Machine Learning Hackathon

Build a machine learning project with Darwin AutoML at this two-week University of Southampton student hackathon, running 6–20 November 2026. Organised by the Centre for Machine Intelligence in collaboration with SparkCognition, this competition offers a practical introduction to AI while developing your teamwork, entrepreneurial thinking and presentation skills. It is open to University of Southampton students from all academic backgrounds. No previous machine learning experience is required, although basic coding skills and an understanding of statistics will help. How the hackathon works The programme begins with an in-person kickoff from 6pm to 9pm on 6 November in 46/3001, Southampton. Food and drinks will be provided. The opening session covers: A “Machine Learning 101” primer, including what the technology can and cannot do How to use SparkCognition’s Darwin Automated Machine Learning platform What makes a strong problem and dataset You will then work in a team of four or five until 16 November, applying machine learning to a problem of your choice. Teams may source an open dataset and pursue their own idea or use one of the supplied challenge datasets. Example problems include predicting customer churn, forecasting power generation from environmental conditions, analysing company engagement and predicting American football results. Python and the Darwin SDK may be useful for datasets requiring additional preparation or time-series work. Darwin is designed to help “citizen data scientists” wrangle and explore numerical data, search for suitable models, and evaluate regression, classification and prediction results. SparkCognition will also provide technical support with problem selection and the platform. Darwin video tutorials and sample datasets are available. Reports, finals and prizes… Register for this event