Zoho Corporation, a global technology company, today announced the five teams that have reached the finals in From The Ground Up, Zoho's first-ever AI hackathon that addresses problems such as wildfire risk, water scarcity and agricultural instability in areas of California and Texas. The competition, which was open to students currently enrolled at a preselected list of rural and rural-serving universities where traditional AI resources and funding are often scarce, continues Zoho's efforts toward a technology-enabled rural revival.
Zoho announces five finalist teams for From The Ground Up AI hackathon
First-ever AI hackathon addressing rural environmental crises
Open to students at rural and rural-serving universities in California and Texas
Projects focus on wildfire risk, water scarcity, and agricultural instability
Finalist event at Zoho's Pleasanton office on September 22, 2026
Winning team receives $15,000 prize
"For decades, one of Zoho's guiding principles was the belief that world-class software can be built from anywhere, including rural communities. It's the reason why we've had an office in a rural village in Tenkasi, India for over a decade, and why we continue to discover new talent in Texas's Rio Grande Valley," says Raju Vegesna, Zoho's Chief Evangelist. "We have long heard vague suggestions towards the transformative potential of AI to solve global problems from Silicon Valley CEOs, but by providing tools and financial support to dedicated students from rural communities, From The Ground Up puts them into action, while continuing Zoho's longstanding commitment to supporting the places beyond our major cities."
AI technology is often cited as a revolutionary tool to address modern societal problems, yet these tools are often developed in labs far away from the communities that need it most, and are often too expensive for anyone but the largest players to implement. From The Ground Up was created to help support those with first-hand knowledge of the issues facing rural communities, as Zoho believes that the best AI solutions for these areas are built within them, not handed down to them.
Team NoNiMo (Texas A&M University—Corpus Christi) - Water Resource Management
Students: Noah Wilborn, Misha Stegall, and Mohammed Asad Khan
Solution: BASIN is a locally run, transparent AI tool that generates and ranks auditable drought "what-if" scenarios from public precipitation data, helping Region N planners, hydrologists, and rural water providers prioritize which worsening drought conditions deserve costly formal hydrologic modeling.
Team Land Memory AI (Austin Community College—Round Rock) - Water Resource Management, Wildfire & Land Stewardship, Agricultural Sustainability
Students: Kuralay Biehler and Lazzat Duiseshova
Solution: Land Memory AI is a mobile/web tool that helps Texas farmers and rural landowners combine their personal land knowledge—historical records, photos, and observations—with environmental data to make more informed land, water, and wildfire-preparedness decisions, without replacing their judgment.
Team Dos Ojos (University of Texas Rio Grande Valley) - Agricultural Sustainability
Students: Edgar Bello Gonzalez and Eduardo Bello Gonzalez
Solution: Dos Ojos is an AI-driven crop-stress monitoring tool that pairs free Sentinel-2 satellite imagery with targeted drone flights to give small Rio Grande Valley farmers simple, bilingual SMS guidance on where to direct scarce irrigation water during drought.
Team CoderOP (Texas A&M University—Corpus Christi) - Water Resource Management
Students: Maharshi Barot and Saumya Patel
Solution: Coder OP is building an AI tool that uses nighttime flow logs and free satellite imagery to flag likely leak zones for rural, under-resourced Texas utilities, converting that into a plain-language worklist with estimated gallons/day lost, cost, and location.
Team Irriga (East Texas A&M University) - Water Resource Management
Students: Jessica Parra Serena and Thi Xuan My Tran
Solution: Team Irriga is developing a dual-model AI system that uses existing soil, well, and weather sensor data from NPGCD to give small Texas Panhandle farmers access to quality irrigation advice both online and offline.
Members of the public are encouraged to vote for their favorite of the five From The Ground Up finalists. The winner of this year's hackathon will be determined by a team of judges on September 22nd, where public votes will count for a portion of each team's overall score during the finalist event. Voting is open now through September 22nd at 9 AM PT.
About Zoho Corporation
With 55+ apps in nearly every major business category, Zoho Corporation is one of the world's most prolific technology companies. Zoho's global headquarters is in Chennai, India, with its U.S. headquarters in Austin, Texas. Zoho is privately held and profitable, with 90+ offices across 28 countries and more than 19,000 employees worldwide.
