N.C. Plant Sciences Initiative

2025 N.C. PSI Hackathon
SAVE THE DATE: September 12-14, 2025

The N.C. PSI Hackathon is an annual event that gives undergraduates, graduate students and postdoctoral scholars the chance to demonstrate their skills in a 3-day competition to solve ag tech related challenges for prizes and, of course, bragging rights.

With the goal to accelerate agricultural research using data analytics, machine learning, and hardware fabrication, our annual Hackathons have multiple tracks and are inclusive to participants with various levels of experience.

Impactful ideation. Authentic collaboration. Innovative solutions. That’s the N.C. Plant Sciences Initiative (PSI) Hackathon experience.

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Get Inspired!
Hear from 2023 organizers about why the N.C. PSI Hackathon is a unique opportunity.

Experience

Hackathon participants enhance their technical skills through ideation, experimentation and innovation.

Advancement

Hackathon participants are offered unique opportunities, include industry networking and pre-event workshops.

Prizes

If bragging rights are not enough, Hackathon judges will award multiple prizes for each track at the end of the event.

2024 N.C. PSI Hackathon

The 2024 N.C. PSI Hackathon offered different tracks for participants with various levels of experience to collaboratively create a unique solution from scratch. Learn about the 2024 tracks below!

Distinguishing crops from weeds is a core target for many companies who make robots or precision sprayers for weed control. Participants will label crops and weeds and then build an algorithm to do this automatically. No coding is required and the only tool you will need is your browser.

**First Place:** Balihar Kaur, *crop science*, and Henry Sederoff, *environmental science*

***Second Place:*** Shreya Dey, *biological sciences*; Vyomi Shah, *computer science*; and Jonah Monk, *horticultural science*

Plant recognition is needed for many computer vision tasks. Participants will see how the robot outside the Plant Sciences Building at NCSU images plants to create hundreds of thousands of ‘virtual assets’ to assemble synthetic images. The goal is to create as realistic images as possible and then train a model capable of segmenting, detecting, or classifying mixed species scenes.

**First Place:** Prathmesh Deshpande, *computer science*; Viraj Sanap, *computer science*; Artharva Pansare, computer science; and Sina Baghbanijam, *electrical engineering*

***Second Place:*** Atharv Oak, *computer engineering*

Create cutting-edge agricultural sensors and connect them to the Internet of Things. Utilize machine learning algorithms to analyze the gathered data and build a dynamic dashboard to visualize findings.

**First Place:** Sai Srikar Puppala, *operations research*; Steve Amerige, *horticultural science*; Bhavya Jain, *electrical engineering*; and Aditya Chitlangia, *computer science*

***Second Place:*** Jin Xu, *chemical and biomolecular engineering*; Brett Timmons, *horticultural science*; Soundharya Khanapur, *computer science*; and Nitin Dhevar, *computer science*

View and download photos from the 2024 Hackathon here!

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N.C. PSI Hackathon Supporters

Supporting the N.C. PSI Hackathon is a unique networking and recruitment tool for industry companies and a great opportunity to promote your organization! Thank you to the 2024 N.C. PSI Hackathon Supporters!

Interested in supporting the N.C. PSI Hackathon?

Contact Dinah Schuster for details

Three people making a presentation in front of a poster that says "Hackathon"

Creating Cutting-Edge Ag Tech

NC State students and postdocs tackle artificial intelligence challenges in agriculture in the N.C. Plant Sciences Initiative’s fast-paced Hackathon competition.

Third Annual N.C. PSI Hackathon Brings in Record Numbers

The third annual N.C. PSI Hackathon brought in a record 74 student and postdoc participants to compete across three days and three tracks for prizes and bragging rights.