The first AI Humanities Star Competition is run by the Lingnan Digital Humanities Alliance. Jinan University’s School of Chinese Language and Literature and the Guangdong Lingnan Digital Humanities Experimental Teaching Centre host it, and HKUST’s Division of Humanities is one of the co-organising units, together with Chinese literature and digital humanities departments from universities across the region.

Entries are open to undergraduates and postgraduates of alliance member and co-organising institutions, in three tracks: an AI humanities research paper of up to 8,000 characters; an AI humanities product, which may be an agent, a dataset, a desktop tool or an online platform submitted with technical notes and a demonstration video; and an AI humanities creative plan that sets out a need, a concept, a delivery path and a promotion plan.

Entries open in April 2026 and close on 20 August 2026. Training on large-model applications and no-code platforms is offered before judging, and a grand prize, first, second and merit prizes are presented at the third “Digital Humanities and Chinese Cultural Heritage” symposium in November. Chaoxing Fanya and Shidian Guji provide the technical support.

Taking part as a co-organiser puts HKUST’s digital humanities teaching into a regional arena. The competition asks students to turn the methods they meet in their courses into work that other institutions can read, review and reuse.