Mongolia, health starts outside: the winter air, the stove at night, the water in the well, the dzud on the steppe. Four in five deaths in the country come from noncommunicable diseases, and the environment drives much of that. The data is open. Almost nobody young is building on it. For 24 hours, you will.

220+

Students

High school and university, from across Mongolia, in teams of two to four.

24h

Non-stop

Saturday to Sunday, with food, mentors and adult supervision throughout.

6

Tracks

Each pairs an environmental cause with a health outcome. Any technology goes.

Six tracks

Teams build for one of 24 problems. Data sources and rules go up on October 11.

01

Clean air, healthy lungs

Winter smog and children's pneumonia: alerts, sensors, decisions for parents and schools.

02

Safe heat

Carbon monoxide on the coldest nights: prevention, detectors, fast response.

03

Ground and water

Pit latrines, well water and soil near where children play.

04

Waste and health

Collection, sorting, hazardous and medical waste, the people who handle it.

05

Climate shocks

Dzud, cold waves and city heat: herders, remote soums, the elderly.

06

Health data and early warning

Connect pollution, weather and hospital data to see the next surge coming.

The 24 problems

Four per track. Each names a real person and what they need. At the start, every team claims one; a problem closes after three teams claim it. Track sponsors may swap in one problem of their own by October 28.

Track 01 · Clean air, healthy lungs
  1. Help a parent in a ger district decide each morning whether a child walks to school, rides, or stays home.
  2. Help a school principal decide when to keep breaks indoors and prove the decision to parents.
  3. Help a household choose and afford a mask or purifier that matches its stove, room and budget.
  4. Help a clinic predict tomorrow's pediatric respiratory visits from today's air.
Track 02 · Safe heat
  1. Warn a briquette-heated household before the coldest night of the week, in time to ventilate.
  2. Help a family detect carbon monoxide without a 100,000-tugrik device.
  3. Help a person with early symptoms recognize poisoning and reach 103 in under a minute.
  4. Help emergency services position crews on the nights poisoning peaks.
Track 03 · Ground and water
  1. Help a household find out whether its well water is safe this month, and what to do if not.
  2. Help a khoroo track which latrines were upgraded and which leak.
  3. Help a kindergarten know whether the soil in its yard is safe for children to play on.
  4. Help a family with a child under five cut diarrhoeal disease risk with what it already has.
Track 04 · Waste and health
  1. Help a ger-area household get waste collected on a predictable day.
  2. Help a shop or school sort and sell its recyclables without a deposit scheme.
  3. Help a household get rid of batteries, medicine and chemicals safely.
  4. Help a waste picker work safer and earn more.
Track 05 · Climate shocks
  1. Warn a herder family in a specific soum of a dzud-grade cold wave three days ahead, with what to do.
  2. Give a herder who lost livestock a way to talk to someone, over a basic phone.
  3. Help a soum doctor triage a sick child remotely when roads are closed.
  4. Help an elderly city resident through a heat wave.
Track 06 · Health data and early warning
  1. Forecast next week's pediatric admissions at one Ulaanbaatar hospital from air and weather data.
  2. Build the city's first public environmental-health index that a journalist can quote daily.
  3. Register and quality-check citizen air sensors so their data can be trusted.
  4. Publish one clean, documented dataset joining air, weather and health that the next hackathon can use.

Key dates

Come back on October 11 for the full site: rules, data sources, agenda and consent form.

Oct 11

Rules and data sources published

Oct 12

Registration opens

Oct 26

Final prize pool announced

Nov 3

Registration closes

Nov 7–8

Saturday to Sunday · full schedule with the venue announcement · awards Sunday afternoon

Prizes

A cash pool of at least 5,000,000 MNT for the top three teams, growing with every sponsor. The final figure is announced October 26.

50%

First place

at least 2,500,000 MNT
30%

Second place

at least 1,500,000 MNT
20%

Third place

at least 1,000,000 MNT

Plus a winner in every track and two category prizes, with certificates and sponsor prizes. Cash prizes are paid with the legally required 5% income tax withheld.

SIDE QUEST

Tetris, teams of two

A break from building: a TETR.IO tournament in pairs, played on your own laptops during the event. Pair up with anyone, your teammate or not. Bracket and sign-up details come with the full schedule.

FAQ

Still wondering? Ask us.

What is a hackathon?

An event where small teams build a working prototype of an idea in a fixed time, then show it to judges. It is less a competition of who codes fastest than of who understands a problem best and makes something real for it.

Who can join?

Students aged 14 to 20, in secondary school or university, from anywhere in Mongolia. Participants under 18 need a consent form signed by a parent or guardian.

What language is the event in?

English. Talks, mentoring, judging, submissions and demos all run in English, so it is good practice too. You do not need perfect English; you need to explain what you built.

How much does it cost?

Nothing. Entry and food are free.

Do I need to know how to code?

It helps to have one coder on the team, but strong teams also need people who understand health, the environment, design and research. First-timers are welcome, and mentors are there throughout.

I don't have a team.

Register alone. Teams are two to four people, and there is team formation on Saturday before hacking starts.

Is it overnight?

The plan is 24 hours straight at one venue, with adult supervisors on site throughout. The exact schedule is confirmed with the venue announcement, along with a list of what to bring.

What should we build?

Anything that solves one of the 24 problems for a real person: an app, a website, an SMS bot, a sensor, a data model, a map. Each statement closes after three teams claim it, so teams spread across the problems.

How is it judged?

Three judges per track visit every team. Solving the stated problem 20%, technical work 20%, evidence and data 15%, completeness 15%, design 15%, creativity 15%. Track winners and two wildcards present on stage for the top three.

Who organizes Touch Grass?

Hackathon Mongolia, a student organizing team, hosted by the youth health NGO Uram Care (Uram Enerel NGO).