CINECA GPU Hackathon 2026
OpenACC organization
📌 About the Event
The CINECA GPU Hackathon is a collaborative programming event that brings together multiple groups of developers and researchers to optimize their code for GPU usage. Participants focus on diverse topics, from programming models to machine learning frameworks. Teams, comprising two or more experienced developers, collaborate with mentors who are seasoned in GPU programming to adapt their codes to CINECA’s latest GPU environments.
This is not a competitive hackathon. It is an intensive, mentor,driven acceleration event where you bring your own real research code and leave with it running significantly faster on world,class GPU infrastructure.
ℹ️ Event Details
- Category: HPC / GPU Computing / AI Research / Scientific Computing
- Organizer: CINECA, Italy’s national supercomputing centre, in collaboration with NVIDIA and OpenACC
- Eligibility: Open to computational scientists, researchers, PhD students, and developers worldwide, Indian students and researchers fully eligible
- Open To: Global including India
- Team Size: Minimum 3 members per team, all must participate throughout the entire event
- Effort Level: High, you must bring a real, working codebase to accelerate
- Submission Type: Online team application with project and code description
📅 Important Dates
- Application Deadline: April 16, 2026
- Day 0, Team and Mentor Meeting: June 30, 2026
- Main Hackathon Days: July 6, 7, and 8, 2026
- Mode: Fully Virtual, all sessions via Zoom and Slack
- Time Zone: Central European Summer Time (CEST), IST is UTC+5:30, CEST is UTC+2, manageable overlap for Indian participants
🏆 Prize Details and Value
- Prize Type: Access to world, class GPU infrastructure, expert mentorship, and performance certification
- Prize Amount: Free access to Leonardo supercomputer, valued at thousands of euros of compute time
- Certificates: Yes, completion recognition for all accepted teams
- Visibility: Mentors from CINECA, national labs, universities, and industry leaders guide you throughout the event
- Additional Perks: Access to Leonardo, one of the most powerful computers in the world, for the full duration of the hackathon
🎯 What You Will Do
- Apply with your team and a real computational or AI code project that needs GPU acceleration
- Meet your assigned expert mentor on Day 0 (June 30) for introductions and access setup
- Work intensively across 3 days (July 6, 7, and 8) to port, optimize, and accelerate your code on GPUs
- Present daily SCRUM progress reports to all participants and mentors in the main room
- Leave with your code either fully running on GPUs, or a clear, expert,reviewed roadmap to get there
📦 Resources and Support Available
- Attendees receive access to a GPU cluster for the full duration of the hackathon
- Dedicated mentors with expertise in programming models, libraries, and optimization tools assigned to every team
- No advanced parallel computing or GPU skills required, basic understanding of GPU programming is helpful but not mandatory
🔗 Apply Here: CINECA GPU Hackathon 2026