BenchSpark

HACKATHON

Prototype the future of life sciences

Join us for a two-day hackathon! Team up with peers in computer science, bioinformatics, and biology to turn cutting-edge ideas into working prototypes.

📅 February 26-27

🖊️ Register Here by Feb 12, 2026

📌 BenchSci Office (559 College St)

⏰ Starting at 8:30 am

The Challenge

Create an MVP AI co-scientist that helps preclinical scientists explore public biomedical data, generate hypotheses, and execute focused tasks (e.g., retrieval, analysis, evaluation).

Work in teams of
2-5 people

Use only publicly available datasets and sources; curated datasets will be provided, or teams may bring their own

Run solutions in Google’s provided ephemeral GCP environment (Vertex AI, relevant APIs enabled; cost-capped)

Option to use Google’s
Agent Developer Kit (ADK)

You’re responsible for exporting/saving your work before the environment expires

Architect your solution with MCP servers (one or more) to encapsulate task-specific functionality.

Timeline

Dec. 1
Registration opens

Feb. 12
Registration closes at 9pm EST

Feb. 13
Challenge details and datasets released; team-matching portal opens for participants seeking teammates, and participants get access to Google Cloud Skills Boost

Feb. 19
Google ephemeral environment launches with limited access to upload data

Feb. 26
Hackathon kick-off, full access to Google ephemeral environment at 9am EST

Feb. 27
Submissions due at 1pm EST, Event ends at 5pm EST

Mar. 6
Ephemeral environment expires at 9pm EST.

Why Join:

A shot at the first-place prize:

1: Lunch with BenchSci and Google Cloud team members at Google’s Toronto office.

2: A conference travel pack, including flight and hotel gift cards valued at up to $7500 per team.*

Hands-on experience with Google Cloud, Vertex AI, and other real-world tooling

Work on a live challenge BenchSci teams are tackling

Access to Google Cloud Skills Boost Labs

*Travel Pack includes a $750CAD Gift Card for Hotels.com, and a $750CAD gift card for Air Canada for each registered participant on the winning team. For teams with less than 5 team members, the prize value will be allocated equally among the registered team members, up to $7500CAD total.

How to sign up

February 26-27 Challenge details and datasets released; team-matching portal opens for participants seeking teammates

Reach out to
hello@benchsci.com
with any questions.

Participants must be 18+ and residents of Ontario.
Participation is subject to the Hackathon Terms & Conditions.