January 27-29, 2023 • UC Davis Student Community Center

AIFS is excited to announce the 2023 Apps for Food & Ag Hackathon, hosted at UC Davis. UC Davis graduate and undergraduate students from any field of study will form teams to develop and prototype an app-based solution to a challenge within our three focal themes.

Focal themes:

Food Systems and Supply Chain Resiliency

Projects which leverage AI towards a more resilient Food System supply chain, especially those that lead to translational change and/or use cutting edge technologies (e.g., blockchain for avoiding adulteration, waste, and increasing food safety), and the use of digital twins.

AI Driven Food Systems to Improve Human Health

Projects in this theme develop AI solutions for identifying, creating, cultivating, processing, and distributing nutritious, functional food, with the goal of improving consumer health.

Climate Adaptation and Sustainability

Projects which leverage AI to improve climate adaptation or mitigation in agriculture and food systems and/or improve the sustainability of ag and food systems (e.g., optimization of resource use). Projects in this theme would address the goal of reducing the environmental footprint of these industries and/or enabling long-term sustained production of food and other ag-derived products.

We are seeking mentors from industry and academia to help advise our student teams.

• No experience in hackathons or computer programming is required
• We welcome mentors from across a variety of disciplines
• Mentors will provide support to teams in a scheduled 1.5-hour block, with flexibility as to the time of day
• Note for out-of-town mentors: we unfortunately do not have funds to cover travel expenses, but we welcome you to sign up to mentor via Zoom, or if your in-person attendance is otherwise supported, we would welcome your participation in additional events throughout the hackathon weekend (including potentially as a judge for the student teams’ pitches and/or in a panel or roundtable opportunity for students to ask questions re: careers)
• Opportunities for sponsorship or submission of grand challenge

Interested in serving as an industry mentor?Please complete this brief form by Jan. 15: https://forms.gle/rW2qoRzoQ7nzYCdu8

Please feel free to contact Christine Diepenbrock (chdiepenbrock@ucdavis.edu) or Hanna Bartram (hcbartram@ucdavis.edu) with any questions.