TL;DR
Welcome back to Dev Opportunity Radar.
This is a weekly series where I share opportunities, resources, communities, and interesting finds that I come across, with the goal of helping people discover things they might otherwise miss.
This week's edition features the Verci Fellowship, Nebius x NVIDIA Global AI Hackathon, and SheBuilds on Lovable, along with Stanford CS336: Language Modeling from Scratch, a course for understanding how language models are built from the ground up.
If you're new to the series, you can also browse previous editions, search past opportunities, and explore Community Finds, Reader Updates, and Resources Worth Checking Out on the Dev Opportunity Radar website. I've also written a short post about why I built it. You'll find links to both at the end of this article.
This week's ๐ Community Finds section features two opportunities shared by Dhruv Jani (@dj29). Thank you, Dhruv, for sharing the Snapdragonยฎ AI Lab Build & Present Challenge and the SerpApi India Hackathon 2026. I always enjoy seeing readers help others discover opportunities they might otherwise have missed, and I hope this section continues to grow.
If you've discovered something through the Radar, I'd love to hear about it. Whether you applied to an opportunity, attended an event, joined a community, completed a program, built something, or found a resource you hadn't seen before, I'd be happy to feature your experience in a future ๐ Reader Updates section (with your permission).
And if you've come across an opportunity, resource, community, program, event, or anything else you think deserves more attention, feel free to share it in the comments.
If I feature one of your ๐ Community Finds in a future edition, I'll always make sure to credit you. If you discovered it, that recognition belongs to you.
Table of Contents
โก Quick Scan
Opportunities
| Opportunity | Organization | Type | Format | Deadline |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Verci Fellowship | Verci | Fellowship | Hybrid | October 1 |
| Nebius x NVIDIA Global AI Hackathon | Nebius ร NVIDIA | Hackathon | Online | October 30 |
| SheBuilds on Lovable | Lovable | Build Event | Virtual | September 27 |
Resource Highlight
| Resource | Why Check It Out |
|---|---|
| Stanford CS336: Language Modeling from Scratch | An advanced course covering the process of building language models from the ground up, including Transformers, training, GPU optimization, scaling, data, evaluation, and alignment. |
Community Finds
| Shared By | Find | Type | Format |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dhruv Jani (@dj29) | Snapdragon AI Lab Build & Present Challenge | AI Challenge | Online |
| Dhruv Jani (@dj29) | SerpApi India Hackathon 2026 | Hackathon | Online & Async |
๐ A quick note: I spend a lot of time researching and verifying every opportunity before featuring it in Dev Opportunity Radar. However, deadlines, eligibility, program details, and application requirements can change after publication. Before applying, please take a few minutes to visit the official program page, review the latest information, and confirm that you're eligible.
๐ Still Open From Previous Editions
Before we get into this week's opportunities, here are a few from the two most recent editions that are still accepting applications.
As the Radar has grown, there are now quite a few opportunities spread across the different editions. I used to keep all the still-open opportunities here, but I don't think repeating a long list every week makes the editions easier to read.
So I keep this section to the two most recent editions as a quick reminder of opportunities you may have missed. Older opportunities are still available on the Dev Opportunity Radar website, where you can browse the full collection and use the filters to find something specific.
I've already covered the opportunities below in detail, so I won't repeat everything here. If any of them catch your attention, you can go back to the original edition for the full overview, eligibility details, and application links.
| Opportunity | Organization | Type | Format | Deadline | Featured In |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Code in Place X | Stanford University | Programming Course | Virtual | September 28 | Edition #17 |
| Build, Ship, Shape: Amazon Developer Hackathon | Amazon | Hackathon | Online | October 24 | Edition #17 |
| Dev3Pack Hackathon | Dev3Pack | Hackathon | Hybrid | October 30 | Edition #17 |
| AI for Education Fellowship | Worldwide Studios | Fellowship | Virtual (Global) | Rolling | Edition #16 |
| AWS Student Rewards | AWS Builder Center | Student Rewards Program | Online (Global) | Open | Edition #16 |
๐ This Week's Opportunities
Here are a few opportunities I came across this week that I thought were worth sharing.
๐ Verci Fellowship
Who it's for: Young builders, students, recent graduates, and people building projects or communities.
What it's about: The Verci Fellowship is a one-semester program bringing together 20 people who are building startups, projects, and communities.
The fellowship focuses heavily on community and mentorship. Each fellow is matched with a mentor, joins a small weekly mastermind group, and gets access to office hours and workshops with founders, operators, and investors.
There is also a Catskills retreat in November where the cohort spends a weekend together, along with support for fellows who want to organize things in their own communities such as hackathons, dinners, or demo nights.
Another part I found interesting is the focus on building in public. The program includes workshops and accountability groups to help fellows share what they are working on and actually ship something during the semester.
The fellowship is open to people who are currently in college, on leave, dropped out, or recently graduated, with the program looking for people roughly under 24 who have a strong interest in technology, are creative and curious, and are already building things on campus or in their communities.
Applications are rolling, but the current application form says applications close on October 1, 2026 at midnight PST.
Format: Hybrid / Online + New York and LA opportunities
Cohort: 20 fellows
Program: October โ December 2026
Application Deadline: October 1, 2026 at midnight PST
Eligibility: Currently in college, on leave, dropped out, or recently graduated; roughly under 24
What you get: Individual mentorship, weekly mastermind groups, workshops and office hours, Catskills retreat, community/event support, cohort Slack, building-in-public support, and optional opportunity matching
Application: Name and background + social profiles + semester schedule + work/portfolio + short answers + 1โ2 minute personal video
๐ Apply to the Verci Fellowship
๐ Nebius x NVIDIA Global AI Hackathon
Who it's for: AI builders, ML engineers, developers, founders, and anyone interested in building practical AI systems.
What it's about: The Nebius x NVIDIA Global AI Hackathon is a global online hackathon where participants build an AI project using NVIDIA open source models on Nebius Token Factory or Nebius AI Cloud.
There are four main tracks, so you can choose the type of project that fits what you want to build:
- Coding and Agentic Engineering: Build coding agents and developer tools.
- Best Apps and Agents: Build an application or agent designed to solve a real problem.
- Personal AI: Build a private, always-on AI assistant with memory, skills, and access to your chosen tools and information.
- Physical AI: Build robotics, IoT, or other systems that can sense and act in the physical world.
The main requirement is that your submission runs on Nebius Token Factory or Nebius AI Cloud and uses at least one NVIDIA open source model.
I wanted to include this one because there is quite a bit of room in what you can build. You can work on an AI agent, developer tool, personal assistant, application, robotics project, or something else that fits one of the tracks.
There are also Builders & Brews events in different cities where participants can join technical onboarding, workshops, team formation, build sessions, and get feedback while working on their projects.
For the submission, you'll need a working project, public code repository, project description, working demo or test build, and a public demo video of three minutes or less. Your repository also needs an open source license and setup instructions.
There is $50,000+ in prizes, including a $20,000 grand prize, $10,000 for second place, $6,000 for third place, track prizes, city awards, and additional prizes.
Format: Online | Global
Deadline: October 30, 2026 at 10:30 PM IST
Tracks: Coding & Agentic Engineering | Best Apps & Agents | Personal AI | Physical AI
Requirement: Use Nebius Token Factory or Nebius AI Cloud + at least one NVIDIA open source model
Submission: Working project + public repository + demo + โค3-minute demo video
Prize Pool: $50,000+ in prizes
๐ Join the Hackathon
๐ SheBuilds on Lovable
Who it's for: Women 18+ who have an idea they want to turn into a working product, including students, first-time makers, founders, and experienced developers.
What it's about: SheBuilds on Lovable is a global community of women building with AI through virtual build events, webinars, and community spaces.
Season 04 is a 72-hour virtual build event where participants use Lovable to turn an idea into a working product alongside mentors, community champions, and a few hundred other builders.
You don't need to know how to code to apply. You can come with an idea, sketches, research, or a plan, and the actual building starts when the event kicks off.
You can participate solo or with one co-builder. Around 400 participants are expected to be selected for this season.
There are also live prep sessions from October 6โ14 covering things like figuring out what to build, making your product stand out, and getting it in front of people. Accepted participants also get Lovable credits to use during the build.
The build starts on October 15 and submissions close on October 17. The organizers will announce the prizes at kickoff, so the prize details for Season 04 have not been announced yet.
Format: Online | 72-hour build event
Build Dates: October 15โ17, 2026
Applications Close: September 27, 2026 at 11:59 PM PT
Decisions: October 5, 2026
Eligibility: Women 18+ with an idea they want to build
Team Size: Solo or 1 co-builder
Cost: Free | Coding Required: No
Expected Cohort: Around 400 participants
Prep Sessions: October 6โ14
Prizes: To be announced at kickoff
๐ Apply for Season 04
๐ Resources Worth Checking Out
Not every useful find comes with an application deadline.
Here's one resource worth checking out this week.
Stanford CS336: Language Modeling from Scratch
If you want to go beyond using LLMs and actually understand how language models are built, Stanford's CS336: Language Modeling from Scratch is a really interesting resource to explore.
The course walks through the process of building language models from the ground up, including data collection and cleaning, tokenization, Transformer architecture, training, GPU optimization, scaling, evaluation, inference, alignment, and reasoning.
What makes this course different is how implementation-heavy it is. The assignments have students actually build components of a Transformer language model, train a small language model, optimize attention with Triton, work with distributed training, process pretraining data, and apply post-training methods such as supervised fine-tuning and reinforcement learning.
The course provides lecture recordings, assignments, lecture materials, and code, so you can follow along even if you're not enrolled at Stanford.
One important thing to know before jumping in: this is an advanced course. The course expects proficiency in Python, experience with deep learning and systems optimization, familiarity with PyTorch, and a foundation in calculus, linear algebra, probability, statistics, and machine learning.
You will also be writing a lot of code, so this is much more suitable if you already have a solid technical foundation and want to understand the engineering behind language models.
Format: Self-paced online resource
Focus: Language models, Transformers, training, systems optimization, scaling, data, evaluation, alignment, and reasoning
Level: Advanced
Prerequisites: Python + PyTorch/deep learning + systems optimization + calculus + linear algebra + probability/statistics + machine learning
Includes: Lectures + recordings + assignments + code + course materials
๐ Explore the CS336 Course Website
๐ฅ Watch the Lecture Recordings
๐ Community Finds
One of my favorite things about this series has been seeing people share opportunities, communities, and resources that others might not have discovered otherwise.
This week, Dhruv Jani (@dj29) sent me two opportunities that I thought were worth including:
๐ Snapdragon AI Lab Build & Present Challenge
Shared by Dhruv Jani
The Snapdragonยฎ AI Lab Build & Present Challenge by Qualcomm is an individual online challenge for participants in India to build or propose an AI solution designed, developed, or optimized for Snapdragon-powered HP PCs.
You can submit a new project or significantly modify an existing project by adding AI models from Qualcomm AI Hub or other open-source platforms.
The challenge is open to Indian residents aged 18+ who own a Snapdragon-powered laptop.
Format: Online | Individual
Deadline: September 30, 2026 at 11:59 PM IST
Eligibility: India residents, 18+
Requirement: Snapdragon-powered laptop
Rewards: HP laptops, Qualcomm internship opportunity for the first award subject to eligibility, executive mentorship, and showcase opportunities
๐ Learn More & Apply
๐ SerpApi India Hackathon 2026
Shared by Dhruv Jani
The SerpApi India Hackathon 2026 is an online and asynchronous hackathon where participants can build an app, AI agent, or open-source integration using live search data from SerpApi.
You can participate solo or in a team of up to five, use any programming language or framework, and work from anywhere in India. Existing projects are also allowed if the submitted version makes meaningful use of SerpApi.
There are six project tracks, and AI-assisted development is allowed.
The total prize value is โน3 lakh+, including cash awards, SerpApi credits, track awards, community awards, and credits for every valid submission.
Format: Online & asynchronous
Deadline: October 10, 2026 at 11:59 PM IST
Eligibility: India residents, 18+
Team Size: 1โ5 members
Requirement: Meaningful use of SerpApi search data
Prize Value: โน3 lakh+
Submission: Public GitHub repository + project description + demo video under 3 minutes
๐ Submit Your Project
Thank you to Dhruv Jani (@dj29) for thinking of the Radar and sharing this one with the community. It really means a lot ๐
I'd love for this section to keep growing.
If you've come across an opportunity, fellowship, grant, hackathon, conference, community, resource, or anything else you think more people should know about, feel free to share it in the comments.
If I feature it in a future edition, I'll always make sure to credit you. If you discovered it, that recognition belongs to you.
One small request: If you're sharing an opportunity, please avoid posting raw URLs directly in the comments. DEV sometimes filters them before I get a chance to see them.
A short description alongside the link makes it much easier for me to review and potentially feature it in a future edition.
๐ Reader Updates
I'm looking forward to this section gradually growing over time, and I'd still love to hear from you.
One of my favorite parts of writing Dev Opportunity Radar has been hearing from people who discovered something they otherwise might have missed.
If you discovered an opportunity through the radar, applied to something, joined a community, attended an event, or simply found a resource you hadn't seen before, I'd genuinely love to hear about it.
You don't need to have been accepted or have a big success story to share. Sometimes simply discovering the right opportunity at the right time is already a win.
If you'd like to share an update, feel free to leave a comment on this edition. With your permission, I may feature it in a future ๐ Reader Updates section and tag you so other readers can celebrate your journey too.
I hope this section gradually becomes a place where we can celebrate those stories together, one update at a time.
๐ Until Next Friday
Before I go, I just want to say thank you.
Every week, I spend time searching for opportunities, resources, and communities that I think deserve a little more attention. But one of my favorite parts of this series isn't the research. It's seeing what happens after an edition is published.
Seeing someone discover an opportunity, apply to a program, share a resource, suggest a Community Find, or come back to tell us what they learned reminds me why I started Dev Opportunity Radar in the first place.
The goal has always been simple:
Help people discover opportunities they otherwise might have missed.
Thanks to all of you, it feels like we're doing exactly that.
Whether you've been reading since the very first edition or this is your first time here, thank you for being part of the journey. Every comment, suggestion, and shared opportunity helps make this series better than I could build on my own.
If you ever come across an opportunity, resource, event, community, or anything else you think deserves more attention, I'd love for you to share it in the comments. And if Dev Opportunity Radar helped you discover something exciting, I'd love to hear that too.
Thank you for reading, for sharing, and for helping make this our radar, not just mine.
I'll be back next Friday with more opportunities, resources, and Community Finds.
Until then, take care, and I hope you discover something amazing this week ๐
๐ Dev Opportunity Radar Website
If this is your first time discovering the series, you can explore every edition, browse opportunities by category, discover Community Finds, and catch up on Reader Updates on the Dev Opportunity Radar website.
๐ Website
I also wrote a short post about why I built the website and the journey behind it.
๐ Website Launch Post
Top comments (11)
Hema, I liked that the Verci section points out applications are rolling but the form closes October 1. That kind of detail can save someone from missing a deadline.
For future editions, I'd like to see more resources like CS336, especially advanced ones with recordings and assignments you can work through without enrolling. They stay useful after the week's deadlines pass.
More hackathons with clear submission requirements like the Nebius one would help too. Knowing upfront that it needs a public repo, an open source license, and a demo video of three minutes or less makes it easier to judge whether it's something you can realistically take on. โบ๏ธ
Thank you so much, Shubhra! Iโm really happy those details were useful! And yes, Iโll definitely keep the CS336 kind of resources in mind for future editions ๐
Good line up as always!
Thank you so much, Francis ๐
I see opportunity discovery as a system rather than a simple search activity.
Discover โ filter โ evaluate โ match with your current path โ apply โ execute โ measure the result โ use what you learned to find the next opportunity.
A good opportunity radar is useful because it improves the discovery layer. But the real advantage comes from what happens after discovery.
Hey Sina, I see what you mean about collecting opportunities becoming a goal by itself. Thatโs actually one of the reasons I keep the Radar limited.
I could add 10 or 20 opportunities every week, but I donโt really want to add things just to make the list bigger. I usually keep it to 3 opportunities and 1 resource. I know not everyone is looking for an opportunity every week, so even if none of those 3 are useful to someone that week, I still want them to find something useful in the post, which is why I include a resource too.
And I also donโt want to just put a bunch of links there. I try to add enough context so someone can look at an opportunity and understand what it is, who itโs for, what they need to do, and then decide for themselves if itโs worth spending more time on.
For me, I think the readerโs time matters more than having a long list.
But I do think the discovery part is useful too. Before I started the Radar, I used to find some really good opportunities weeks after they had already been available, just because I didnโt know where to look. So thatโs also a big part of why I started doing this.
After someone finds an opportunity, what they do with it is obviously up to them. They might apply, build something, learn from it, or maybe decide itโs not for them right now. I agree that the action part is where things really start.
I guess I just see the Radar as helping with that first step. Making it a little easier to find things without trying to collect every opportunity out there.
And if I misunderstood what you meant, or if my comment came across differently than I meant it, I am sorry. I just wanted to explain how I look at the discovery side from my experience with building the Radar.
Yes, I think we are actually describing two connected systems rather than disagreeing.
Your Radar:
Search โ Filter โ Context โ Present
This reduces the discovery cost and helps people understand what an opportunity is, who it is for, what they need to do, and whether it is worth their time.
The system I had in mind:
Discover โ Filter โ Evaluate โ Match โ Choose โ Apply โ Execute โ Measure โ Learn
This starts where discovery begins and focuses on what happens after someone finds an opportunity.
So I see them as two layers:
"Opportunity Radar โ Discovery & Understanding"
"Opportunity System โ Decision, Action & Learning"
And I completely agree that more links do not automatically create more value. Three relevant opportunities with useful context can be far more valuable than twenty random links.
The interesting part is that both systems reduce a different kind of friction: yours reduces the cost of "finding the right opportunity", while the second reduces the distance between "finding it and actually doing something with it"
Together, they become a much stronger opportunity pipeline.
There is another interesting problem with opportunity lists: collecting opportunities can become a goal by itself.
The question isn't how many opportunities you can find. It is which ones actually fit your current direction, skills and next challenge.
Sometimes the best decision is not applying to ten opportunities, but choosing one that connects directly to where you want to go next.
I think an opportunity becomes much more valuable when you turn it into a challenge rather than just saving the link. A hackathon, fellowship or course can sit in a bookmarks folder forever. The real value starts when you ask: Can I actually take this opportunity and turn it into a result?
For me, discovering an opportunity is only step one. The interesting part is what you build, learn or prove through it.
What opportunities, communities, grants, fellowships, hackathons, conferences, or resources have you come across recently that deserve more attention?
I'm always looking for things to include in future editions, so feel free to share anything interesting you've found. If I feature one of your finds in a future edition, I'll always make sure to credit you.
If you discovered an opportunity through the radar, applied to something, joined a community, attended an event, or simply found something you hadn't seen before, I'd genuinely love to hear about that too. With your permission, I'd be happy to feature your update in a future ๐ Reader Updates section.
Small request: If you are sharing a link, please avoid posting raw URLs directly. DEV sometimes filters them before I get a chance to see the comment.
Also, Weโre already 18 editions in!
I wanted to ask you all something. What kind of opportunities would you love to see more of in the Radar?
More Fellowships? Hackathons? AI opportunities? Learning programs? Communities? Or something completely different?
I canโt promise Iโll be able to find more of a specific type, since it really depends on whatโs available and whether I think itโs actually useful enough to include. But if you tell me what youโd like to see more of, Iโll definitely keep it in the back of my mind while Iโm searching each week.
Even if just a few of you share what youโre looking for, it would mean a lot to me.