OpenCV AI Competition 2026, powered by AWS

The challenge

Build vision systems that see, reason, and act with OpenCV 5 and Amazon Web Services (AWS). The competition emphasizes Physical AI and Generative AI systems where visual understanding drives decisions, actions, predictions, or interactions.

Tracks / categories

• Best Use of COOL Award: For projects utilizing the Cloud-Optimized OpenCV Library (COOL) on AWS Graviton for core workloads. Requires reproducible measurements and architectural documentation.
• Agentic Vision Award: For projects where an agent uses OpenCV 5 tools in a perception-decision-action loop, with visual results influencing subsequent actions. A chatbot explaining fixed results does not qualify.

Required tech & constraints

• Core Technologies: OpenCV 5 for image/video analysis, and a meaningful component running on AWS.
• Focus Paths: Optional but encouraged paths include "Cloud-Optimized Vision with COOL" and "Agentic Vision with OpenCV 5".
• Agentic Workflow Qualification: For developer-agent workflows, the agent must iteratively invoke, evaluate, and adjust an OpenCV 5 workload using visual test outputs or runtime measurements to change later tool calls or configurations.
• COOL Award Eligibility: COOL must execute the claimed core workload on AWS Graviton or the Arm component of a hybrid architecture.
• Agentic Vision Award Eligibility: Image or video results must influence a subsequent plan, tool call, action, or request for human approval.
• General: Projects may use any programming language or supporting hardware, provided they meet the core OpenCV 5 and AWS requirements.
• Eligibility: Participants must be above the legal age of majority in their country of residence. All countries/territories are eligible, excluding standard exceptions.

Submission requirements

• Technical Report: Describe the problem, users, architecture, OpenCV 5 implementation, AWS deployment, evaluation, limitations, and responsible-use considerations.
• Code Repository: A public or private judge-accessible code repository or archive. Clear build, deployment, and test instructions are required, along with pinned dependencies.
• Architecture Diagram: Illustrate OpenCV 5 and AWS components, and where relevant, COOL or agent components.
• Demonstration: A working web endpoint or an arranged live screen-share demonstration.
• Demo Video: A public or unlisted judge-accessible video, maximum of five minutes, showcasing the team, application, architecture, and principal results.
• Evaluation Evidence: Appropriate evidence of project evaluation, including failure cases or limitations.
• AWS Compute Grant Proposal (if applicable): Team name, problem statement, impact, planned OpenCV 5 analysis, planned AWS architecture/services, high-level architecture diagram/description, target users, evaluation method, intended focus path (COOL, Agentic Vision, both, neither), and team bio.

Judging Criteria

• Technical execution (30%): Correctness and depth of OpenCV 5 implementation.
• Innovation (20%): Originality and thoughtful use of computer vision or AI.
• Real-world impact (20%): Importance of the problem, usefulness, and potential benefit.
• User experience (10%): Usability, accessibility, and quality of interaction.
• Documentation and presentation (10%): Clarity of report, code, architecture, instructions, and video.
• Cloud delivery, reproducibility, and responsible operation (10%): AWS deployment quality, repeatability, observability, security, and responsible-use practices.

Prizes

• First Place Grand Prize: $5,000 cash
• Second Place: $3,000 cash
• Third Place: $2,000 cash
• Best Use of COOL Award: $1,000 cash
• Agentic Vision Award: $1,000 cash
• Compute Grant for AWS: $150 cash (55 winners)

Bonus / optional points

• Official Slack Channel: Encouraged for collaboration.
• Social Media Hashtag: Use #OpenCVComp26 on social media to share progress.
• AWS Compute Grant Check-in: Teams receiving a grant must complete a 30-minute Zoom check-in during September 21–October 2 to receive the full grant amount. Active development and progress updates are required.
• AWS Free Tier Credits: New AWS customers can receive up to $200 in credits.