SoTA Scientific Parallelism Hackathon | With Callosum, Inherent, ARIA + Fractile
Which scientific questions could we investigate better if computation were faster or could run at a greater scale?
The Society for Technological Advancement (SoTA), supported by Callosum, Inherent Labs, ARIA and Fractile, is holding a hackathon to tackle open scientific questions that could benefit from faster computation or experiments at a greater scale.
Contestants will use parallel computing on challenges across biology, chemistry, physics, materials science, astronomy, and Earth sciences – pushing GPUs to their limits and rethinking architectures for this new paradigm.
If you're a scientist, engineer or tinkerer eager to unlock a new era of scientific discovery and rapid experimentation, join us in King's Cross this November.
You're welcome to bring your own challenges. As examples, here are three where we think parallelisation could accelerate progress:
Flood uncertainty: simulate thousands of rainfall scenarios to estimate flood risk, rethinking how grid updates and simulations run in parallel.
Faint asteroid detection: combine telescope images along possible motion paths to reveal objects invisible to individual exposures.
Molecular pose search: analyse millions of molecular positions and orientations within a protein pocket to identify promising interactions for drug discovery.
We'll have access to GPU environments, AI credits, and experienced mentors and advisors to give feedback as projects develop.
The following prizes are available:
First Place: £5,000 + a demo slot at ARIA's 2026 AI for Science Summit (26th November in Manchester)
Second Place: £2,500
Third Place: £1,000
We are also able to provide small travel grants to those coming from outside London. Please note in your application if you would benefit from this support.