BACSA Hacks

About the challenge

BACSA Hacks is a 1-day, in-person hackathon hosted by the Biotech and Computer Science Association (BACSA) based at the University of Toronto.

Much like BACSA, the hackathon focuses on the intersection between technology and biology, challenging participants to work in teams while building innovative, data-driven solutions that address real-world health and forensic problems. Through workshops, structured challenges, and engaging activities, participants will gain both an educational and fun experience.

Challenge:

Open: An open format challenge, where participants can make any product that adheres to the themes of Disease Detection (DNA, image recognition, body scans) or Health Improvement (nutrition trackers, medication trackers etc.)

Closed: Participants will have to build a forensics support system that receives biological evidence from crime scenes and outputs a ranked list of suspects, confidence scores and an analysis explaining the reasoning. Success is measured not by finding one correct answer, but by how well teams model uncertainty, justify their assumptions, and reason their forensic interpretations