On October 18, 2026, Galammadin Askar, a researcher at the Institute of Smart Systems and Artificial Intelligence (ISSAI) and a student at the Nazarbayev University School of Computing and Artificial Intelligence (SCAI), won the Telecommunications track at HackAlem AI, an international artificial intelligence hackathon recognized by Guinness World Records as the largest AI hackathon.
The event attracted 6,586 applications and brought together 2,415 participants from 21 countries and 129 universities.
Galammadin competed alongside Nursultan Kobeisinov, a master’s student at Nazarbayev University. Their team, PalliPalli, developed an AI-powered solution for Beeline Kazakhstan to optimize tariff marketing campaigns.
The solution analyzes historical data, tests tariff offers on small customer groups, and uses the results to recommend effective campaigns and communication channels. Combining Bayesian statistical learning with optimization algorithms, it accounts for uncertainty in historical data and adaptively determines which offers to test and how many customers to include. This approach helps balance campaign performance, data reliability, and experimentation costs.
During the hackathon, the team developed a working prototype. The project remains at the proof-of-concept stage, with opportunities for further development and collaboration.
For their achievement, the team received a $5,000 cash prize and $5,000 worth of OpenAI credits. Following the hackathon, Galammadin Askar and Nursultan Kobeisinov attended a fireside chat with NVIDIA Founder and CEO Jensen Huang on October 23, 2026.
HackAlem AI was organized in partnership with the Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, Astana Akimat, Astana Hub, Silkroad Innovation Hub, OpenAI, NVIDIA, Arizona State University, and other organizations.
ISSAI congratulates Galammadin Askar and Nursultan Kobeisinov on their achievement.