TPC Fall 2025 Hackathon
25-26 September 2025
- Hosted by Argonne National Laboratory and The University of Chicago (Venue: Discovery Partners Institute)
The hackathon was held in the Chicago Loop beginning at 9am on September 25th and concluding by 3:30pm on September 26.
- Agenda
- Logistics (in-person and Zoom links for remote participants)
- Hackathon Report: TPC Collaborative Initiatives Status and Next Steps
TPC has formed a strong international community with scientific diversity around the acceleration of developing and using AI to accelerate scientific discovery. There are strong sub-communities that have formed within TPC focused on important areas such as model training, data, scientific skills and reasoning evaluation, and many scientific disciplines.
Through working groups and hackathons, the global TPC community has catalyzed the acceleration of many individual and multi-institutional projects. Building on these projects and collaborations, TPC leaders are exploring a number of large-scale initiatives aimed at harnessing the capabilities and resources of the global community.
TPC Strategy Hackathon: Exploring Potential Collaborative Initiatives
This hackathon differs from typical TPC hackathons in that rather than hacking code we will be hacking plans for large-scale collaborations among those individuals and institutions who are interested and able. TPC leaders held discussions and an open plenary at TPC25 to identify potential collaborative initiatives that multiple individuals and organizations would pursue according to their interests and abilities (technical and policy), each to be fleshed out and evaluated with the intention of driving them forward through TPC quarterly hackathons beginning with broader discussions at the TPC workshop at SC25 in November, in January 2026 at SCA/HPCAsia26 in Osaka, and at the Spring 2026 hackathon tentatively planned to be hosted by CINECA in Bologna, Italy.
TPC leaders seek input and involvement from the community regarding (a) individual and institutional interest in contributing to the refinement, planning, and pursuit of one or more of these initiatives, and (b) identification of alternative or additional initiatives. Moreover, we seek individuals and institutions who are interested in helping to lead in planning and driving these initiatives. These collaborative initiatives were first identified during a leadership brainstorming meeting at TPC25 and then discussed during the TPC25 closing plenary.
At this hackathon, participants discussed the following potential collaborative initiatives:
- Data & Shared Compute Infrastructure
Collectively build a scientific training data resource and shared infrastructure that can be used for model training and fine-tuning (general purpose FM, domain-specific FM, etc.)
- Open Frontier Model (OFM)
Build a frontier-scale, open AI model (using data from 1), harnessing the computational and data resources at many TPC partner institutions
- Open Frontier AI system
Drive development and creation of a Frontier AI system for science that incorporates reasoning models (start with SOA closed models, eventually include Open frontier model) and develops domain foundation models, knowledge graphs, orchestrations, simulators and experiments.
- Software Infrastructure/Framework
Develop software infrastructure and middleware for building complex frontier-scale AI models and systems (This is in support of 2 & 3, also integrating experimentation/labs/instruments and other real-world connections)
- Driving Challenge Applications
Identify challenge applications for driving and evaluating (1) – (3). Engage the community to volunteer and drive a diversity of scientific and industrial challenge applications that test and benefit from an Open Frontier AI System.
- Open Suite for Evaluating Models for Science
Develop an open suite of tools, methods, and benchmarks for evaluating the scientific skills, knowledge, reasoning, agentic capabilities and safety/security of Frontier Models and AI systems.
Program
The hackathon will begin with a session discussing all of the potential collaborate initiatives, followed by breakouts to flesh out descriptions and approaches to each of the initiatives. To the extent possible, all sessions will support remote participation, and information for joining will be posted on this page and in the TPC Slack #meetings-hackathons channel.
Dates/Times: 9am September 25 to 3:30pm September 26
Location: Discovery Partners Institute (DPI), 200 S. Wacker, Chicago
Logistics: DPI is located within 1-2 blocks of many coffee shops and restaurants, so all breaks and lunches will be self-service
Thursday September 25
Plenary Room (zoom)
0900-0910 Welcome
0910-1040 Plenary 1: Develop high-level description for each collaborative initiative.
- 0910-0940 Open Frontier Model
- 0940-1005 Open Suite for Evaluating Models for Science
- 1005-1040 Driving Challenge Applications
1040-1100 Coffee break
1100-1230 Plenary 2: Continue Developing high-level descriptions for each collaborative initiative.
- 1100-1130 Data & Shared Compute Infrastructure
- 1130-1200 Open Frontier AI System
- 1200-1230 Software Infrastructure Framework for AI Systems
1200-1330 Lunch
AGENDA HAS CHANGED
Based on discussions among participants, we decided to make the rest of the deep dive discussions a single thread, allowing all participants to participate in all topics.
1330-1500 Data and Shared Compute Infrastructure
1500-1530 Break
1530-1700 Open Frontier Model
Friday September 26
0900-1030 Open Suite for Evaluating Models for Science
1030-1100 Coffee break
1100-1215 Software Infrastructure Framework for AI Systems and Open Frontier AI System
1215-1400 Lunch
1400-1530 Closing Plenary
Summary of initiative descriptions and high-level plan for action items and follow-up at SC25, SCA/HPCAsia26, Spring 2025 TPC Hackathon (CINECA in Bologna, Italy), and begin to form program committee for TPC26.
Logistics and Registration
There is no fee for this hackathon.
Those who plan to participate in person, please see these local logistics and tips.
Registration is closed – please email Charlie Catlett if you wish to participate in person. No registration is required for remote participants.
Remote Participation
Both rooms are wired for remote participation. If you elect to join remotely we ask that you (a) mute your microphone, and (b) be patient with any sound or technical issues.
While we cannot accommodate remote lightning talks during the plenary sessions, the breakout session leaders will be prepared to allow several 3-5 minute lightning talks at the start of the breakout. Please join the relevant breakout and raise your virtual hand at the start of the session.