Submissions Open: November 13, 2025

Submissions Close: March 8, 2026 at 5:00 PM CT

Final Pitch Event: April 14, 2026

The Review Committee will review all submissions, and the top five candidates will be invited to present their solutions during the Final Pitch Event to a panel of experts who will select the three winning solutions.

Clicking the SUBMIT button will redirect participants to the EasyChair submission portal, where they must log in or create an EasyChair account.

Once logged in, participants will be guided to the submission page, which provides instructions for uploading the required Technical Report (PDF) directly to EasyChair, along with:

• A YouTube link to the demonstration video (maximum 5 minutes).
• A Link to your working prototype.

Participants should ensure that both the video and prototype links are publicly accessible or appropriately permissioned for review.

• Submissions from all the countries are welcome.
• Submissions must be written in English.
• Entrants must be 18 years old or above.
• Submissions must include all technical deliverables - a Small-Scale Prototype, the Technical Report, and the video; partial submissions (missing one or both technical deliverables) will be subject to immediate desk rejection.
• Applications are accepted from individuals or teams.
• Teams must designate a Corresponding Author, who will act as the team lead and main Point-of-Contact (POC) for the interactions with CAPTRS.
• Multiple submissions with the same POC are not allowed; however, individuals are allowed to be part of multiple submitting teams.
• In case of award, the POC will be the recipient of the monetary prize. Further arrangements on the use or redistribution of the monetary prize between the different team members is the sole responsibility of the awarded team's POC.
• CAPTRS employees, CAPTRS contractors, CAPTRS founders, CAPTRS Advisory Roundtable members, and their immediate relatives are not eligible for this challenge.
• By entering your submission, and if you are selected as one of the three winning teams/individuals, you agree with CAPTRS' use of the submission, in part or in its entirety, at the sole discretion of CAPTRS. CAPTRS may use all or part of the submitted IP in its product, which might be sold either for free or at a cost defined by CAPTRS.
• By entering your submission, you agree to CAPTRS' not treating the submissions as confidential and to the sharing of the submitted video integrally or partially through its social media and YouTube channels.
• By entering your submission, you affirm that your submission is original, does not infringe any third-party Intellectual Property, and that you have the authority to grant the license.
• Submissions that clearly violate best practices regarding the ethical and legal use of AI or the rules of the Challenge will be subject to rejection.
• These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Texas, USA, and entrants agree to hold CAPTRS harmless from claims arising from their submission or any violation of these rules.

Joining the CAPTRS Challenge offers several benefits, from the chance to win prizes to the opportunity to interface with a network of experts and build future strategic collaborations, including with the CAPTRS Institute.

Monetary Prizes

The top three submitting teams or individual(s) will receive a monetary award:

• 1st Place: 12000 $
• 2nd Place: 5000 $
• 3rd Place: 3000 $

Strategic Opportunity

The 1st Place winning team will be invited to collaborate with CAPTRS to further develop the solution, including in-kind support from CAPTRS for validation and real-world pilot testing with actual end-users in CAPTRS' partner network.

Recognition

The winning teams will be announced during the final event. The outcomes will be circulated in a major press release and widely shared across the serious gaming, crisis management, and AI research communities.

1. Small-Scale Prototype (Functional Demonstration)

You must submit a working, small-scale prototype of your solution. This prototype should demonstrate the core functionality and user experience of how your AI system assists in a specific phase of the game and exercise design, development, and execution (e.g., narrative authoring, threat injector creation, game mechanic and system creation, participant tutoring and facilitator/instructor tutoring). Submit your prototype through the submission portal on Easychair—provide a link in the portal to a working version of your prototype. If you are not able to provide a link, please contact us at challenge@captrs.org to discuss an alternative approach.

2. A Short Video (maximum 5 minutes)

This should show how the system is used, and the major features. You must include a link to a YouTube video with your submission through the Easychair portal.

3. Comprehensive Technical Report

The report is an integral part of the submission, providing the necessary detail for expert assessment. The document should be uploaded through the submission portal on Easychair.

Format:

A pdf file of maximum 20 pages including references and images, 1.5 spacing, font Arial, font size 10. Colored figures and tables are allowed.

Structure:

The Technical Report must include the following sections:

1. Introduction to the Solution Submitted

a. Overview of the solution submitted and, if this is not a fully new solution and is based on past research or development, provide adequate references to the previous work.

2. Problem and Impact

a. The Problem Addressed: Detail the specific pain points in the current serious game and exercise design, development, and execution process (e.g., length of the process, difficulty modeling the context or behaviours, absence of specific domain knowledge to assist in the process) that your solution targets.

b. Expected impact: Explain the added value compared to what is currently available (existing software, manual processes, etc.) and the expected impact it will have on end-users. What would your solution enable that is currently impossible or impractical for end-users?

3. Solution Architecture and Design

a. Major Design Choices: Explain the rationale behind your choice of the solution architecture, approach, and model selection (e.g., Large Language Model, Generative AI, Reinforcement Learning, multi-agent framework).

b. Technical Solution and Contribution: Provide a detailed overview of the technical components. Clearly articulate the original research or engineering contribution your solution provides.

c. The Augmentation Principle: Precisely describe how your solution supports and elevates human capabilitites, rather than purely automating —entirely or partially—the processes.

d. Assumptions and Limitations: Clearly state all major assumptions made and the known limitations of the current prototype.

4. End-User Usage

a. End-User Scenario: Provide a detailed, step-by-step walk-through of how an end-user would utilize the prototype to perform the tasks with the new assistance of the system.

Only for Finalists:

Finalists will be invited to the pitch event and are required to upload the functioning code for their solution. Finalists will be sent an email with a link to GitHub Classroom, then can accept the assignment and upload their code.

The Review Committee is a team of international experts, who will rigorously evaluate all submissions.

The panel will be composed of:

• Serious game and exercise design and execution experts
• AI and agentic systems experts
• End-users from organizations that run real-world crisis exercises

Solutions will be judged on the following criteria:

• Clarity: The overall clarity of the technical deliverables submitted.
• Utility: The degree to which the solution meaningfully and intuitively augments an end-user human designer's and executor's (e.g., facilitator) capabilities.
• Technical Innovation: The originality and sophistication of the solution presented.
• Technical Robustness: The robustness of the technical solution presented in terms of scalability, maintainability, code reuse, and quality.
• Impact: The immediate and scalable future utility for the target end-users and the field of gaming and exercises for emergency and crisis management.