Innovation Labs · Hackathons · Student AI clubs
Student AI clubs at MSOE, UWM and more run Innovation Labs and hackathons on problems companies bring. You present the problem, judge the finals, and meet the people who built the answer.
How a Lab runs
One company problem, many student teams, four to eight weeks of building. This is how Labs run today, start to finish.
01 · First meeting
We don't ask students to sign NDAs for these projects. A required signature lowers participation, and if a project needs one because of what's at stake in the output, a student event is probably the wrong place for it.
“Predict liquid volume from one image.” Brady's problem, Fall 2024
02 · Kickoff
Your engineer stands in front of every team at once.
03 · Four to eight weeks
Your engineer holds one office hour a week. The teams do the rest.
04 · Showcase
Teams show working systems on stage, and three judges score them.
05 · Afterwards
Each team's code stays in the event's private repositories. By now you've watched every team work.
7MSOE students hired by Juno from its Spring 2025 Innovation Lab.
Source: Innovation Labs playbook. This is how Labs run today.
Ways in
Labs and hackathons run in the fall and the spring. Pick a way in and we set it up with you for the next one.
With Rockwell Automation and NVIDIA · Oct 8 – Nov 5, 2026
A chapter's students · one weekend, 48 hours
MSOE AI Club · 6:30–7:30 PM, Direct Supply ITC
The record
Companies and nonprofits that brought a problem, and what students did with it.
2023Hackathon
40+ students built a patient-screening chatbot for a nonprofit clinic.
2024Innovation Lab
Predict liquid volume from one image. 60 MSOE and UWM students. Liquid Boogaloo won.
2024Hackathon
70+ students in 10 teams, 48 hours. Discovery Mate won.
2025Innovation Lab
Fintech problems. 10 teams.
2025Innovation Lab
Manufacturing, health and insurance problems. 180+ students on 21 teams from five schools. Qual-V won.
2025Hackathon
50+ students in 12 teams. Thunder Domes won.
2026Hackathon
Hack 4 Health, Jan 2026: 9 teams turned radiology reports into plain language, $6,500 in prizes. DocDecoder won.
2026Innovation Lab
Spring 2026. Financial services and healthcare. 17 teams, $10,000 in prizes.
2026Innovation Lab
Fall 2026, running now. A four-week physical AI Lab with UWM's Connected Systems Institute. About 500 MSOE and UWM students.
In the news
The Spring 2026 Innovation Lab, built with the MSOE AI Club.
Read the story (opens CFOtech in a new tab)
Features AI Club president Ben Paulson's work.
Read the story (opens Spectrum News 1 in a new tab)The first Innovation Lab: two months on one photo-to-volume problem.
Read the story (opens MSOE News in a new tab)50+ students on 12 teams built AI ideas for the Mitchell Park Domes.
Read the story (opens MSOE News in a new tab)
The fifth and largest ROSIE challenge: 27 entries, a $10,000 grand prize.
Read the story (opens MSOE News in a new tab)
ROSIE 2025 results: club members took third and an honorable mention.
Read the story (opens MSOE News in a new tab)
ROSIE Super Challenge results, with NourishNet in third.
Read the story (opens MSOE News in a new tab)
A local profile of the NourishNet team.
Read the story (opens Racine County Eye in a new tab)How MSOE students build AI careers.
Read the story (opens Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in a new tab)hackathon prize pool, every year from 2023 to 2025.
Hackathons playbook
teams from five schools on Xorbix's Fall 2025 Lab.
MSOE AI Club event page
UW-Milwaukee students signed up for the Fall 2026 Lab. UWM has no AI club.
ALL platform records, Oct 2026
check-ins at five chapter events between Sep 10 and Oct 3, 2026.
ALL database, Oct 3, 2026 · test events excluded
Bring a problem
Leave your work email and a few taps. No email to write. We get back to you and set it up together.
