The Student BoardroomShip it before dinner.
A one-day hackathon for classes 8 to 12. You arrive with an idea and no code. You leave with a product that is live on the internet, built by you, working on Monday.
Sun 11 Oct 2026 · 12 PM to 8 PM · Open House, AC Market · 45 seats · By application
The day
how the day runs
- 12:00Check in. Teams of three announced, problem statements handed out
- 12:30Work out what is worth building, and who it is for, with the business mentors
- 13:00Tools session: what to use, how to prompt it, how to put a site live
- 13:30Build. Floor mentors at your table, mentor room slots running, food through the day
- 15:30Pitch review with the business mentors, one team at a time
- 17:00Ship deadline. Parents welcome from here
- 17:30Demos, five minutes a team
- 19:00Judging, prizes and photos
- 20:00Close
Times are indicative.
Mentors
who is at your table
Floor mentors
Five engineers and founders from the Calcutta AI Club, one for every two teams. They move between tables through the build, spot what is going wrong before you do, and stop you building something you cannot finish in a day.
The mentor room
Stuck on the idea rather than the code? Every team gets its own slot with a tech mentor: a closed room, a whiteboard and proper time on your specific problem. You arrive with a question and leave with a smaller one.
Business mentors
From The Student Boardroom, including ex-McKinsey consultants. They come in at the start, on how to work out what is worth building and for whom, and again at the end, on how to pitch it in one sentence that lands.
Judging is done by both sides. A build that works but nobody would use does not win, and neither does a good pitch with nothing behind it.
Problem statements
what you can build in a day
Things built in a single day at our last hackathon, and the kind of problem statement you will pick from. Take one of these, or arrive with an idea of your own and a mentor will help you cut it to size.
- 01
A study tool for your class
Upload your notes, get a question bank and flashcards back. Used by your whole section.
- 02
A booking page for a shop
A tuition centre takes appointments on WhatsApp today. Give them a page that does it and sends reminders.
- 03
A bot for a real group
A WhatsApp assistant that answers the same repeated questions for a club or a school committee.
- 04
A map nobody has made
Every second-hand bookshop, every free library, every step-free entrance in your neighbourhood.
- 05
A dashboard from public data
Pull Kolkata air quality or exam results and turn it into a page a person can actually read.
- 06
Your own idea
Arrive with something you have wanted to build and bring it. That is usually the one that turns out best.
The fee
₹14,750
₹12,500 plus 18% GST, so ₹14,750, payable only on acceptance. Covers the venue, food through the day, ten mentors, prizes and everything on the day. Nothing extra to pay.
Prizes: ₹45,000 for the winning team, ₹15,000 for second.
Organisers
who is running it
Calcutta AI Club
Kolkata’s community for people who build with AI and people who want to learn. In-person sessions, real demos, real work. The floor mentors and the mentor room are the club’s.
Sahil Bahety, Swarnim Modi
The Student Boardroom
Business education for school students, run by consultants who have done the work. The business mentors, the pitch review and half the judging panel are theirs.
Rahul Agarwal, Vedant Kajaria, Manushri Kanoria
Apply
the application
45 seats. We read every application and reply within 48 hours.