Belgrade Open School organised the AI4Society Hackathon for Young Innovators – Digital Solutions for Local Problems, which took place in Belgrade from 18th to 20th of September 2026. The hackathon brought together around 40 young people from Šabac, Bačka Palanka, Novi Pazar, Belgrade, Niš, Novi Sad and other cities across Serbia.

Over 48 hours, 11 teams from Serbia developed digital and AI solutions for challenges identified by the Municipality of Pirot. The teams worked on solutions aimed at improving citizens’ access to municipal e-services, developing a dashboard for executive reporting and decision-making, and supporting smart waste management and citizen engagement.

The regional AI4Society competition continued one week later with the hackathon in Tirana, held from 24 to 26 September, which brought together 24 teams: 10 teams from Kosovo* and 14 teams from Albania. In total, 35 teams took part in the Belgrade and Tirana hackathons, bringing together more than 120 young innovators.

After both hackathons were completed, the jury reviewed all solutions together and made its decision based on the pre-defined evaluation criteria. A total of six teams were selected: three winning teams, each receiving 2,000 USD and mentoring support, and three runner-up teams that achieved notable results and will receive mentoring support to further develop their ideas.

Among the winning teams is the Serbian team rm -rf /local/issues, composed of Nikola Dević, David Marković and Aleksandar Bošnjak, which won first place in Belgrade. Mentoring support from Serbia was also awarded to Themis, composed of Denis Dolovac, Nikola Pačarić and Marko Vujović, whose solution was recognised as particularly promising for further development.

The AI4Society hackathons showed that young people have the knowledge, creativity and motivation to use technology and artificial intelligence to address challenges faced by local communities.

The Belgrade hackathon was organised by the Belgrade Open School, in cooperation with NALED and Reputeo, with the support of Open Society Foundations – Western Balkans, within the project AI4Society - Connecting Youth Innovation with Municipal Digital and Energy Transition in the Western Balkans.