STEM4Health Hackathon


Elisabet Capón García joined the SDSC in March 2023 as Open Research Community Manager for the Renku team.
Elisabet obtained her PhD. in Process Systems Engineering. After that, she has led and worked over 10 years in multiple projects in the academia and the industry, related to the design and implementation of decision support systems for several industry sectors. Elisabet is highly concerned with the challenges our modern society faces, and deeply committed to sustainability.


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Presentation
The STEM 4 Health Hackathon, jointly organized by Johnson & Johnson in Switzerland and the Swiss Data Science Center (SDSC), brings together students in engineering, data science, and related STEM fields to tackle real-world challenges in pharmaceutical manufacturing.
Working in interdisciplinary teams, participants will use manufacturing data and state-of-the-art mechanistic modeling, AI and machine learning techniques to develop innovative workflows, models and automation strategies. The goal: explore new approaches that can advance the Industry 4.0 transformation of manufacturing for next-generation therapies.
Throughout the hackathon, teams will receive mentoring from industry and academic experts, turn their ideas into practical prototypes or process concepts, and pitch their solutions to a panel of judges for the chance to win prizes and explore potential follow‑up collaborations.
Ready to put your STEM skills at work on a challenge that matters? Register now to turn bold ideas into tangible advances that could help bring therapies to patients faster.
Who should participate?
Target audience:
- Bachelor & master students
- Early career researchers - PhD students and post-docs
- Young professionals from the private and public sector
All backgrounds are welcome, especially life sciences, chemistry, engineering, computer science and related fields.
Why attend? What you’ll take away
- Bring your STEM skills to solve real-world challenges in pharmaceutical manufacturing by applying problem-solving, STEM and data science skills.
- Gain a behind-the-scenes perspective on how medicines are developed and manufactured, while learning alongside peers and industry experts.
- Learn from experienced professionals through hands-on mentoring and direct exchange with senior experts.
- Experience collaborative innovation in action and see how interdisciplinary teamwork can create societal impact and measurable business value.
- Build your network and community with fellow students, researchers and professionals who share an interest in technology, science and healthcare.
- Explore purpose-driven career paths and discover opportunities at Johnson & Johnson for graduate students, postgraduates and postdocs.

About the organizers:
Johnson & Johnson is a global healthcare leader, committed to solving the toughest health challenges and transforming lives through research, development, manufacture and distribution of medicines and medical technologies. The company’s Innovative Medicine business advances breakthrough science and develops transformational treatments in areas like oncology, immunology, neuroscience, and cardiopulmonary. In MedTech, the company is focused on developing and delivering cardiovascular, surgery, and vision solutions. Visit jnj.com to learn more.
The Swiss Data Science Center (SDSC) is a national research infrastructure in data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), founded by EPFL and ETH Zurich. Its mission - to enable data-driven science and innovation for societal impact - drives its initiatives in research projects, knowledge and technology transfer, and education.
Details
STEM4Health Hackathon
· Date: 21-22 November 2026
· Time: 08:30 am – 22:00 / 17:00 pm
· Location: ETH Zürich, Campus Hönggerberg, HPH (Physics building)
· Capacity: 100 participants
· Participation fee: Free of charge. Travel & accommodation self-organized.
· Platform: RenkuLab, SDSC's open platform for collaborative and reproducible compute environments provided for all teams.
Programme
Preliminary Agenda:
Saturday, 21 November 2026
8:30 Welcome coffee
9:00 Plenary talks
10:30 Group Formation & start hacking
12:00 Lunch
13:00 Hacking time
22:00 Closing of building
Sunday, 22 November 2026
8:30 Welcome coffee
9:00 Hacking time
12:00 Lunch
13:00 Continue hacking and wrapping up results
15:00 Demo presentations & Prizes
17:00 End
For questions contact us at hackathon@datascience.ch.
Cover Image source: Adobe Stock, Viktor
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