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

Join Us for the Second Edition of the Lemanic Life Sciences Hackathon!

After a successful inaugural event 2024, the Lemanic Life Sciences Hackathon is back for its second edition!

Organized by EPFL School of Life Sciences, EPFL AI Center and Idiap, this event brings together clinicians, life scientists, and data scientists to test ideas, drive innovation, and tackle real-world challenges in healthcare and research.

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