At the beginning of the summer term, summer semester 2026, KIT launched the first Computational & Data Science Hackathon, a practice-oriented intensive course that offered students of the new Computational & Data Science degree program, the opportunity to transfer theoretical knowledge into real research and industry projects. Over five days, teams of four to five students developed independent solutions to open, interdisciplinary problems with the support of supervisors from the SEE subjects (Social, Economic and Engineering Sciences) and industry partners.
The topics ranged from business-related applications such as the analysis of annual reports to learning agents for scientific data extraction and the development of temperature models for the atmosphere. Other projects included the analysis of radio signals and the creation of a program to recognize bird calls. Particularly original was the project "Autonomous robots for search-and-rescue after a reactor accident on Campus North", which skillfully combined robotics and AI methods.
Thanks to the bwJupyter environment, participants were able to access CPU and GPU resources and document their results in interactive Jupyter notebooks. In addition to the application of large data sets and the simulation of complex physical processes, the course required comprehensive project management and team skills. The final presentations not only showed working prototypes, but also a critical reflection of failed approaches - a crucial learning step. The CDS Hackathon will enter its second round in the coming winter term, winter semester.