Objectives This study attempted to verify the effect on the collaborative self-regulation ability by applying total 15 hour of hackathon-based AI making project program to pre-university students. Methods The study targeted 182 pre-university students from H University located in Chungcheongnam-do. A total of 15 hour program including team building were applied, and throughout the program, output was produced through team activities so that collaborative self-regulation ability could be improved. Pre-post questionnaires were administered to determine changes in collaborative self-regulation ability, and the collected data were analyzed using a paired sample t-test for a single group pre-post experiment. Results The results of the paired sample t-test showed significant difference in both entire collaborative self-regulation ability and the sub-areas ‘cognitive domain, behavioral domain, and motivational domain’. Conclusions This confirmed that the hackathon-based AI Making project program is effective in improving the collaborative self-regulation ability of pre-university students.