IAU OAD and Partners to Support 13 Hackathons Globally in 2025 under the Hack4Dev collaboration

Big data hackathon

Hack4dev, a collaboration between the IAU OAD and partners, is pleased to announce that it will host 13 Data Science hackathons across 12 countries between February and April 2025. Hackathons will take place in Kenya, Ghana, Ethiopia, Botswana, South Africa, Madagascar, Rwanda, Namibia, Mozambique, India, Brazil, and Chile. The events will offer participants the opportunity to tackle data challenges using cutting-edge techniques and infrastructure; develop a machine learning pipeline for CubeSats; collaborate with peers; and compete against regional teams from around the globe. Participants will access Jupyter development environments, using computational resources provided by ilifu cloud computing system to develop and test solutions.

Postgraduate students or exceptional final-year undergraduates with strong Python programming skills are invited to apply for the hackathon nearest to their location. Participants are expected to commute to and from the venue each day. For more details and registration, visit: https://hack4dev.org/call-dsrh-2025

Hack4dev is a flagship project under the OAD’s Knowledge and Skills for Development theme that aims to use knowledge and skills from astronomy, such as programming, data handling, data analysis and machine learning, as well as infrastructure such as cloud computing platforms, to advance development objectives through the teaching or application of skills.

The OAD will directly fund the hackathons in Ethiopia and Chile while supporting the others through the Hack4dev collaboration.