Publication date: October 13, 2026
Three days of intensive work, international collaboration, and advanced computing technologies. On October 7-9, 2026, the fifth edition of the EPICURE Hackathon took place at ACC Cyfronet AGH in Krakow and online, under the title: "Code Optimisation for HPC and AI Workloads". The event brought together research teams, developers, and specialists in the field of high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence from all over Europe, who worked together to improve their projects and increase the performance of scientific applications and AI solutions.
This year's edition was a unique opportunity to harness the potential of the most modern European computing infrastructures. Participants were able to test and optimize their solutions using the power of the Helios and JUPITER supercomputers, thanks to which the improvements implemented had a direct impact on real production and research environments. Over three days, participants analyzed the performance of their applications, identified bottlenecks related to computation, memory, and communication, optimized code for CPU and GPU architectures, and developed artificial intelligence models. A key element of the event was the direct support of HPC and AI experts, who helped teams solve the most demanding technical problems.
The hackathon was attended by teams representing diverse fields of science and technology:
- ASiMoV-CSS
- Bałtyk
- Dipolar-BEC
- ECsim
- HypercomplexKeras
- MultiGeoMed
- PEEG
- QuEST
- Radiotherapy
- ICRIBIOM
- HF-GPU
Each project faced different computational challenges, but the common goal was to increase performance, scalability, and efficiency in the use of modern HPC resources. An enormous contribution to the success of the event was made by the international team of mentors and experts, who supported participants throughout with their knowledge and experience. The mentors included: João Paulo (INESC TEC), Andrzej Dorobisz (Cyfronet), Laura Bellentani (CINECA), Szymon Mazurek (Cyfronet), Maciej Czuchry (Cyfronet), Bartosz Soból (Cyfronet), Klemens Noga (Cyfronet), Bert Jorissen (VSC), Ziyad Albanoby (BSC), Julius Roeder (DeiC), Maria Guadalupe Barrios Sazo (JSC), and Ilya Zhukov (JSC).
The event program included not only hands-on workshop sessions, but also lectures and meetings with experts from European supercomputing centers. Participants had the opportunity to learn about the capabilities of the JUPITER system, practical methods for profiling applications using NVIDIA Nsight Systems tools, and the latest approaches to designing storage infrastructure for HPC environments.
However, it was not the technologies that were the most important element of the event. The EPICURE Hackathon once again showed that the European HPC and AI community can cooperate effectively across national and institutional borders. The atmosphere of openness, the willingness to share knowledge, and the commitment of all participants made the event a space for building new relationships, exchanging experiences, and creating foundations for further innovative projects. And the uniqueness of this hackathon is evidenced by the participants' opinions:
I would like to once again sincerely thank you for organizing last week's event. I hope that after this intensive time you will manage to rest effectively, and that this will not be the last Hackathon organized. I learned a great deal about HPC and Cyfronet. Although I managed to practice a lot, I hope we will stay in touch and meet again. I will be following the newsletter and planned events.
- says Bartosz Chaber from Warsaw University of Technology.
These were three days full of inspiring conversations, ambitious challenges, and impressive results. All teams demonstrated enormous professionalism, creativity, and determination in solving complex computational problems. We thank the participants, mentors, and partners for creating a unique atmosphere of cooperation, which is the foundation of the EPICURE initiative's success.
- comments Klemens Noga, hackathon coordinator.
The organizer of the event was the EPICURE project, of which ACK Cyfronet AGH is a partner. The hackathon confirmed that combining scientific knowledge, the experience of HPC experts, and access to European supercomputers constitutes an effective path to accelerating innovation in science and the development of artificial intelligence. See you during upcoming EPICURE initiatives and the next edition of the hackathon!
We invite you to watch the recording summarizing the hackathon and the photo gallery:
