Students from NOVA IMS achieved a standout performance at the FORGe AI Hackathon, securing the first and second places in both competition challenges.

The event was part of Lisbon AI Week 2025, a nine-day initiative that brought together a wide range of AI-focused activities across institutions and companies in the city. The program included workshops, conferences, tech demos, and competitions, establishing the week as one of the key national gatherings for students, researchers, and professionals working in the field.

Organized by NOVAe, the student entrepreneurship club at NOVA IMS, the event integrated Lisbon AI Week and brought together around 100 participants, selected from more than 250 applications, representing 18 universities across the country.

With 41 NOVA IMS students participating, the school was the most represented institution in the room. Their results confirmed this presence: in both the DareData and Sonant challenges, the winning and runner-up teams included NOVA IMS students.

DareData Challenge

• 1^st place – Hellio (NOVA IMS)
  Jessica: an AI-powered solution for image fraud detection in insurance claims.
  Team: Ishak Soltani, Henri Horlitz, Santiago Ferreira and Eduardo Fernandes.
• 2^nd place – Homodeus (NOVA IMS + FEUP)
  Vora: an AI sales ecosystem that replaces repetitive manual tasks with autonomous, self-improving agents.
  Team: Ivan Romanov, João Panizzutti, Aram Barsegjan and Maria Antunes.

Sonant Challenge

• 1^st place – Hellio (NOVA IMS)
  Jessica: an AI-powered solution for image fraud detection in insurance claims.
  Team: Ishak Soltani, Henri Horlitz, Santiago Ferreira and Eduardo Fernandes.
• 2^nd place – Hacking the Gathering (NOVA IMS)
  VoiceFlow Insurance Assistant: a natural-language conversational system that supports clients and automates back-office routines.
  Team: André Sousa, Mário Simões, Tomás Faria and Salvador Santos.

The hackathon opened with a session led by Professor Leonardo Vanneschi, Full Professor and Director of MagIC at NOVA IMS, followed by presentations from DareData, Ripply, Sonant AI and n8n. The programme also included the panel “The Future of AI in Portugal”, featuring Ivo Bernardo (DareData / NOVA IMS), Clara Matos (Sword Health) and Rodrigo Fernandes (Augusta Labs).

The results highlight the strength of the NOVA IMS community and the quality of the work being developed by its students in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence — fields where the school continues to affirm its leadership.