N.C. Plant Sciences Initiative

2025 N.C. PSI Hackathon
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.

Learn about the 2025 Tracks

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.

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

2025 N.C. PSI Hackathon

The 2025 N.C. PSI Hackathon offers different tracks for participants with various levels of experience to collaboratively create a unique solution from scratch. Learn about the 2025 tracks below!

Come learn about how video game engines can help train AI for real world problems. No prior programming experience required.

Build and modify a simple robot to navigate an obstacle course and collect small crops. Test your engineering skills, outmaneuver the competition, and claim victory in this high-energy, hands-on event.

Hack climate data to identify the top five crops best suited for North Carolina. Develop AI/ML models to analyze crop yields using historical and current climate data, while also identifying major crop failure events in history. Enhance your models with soil data to improve predictions, and forecast the top three most favorable agricultural crops for North Carolina in the future. Bonus points for integrating advanced soil metrics to refine predictive accuracy.

Register for the 2025 N.C. PSI Hackathon

September 12-14, 2025

Ready. Set. Hack!

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.