US-Cameroon Team Won Climate AI Hackathon
The TRACE platform will enter a pilot phase after securing first place at the global competition in Cambridge.
Updated on Sept. 24, 2026 in Artificial Intelligence
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A team from the US and Cameroon secured first place at the 2026 AI x City Climate Action Hackathon with their flood-response tool, TRACE. The competition featured 75 project submissions from 11 finalist teams at the University of Cambridge.
Why it matters
The project addresses critical gaps in flood-related emergency responses by using language-processing technology to identify underserved populations during extreme weather. It underscores a growing reliance on AI to improve real-time disaster management in vulnerable regions.
TRACE processes audio recordings in regional languages into structured data to map flood vulnerabilities. It identifies individuals and communities that emergency services have not reached, outperforming the other 10 finalist teams evaluated by the jury.
The players
TRACE
An AI platform developed by a US-Cameroon team that extracts actionable flood data from regional audio recordings.
University of Cambridge
A research university that hosted the final pitch presentations for the 2026 AI x City Climate Action Hackathon.
The details
The platform functions by ingesting spoken local-language audio and converting it into actionable, location-specific data. By isolating unique identifiers within speech, the system pinpoints communities that emergency services have failed to reach, filling a data gap in extreme weather response. The project aims to improve resource allocation during floods, where standard communication channels often collapse.
Timeline
September 22, 2026: The 11 finalist teams presented their pitches at the University of Cambridge.
November 3, 2026: The top three teams will showcase their platforms in Viladecans, Spain.
The Tech Race
The TRACE team will participate in the six-month Build for Earth acceleration program to scale its flood-response technology. This marks a transition from a hackathon prototype to a pilot-ready system designed for real-world disaster coordination.
The TRACE platform will be paired with a partner city to pilot its technology, moving the project closer to operational use. Development will continue over the next six months through an acceleration program, with future integration focused on emergency services in vulnerable regions.
The takeaway
This win signals that low-resource data extraction from regional audio could become a standard tool in disaster resilience. Readers should monitor the November 3 showcase in Viladecans for data on the team's planned pilot site and implementation metrics.
What happens next
The top three teams, including TRACE, I-AdapT, and FloodFactAI, are scheduled to showcase their platforms in Viladecans, Spain, on November 3, 2026.
Further reading
Explore more projects in Artificial Intelligence aimed at solving large-scale environmental challenges.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Uzalendo News.
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