IQN (NewsDesk): The National Youth Leadership Programme (NYLP) has reported a strong response to its AI Hackathon 2026, which received more than 980 registrations within just four days of opening and now has over 400 participants actively engaged in building projects.
The 12 day event runs from October 14 to 25 and is designed to give young builders practical, hands on experience with modern AI tools. To help participants of every skill level take part, organisers provided a beginner’s toolkit and a live project building demonstration on Lovable. Fifty five percent of those taking part are new to hackathons, and 15 mentorship sessions have been delivered to support them through the process.
Submissions are being evaluated by a panel of 12 judges between October 21 and 23. The jury includes Amir Khan, founder of Digital Gravitas, along with Dr. Zuhair Ahmed, Felix Veroya, Kainat Nadeem, Dr. Ahthasham Sajid, Kainat Tanveer, Umna Iftikhar, Kawther Bouanani, Sidra Khan, M. Shahid Sheraz, Alishba Eman and Chern Y. Loo.
The winning team will receive an internship at Digital Gravitas, which is a collaborating partner alongside The Discarded Debaters. All participants will receive certificates and an invitation to attend as delegates at the Future Opportunities Global Summit on Digital Literacy and Leadership 2026, held online. That summit takes place from October 30 to November 1 on Zoom and is expected to bring together more than 1,000 delegates from around the world. NYLP will then host the Global Youth Fest Week on SDGs 2026 from December 10 to 16, a virtual event expected to draw more than 3,000 delegates.
The hackathon is led by Abeerah Ateeq, Lead of Digital Literacy Affairs at NYLP, with a team that includes Saira Maryam, M. Bilal and Shar Mae Gayangos. NYLP was founded by Khoja Sheraaz Ali, who serves as its chairman and is also the First Coordinator General for Pakistan at the International Human Rights Commission (IHRC RFT) in Geneva.
Established on March 23, 2025, NYLP is a youth focused platform built around leadership, innovation, capacity building, creativity and empowerment, with a particular emphasis on the Sustainable Development Goals, digital literacy and networking. The organisation says it has delivered more than 450 sessions globally with partners and has built a following of over 108,000 on LinkedIn. It is affiliated with the IHRC RFT in Geneva and PISA Pakistan.
