Primary school students spent 900 million credits building apps at the AI Olympiad
The first Czech AI Olympiad for primary schools brought together more than 50 schools, which built over 200 projects with Macaly.
Macaly
A strategy game where you run your own city. A calculator that adds up what your daily habits really cost you. An idea-keeping app with its own AI assistant. These aren't pitches from a startup accelerator. They're the winning projects, and they were built by students still in primary school.
The first Czech AI Olympiad for primary schools was organized by AI dětem, a nonprofit that has been helping Czech schools keep pace with artificial intelligence since 2022. The competition was open to students aged roughly 12 to 15 and wrapped up on June 18, 2026, with an awards ceremony at Next Zone in Prague's Smíchov district.
The brief was simple: build a meaningful, working app using vibe coding. Students worked on their apps during class, and anyone who got hooked could keep going in later lessons or at home.
“I'm glad we could show these kids a new way to turn an idea into something that actually works. It's a skill that stays with them, wherever life takes them.”
To build their apps, the students used Macaly, a Czech tool for creating websites and apps with AI. Macaly gave every participant free credits, and the projects used nearly 900 million of them in total.
The turnout caught even the organizers off guard. More than 50 schools took part and submitted over two hundred projects. A jury of students from the Smíchov Secondary Technical School picked fifteen finalists and three winning teams, and promised several of the teams long-term mentoring along the way.
The winning projects
1st place: City of the Future
Základní škola Kamenice
A strategy game where players build and run their own futuristic city. They have to balance the economy, transport, the environment, and how happy their citizens are, discovering as they go that every decision has consequences. The jury was won over by the concept, the blend of fun and learning, and the ambition to show just how hard running a modern society really is.
2nd place: Life Price Calculator
Gymnázium Teplice
An app that works out what our everyday habits actually cost us, in both time and money. It takes data on work, sleep, phone use, or wasteful spending and calculates the long-term impact, then compares it against the Czech average. The jury was impressed by the ambitious scope, the polished execution, and the push to nudge users toward better choices.
3rd place: Second Brain
Základní škola Praha 4
A digital space for keeping ideas, thoughts, and inspiration in one place. Alongside notes, it offers a journal, a calendar, brainstorming maps, a reading corner, and even an AI assistant that only emerged during development. The jury liked how a simple notebook gradually grew into a full tool for organizing your thinking.
You'll find the complete list of submitted apps, including the finalists in the Startup Lab category, on the AI Olympiad website.
