Lemanic Life Sciences Hackathon 2025

Lemanic Life Sciences Hackathon 2025

Lemanic Life Sciences Hackathon 2025

Dates: April 23-25, 2025
Hacking: Wednesday, April 23, and Thursday, April 24, from 9:00 to 21:00
Keynotes and Project Pitches: Friday, April 25
Location: Hall SV and SV 1717, EPFL Lausanne | !! in-person only !!
Registration Deadline: April 4, 2025

The second Lemanic Life Sciences Hackathon was a huge success, with more than 110 participants and 12 teams.

Congratulations to the winning teams

🥇 Team Coinmind — First Prize (sponsored by SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics)
🥈 Team Tumorscope — Second Prize (sponsored by Debiopharm)
🥉 Team GraspIt — Third Prize (sponsored by Groupe Mutuel)
🏅 Team Genorobotics — Scientific Excellence Prize (sponsored by Roche Institute of Human Biology)
👏 Honorable Mention: Team GamerMind

A big thank you to all participants, jury members and the academic and organizing committee. 

Participant Information

  • In-Person Only: This event will take place exclusively on-site at EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland. Online participation is not available.
  • Food and Capacity: Food and drinks will be provided for the three days. 100 participants max.
  • Travel Costs: Participants are responsible for organizing and covering their travel and accommodation expenses.
  • Beginners are welcome: Hackathons are a great way for skill development and hands-on learning.
  • Registration is free but mandatory before April 4, 2025.
  • Individual Sign-Up: Each participant must register separately. If you would like to be in the same team as others, you can indicate in the registration form.
  • Project Selection: Project details will be announced only to registered participants. Once registered, participants  will receive a follow-up email to indicate their project preferences.

Hackathon Goals

  • Forge interdisciplinary collaborations: Build partnerships between clinicians, scientists, and data experts to drive change in healthcare and research.
  • Empower the Next Generation: Train young clinicians and researchers to incorporate data science into their careers.
  • Leverage biological data for Impact: Encourage the re-use and sharing of valuable existing data, uncovering insights that could reshape research and healthcare.
  • Strengthen the Ecosystem: Foster long-term collaboration between EPFL, Idiap, and other institutions, laying the groundwork for  innovation and interdisciplinary approaches.

What to Expect

  • 3 Days of Innovation: Immerse in a friendly and collaborative atmosphere where teams develop impactful solutions.
  • Project Pitches and awards: Project leaders will pitch their ideas and collaborate with interdisciplinary teams for refinement. Teams will present their outcomes at the end for a chance to win prizes.
  • Expert Mentorship: Gain insights and guidance from experienced professionals in life sciences, clinical research, and AI.
  • Conference: Hear from industry and academic leaders how healthcare and AI and learn are converging to address global challenges.

Projects will include

  • 3D motion reconstruction of spinal cord injury rehabilitation sessions
  • Closed loop control of electrical stimulation for hand grasping
  • Image analysis of interactions of t-cells and cancer cells 
  • Creating immersive tools for exploring genomes
  • Building a Computational Workflows for the Development of Novel Biosensors
  • Genorobotics: Developing machine learning methods & an app for sequencing
  • Behavioral analysis of wolves
  • Analysis of brain states during video game play 
  • Improving speech recognition from children
  • Estimating the prevalence of Cystic Fibrosis in African populations from population sequencing data
  • AI-driven glaucoma screening from fundus photography
  • How does in-game spending behavior change?

Keynote speakers

  • Lara Gervaise | EPFL Alumna | AI Engineer and Co-founder | AI Virtuosis
  • Bernardita Chirino | EPFL Alumna | Innovation Manager and Clinical Trial Supply Manager | Novartis
  • Maxime Vidal | EPFL Alumnus | Multiple Co-Founder and Data Scientist | Doctolib

Awards

The three best projects get the possibility to win prizes with a total amount of 2500 CHF. We are grateful to our sponsors for their generous support.

Jury Members

  • Gilles Burnier | Senior Innovation Expert and Digital Shaker Driving Insurance Transformation with AI & Deeptech | Groupe Mutuel
  • Bernardita Chirino | EPFL Alumna | Innovation Manager and Clinical Trial Supply Manager | Novartis
  • Severine Duvaud | Team Lead, Biodata Resources | SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics
  • Lara Gervaise | EPFL Alumna, AI Engineer and Co-founder | AI Virtuosis
  • Tom Gibbs, PhD | Investment Director |  Debiopharm Innovation Fund
  • Prof. Mackenzie Mathis | Bertarelli Foundation Chair of Integrative Neuroscience, EPFL & Startup founder

Program April 23, 2026

08:30-09:00 | Arrival of participants, hand-out of badges | Hall SV

09:00-10:30 | Welcome, briefing, how to compute and set-up teams | SV 1717

10:30-13:00 | Hacking | Hall SV & SV 1717

13:00-14:00 | Lunch | Ornithorynque (voucher)

14:00-18:00 | Hacking | Hall SV & SV 1717

18:00-20:00 | Standing dinner & debrief | Hall SV

20:00-21:00 | Hacking | Hall SV

Program April 24, 2025

08:30-09:00 | Arrival of participants | Hall SV

9:00-13:00 | Hacking | Hall SV & SV 1717

13:00-14:00 | Lunch | Ornithorynque (voucher)

14:00-15:00 | Keynote and Do-athon | SV 1717: Maxime Vidal, Multiple Co-Founder and Data Scientist | Doctolib

14:00-18:00 | Hacking | Hall SV & SV 1717

18:00-20:00 | Standing dinner and debrief | Hall SV

20:00-21:00 | Finalization of projects | Hall SV

Preliminary Program April 25, 2025

08:30-09:00 | Arrival of participants | Hall SV

9:00 – 10:15 | Finalize hacking of projects and presentations | Hall SV & SV 1717

10:15            | Project Freeze

10:30-12:15 | Keynote talks with QA and networking  | SV 1717

Lara Gervaise, AI Engineer and Co-founder, AI Virtuosis

Bernardita Chirino, Innovation Manager and Clinical Trial Supply Manager, Novartis
Intro and moderation: Leila Ojjeh, EPFL Alumni Association

12:15-13:45 | Lunch | Ornithorynque (voucher)

13:45-15:00 | Pitch your project – session I | SV 1717

15:00-15:20 | Coffee break | Hall SV

15:20-16:30 | Pitch your project – session II | SV 1117

16:30-17:15 | Break and debrief of Jury | Hall SV 

17:15-18:00 | Award ceremony & closing | Hall SV

Organising Committee and Contacts

Academic Committee

Logistics and organizational matters

Our Partners