The CINECA Open Hackathon is a multi-day, intensive virtual event designed to assist computational scientists and researchers in porting, accelerating, and optimizing their applications for various data center architectures, including CPUs and GPUs. The program facilitates collaboration by pairing participating teams with dedicated mentors who have expertise in programming and specific application areas. The primary goal is for teams to achieve significant performance gains and speedups, concluding the event with either an accelerated application or a clear strategic roadmap for leveraging advanced supercomputing resources.
Program Details
• Event Type: Multi-day, intensive hands-on virtual hackathon.
• Primary Objective: To help participants port, accelerate, and optimize applications on high-performance computing architectures.
• Mentorship: Teams are paired with experienced mentors in relevant programming and application domains.
• Expected Outcomes: Participants will leave with accelerated applications, optimized code, or a clear roadmap for future development on supercomputing hardware.
• Target Audience: The event is open to all, with priority acceptance granted to CINECA affiliated scientists and their collaborators.
Key Dates and Schedule
• Application Deadline: April 16, 2026
• Day 0 - Introduction Meeting: June 16, 2026 (10:00 AM - 12:00 PM CEST)
• Day 1 - Event Kick-off: June 30, 2026 (9:00 AM - 5:00 PM CEST)
• Day 2 & 3 - Hacking Sessions: July 6-7, 2026 (9:00 AM - 5:00 PM CEST)
• Day 4 - Final Work & Presentations: July 8, 2026 (9:00 AM - 5:00 PM CEST)
Logistics and Format
• Venue: The event will be hosted entirely online.
• Time Zone: All scheduled activities are in Central European Summer Time (CEST).
• Communication Platforms: Communication will be managed through Zoom, Slack, and email.
• Event Structure: Teams will collaborate with mentors in private breakout rooms and present daily progress updates (SCRUMS) in the main virtual room.
• Compute Resources: All attendees will be provided with access to a GPU cluster for the duration of the hackathon.
Prerequisites for Participation
• Team Knowledge: Applicants are expected to be proficient with the code or project they intend to work on.
• Team Commitment: A minimum of three members per team must participate for the entire duration of the event to remain eligible.
• Project Licensing: All projects must have a license. Permissive-style open-source licenses such as BSD, MIT, or Apache 2.0 are preferred to facilitate mentor pairing.
This hackathon offers a unique opportunity for research and scientific teams to advance their computational projects with expert guidance and dedicated resources. Teams accepted into the program will receive detailed information regarding registration, mentor introductions, and access to the computing cluster. All participants are expected to review the attendee guide upon acceptance.