Research Park Hosts First AgTech Hackathon Presented by Bayer and John Deere

Champaign-Urbana AgTech Week kicked off with the first Research Park AgTech Hackathon,  engaging University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign students from across campus to work on challenges presented by sponsors by Bayer and John Deere.

Participants worked together to tackle prompts created by professional technologists. Hackathon participants came from five colleges (Grainger College of Engineering, Gies College of Business, School of Information Sciences, the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, and the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences), and roughly two dozen majors. Participants were grouped into six student teams who presented to the judging panel on Sunday, March 3, 2024.

Roughly 62 percent of the attendees had never participated in a hackathon previously.

The Bayer prompt focused on creating evaluation systems to predict the performance of plants in varying environments, aiding plant breeders in decision-making. The John Deere prompt tasked participants with pitching new features or redesigning existing ones for the John Deere Operations Center Mobile App, aimed at farm management efficiency.

On Sunday afternoon, the winning teams were announced, each receiving awards and recognition for their contributions. The top teams had the opportunity to present their pitch at the AgTech Summit on Tuesday, March 5.

View photos from this event on the media gallery.

Support

Thank you to our sponsors Bayer and John Deere, and the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois for supporting this event.