Hackathons
Weekend sprints where interdisciplinary teams build policy tools, dashboards, and reproducible workflows alongside municipal and research partners.
Featured Upcoming Sprint
Open Infrastructure Hackathon
Teams co-develop analytics kits for public works departments, pairing GPU-ready notebooks with lightweight dashboards.
- Challenge Tracks: resilient utilities, digital twins, community data observatories
- Partners: Orlando Digital Twin Lab, Open Research Collective, CS² Professional Chapters
Playbook Snapshot
Each hackathon kit includes facilitator scripts, judging rubrics, Github templates, and a comms cadence so chapters can replicate the sprint.
Before the Sprint
- Challenge design workshop with Research Pilots
- Mentor + judge recruitment using CS² professional roster
- Community brief + dataset release two weeks ahead
During the Sprint
- Technical clinics on reproducible research + HPC onboarding
- Checkpoints for user research, prototyping, and validation
- Office hours hosted by Professional Chapters
After the Sprint
- Project packaging checklist (demo video, repository, brief)
- Partner review, policy alignment, and pilot hand-offs
- Showcase slots at the annual CS² Summit
Program Tie-ins
Professional Chapters
Chapters recruit mentors, host satellite venues, and coordinate judging.
View chapter roles →Research Pilots
Working groups propose datasets, review prototypes, and publish follow-on briefs.
Explore research pilots →Education Studios
University partners turn sprint prompts into credit-bearing studios.
See education pathways →Resources & Templates
Hackathon Logistics Kit
Run-of-show, staffing roles, comms timeline, and budget tracker.
Reproducible Research Sprint
Facilitator guide from the college lesson series—adapted for hackathon judging.
Mentor & Partner Intake
Forms for onboarding volunteers, defining datasets, and aligning demo success criteria.
Past Highlights
Digital Twin Residency
Prototype dashboards piloted with two municipal partners; three teams advanced to residency placements.
See residency outline →Open Data Sprint
High school + undergraduate teams automated data quality checks for transportation datasets.
View sprint lesson →Applied Climate Tools
Focused on reproducible modeling for local climate resilience; outputs folded into the researcher toolkit.
Researcher toolkit →