CMD-IT GenAI Student Hackaton

The first Generative AI Student Hackathon was held at Tapia 2025, organized by a committee of professionals from University of Illinois, Chicago, Argonne National Laboratory, Recurse Center, AMD, and GXA. The Hackathon will continue at Tapia 2026.

Participants seated at round tables work on laptops during the GenAI Hackathon 2025 at the Tapia 2025 computing conference. A large screen displays event information in the background.

Five people sit around a round table using laptops, appearing focused and engaged in work or discussion in a conference room setting.

The goals of the Hackathon are the following:

Provide an opportunity for students to gain experience with GenAI while being creative in developing solutions to challenge problems provided by Tapia Conference partners.
Work with a team of 6-8 students from different universities, different backgrounds, and different skills.
Teams are limited to no more than two students from the same institution and no more than two graduate students.

The teams are formed at the start of the Hackathon. Teams have four hours to develop an innovative solution to a challenge problem.

Teams are reviewed by a panel of professionals from industry, academia, and government agencies. The review is based upon a short video of the working solutions, along with a short presentation about the technical details of the innovative solution.

Several people sit at round tables working on laptops and talking in a conference or workshop setting.

Three people sit at a round table engaged in discussion, laptops open in front of them, with others working at nearby tables in a conference room.

Details about the Tapia 2025 GenAI Student Hackathon winners can be found in the Tapia 2025 Generative AI Student Hackathon Winners.

We invite industry, academia, and government agencies to
partner with Tapia 2026.

and provide challenge problems for the hackathon.

The Tapia 2026 GenAI Student Hackathon is sponsored by Capital One.