SyDAg

Sponsored by

Bayer
48-Hour Innovation Challenge

SyDAgHackathon

Building the future of user-friendly digital agriculture

October 18-19, 2025
225 S University St, West Lafayette, IN 47907, Room ABE1164
Registration Closed - Team Limit Reached

What is this Hackathon?

A 48-hour innovation sprint where teams tackle real agricultural challenges. Choose from five case studies and build solutions that make digital agriculture more accessible and farmer-friendly.

Who Can Join

Students, researchers, professionals, or enthusiasts from any background. All skill levels welcome!

The Challenge

“How to make digital agriculture more user-friendly and adaptable to farmers?”

Event Schedule

Key dates and weekend agenda

Aug 18
Registration Opens
Oct 4
Registration Closes
Oct 18
Hackathon Begins
Oct 19
Preselection Round
Oct 20
Final Pitch & Awards

Competition Flow

Teams work throughout the weekend to develop innovative agricultural technology solutions. On Sunday afternoon, all teams present their solutions to judges in a preselection round. Selected teams then advance to Monday's final pitch competition at the symposium, where they compete for prizes and are ranked by expert judges.

Saturday, October 18th

08:00 am - 09:00 am
Check in & Breakfast
09:00 am - 09:30 am
Opening
09:30 am - 11:30 am
Ideas Pitching & Team Formation
11:30 am - 01:00 pm
Lunch
01:00 pm - 06:00 pm
Working Session

Sunday, October 19th

08:00 am - 09:00 am
Check in & Breakfast
08:00 am - 12:00 pm
Working Session
12:00 pm - 01:00 pm
Lunch
01:00 pm - 04:00 pm
Working Session
04:00 pm - 05:30 pm
Presentation

Prizes & Rewards

Compete for cash prizes and exclusive opportunities

1st Place

$1000

2nd Place

$500

3rd Place

$300

Bonus Opportunities

Mentorship with industry experts
Present at RCAC symposium (Oct 23rd)
Network with potential investors

How to Join

Ready to build the future? Here's how to get started

1

Register Online

Sign up before October 4th

2

Form Your Team

Up to 5 people or get matched by skills

3

Build Solutions

48 hours to create something amazing

4

Present & Win

Pitch your solution to judges

Resources Provided

Everything you need to build amazing solutions

RCAC Computing Resources

Advanced computing power for ML and data processing

Expert Mentorship

Guidance from industry and academic professionals throughout the event

Food & Refreshments

Meals and snacks to keep you energized

Collaborative Workspace

Modern facilities designed for team collaboration

*Don't forget to bring your own laptop!

Powered by RCAC & Anvil

The SyDAg Hackathon is supported by the Rosen Center for Advanced Computing (RCAC) at Purdue University, which offers state-of-the-art computational resources and expert services to empower researchers. As a hub of innovation, RCAC drives performance enhancements and infrastructure development to support data-intensive scientific discovery across disciplines.

The Anvil supercomputer, hosted by RCAC, represents Purdue's most powerful high-performance computing asset. Funded by the NSF and part of the ACCESS program, Anvil provides robust compute capabilities to tens of thousands of researchers nationwide, encouraging experiential learning and fostering future HPC professionals.

5.3 Petaflops Performance

1,000 Dell-AMD nodes with specialized large-memory and GPU partitions

ACCESS Allocation System

Credit-based access through NSF's nationwide HPC program

AI & ML Ready

NVIDIA A100 and H100 GPUs for machine learning workloads

Meet the Judges

Expert judges who will evaluate your innovative solutions and award prizes

Geoffrey Lentner

Geoffrey Lentner

judge

Data Science and HPC Specialist

RCAC, Purdue University

Data scientist and HPC expert with academic background in Astrophysics. Provides advanced user support on data science, data processing, and high-performance computing applications. Prolific builder of tools and automation, consulting with faculty and students on computational projects.