Cheers erupted in front of the stage in downtown St. Ingbert as the name of the winning team was announced. After an intense and demanding 24-hour hackathon, team SeeWeedZ from Sweden merged victorious over competitors from across Europe with its innovative solution. The jury, composed of CISPA researchers, was impressed by the team’s innovative approach and the exceptional efficiency with which it solved the problems. For its outstanding performance, Team SeeWeedZ received the €4,000 first prize, sponsored by G Research. Teams Syntax Terror and Advanced Persistent Thinkers from Poland finished in second and third place, respectively, earning prizes of €2,000 and €1,200. The awards were sponsored by G Research and Quantpi, respectively.
A 24-Hour Coding Hackathon
The Grand Finale of the CISPA European Cybersecurity & AI Hackathon Championship kicked off on July 2 at the CISPA main building in Saarbrücken with a keynote by Tomáš Souček (Meta FAIR Paris). Once the competition challenges were revealed, the 17 finalist teams had 24 hours to develop their solutions. The tasks included detecting watermarks in text, distinguishing between training data and AI-generated data, and reconstructing data in collaborative learning. 24 hours later, the six highest-ranked teams on the scoreboard presented their solutions to the jury, which then selected the overall winners. The teams competing in the final had qualified through one of six regional preliminary competitions held between November 2025 and May 2026 in Paris, Vienna, Stockholm, Munich, Barcelona, and Warsaw. In total, 300 early-career researchers—from undergraduate students to PhD candidates—participated in the Championship.
Promising Solutions from the Next Generation of Researchers
The Championship was spearheaded by CISPA-Faculty Dr. Adam Dziedzic and Dr. Franziska Boenisch, who jointly lead the SprintML Lab. Together with their teams, they developed the competition challenges and oversaw the scientific and technical elements of the competition. “I’m impressed by how quickly the participants tackled highly complex research problems,” said Dr. Adam Dziedzic. “They came up with solutions we hadn’t even considered ourselves. We witnessed an incredible level of dedication and remarkable creativity.” Dr. Franziska Boenisch added: “Our goal was to give young talent the opportunity to experience cutting-edge research firsthand while building connections across national borders. The Championship demonstrated how hackathons can foster scientific curiosity and inspire fresh perspectives on today’s research questions. By bringing together talented researchers from across Europe, we are not only supporting the next generation of researchers but also contributing to new approaches for the secure and responsible development of AI systems.”
About the Hackathon Championship
The CISPA European Cybersecurity & AI Hackathon Championship is a Europe-wide competition organized by the CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security from November 2025 to July 2026. In regional qualifiers held in major European university cities, bachelor’s and master’s students compete in teams of up to four people to solve challenges in the fields of AI and cybersecurity within 24 hours. The winners from each city qualify for the grand finale in St. Ingbert, where they compete for cash prizes, trophies, and certificates. By bringing together young talent from across Europe, this championship aims not only to promote innovation and expertise in trustworthy AI and cybersecurity, but also to build a pan-European community dedicated to securing our digital future.
