Our Tracks
Choose Your Track
PlantHack invites you to rethink how we choose, improve, and scale the crops of the future. Powered by ARIA’s Programmable Plants initiative, this hackathon focuses on unlocking the potential of underutilised and overlooked crops - helping secure a more resilient and diverse food system. Whether you’re driven by big ideas or data-driven discovery, you can choose where to focus on.
Note: You do not need to have chosen your track when applying. In the week before PlantHack begins you will have the opportunity to connect online and form teams with other accepted contestants. There you can decide as a team which track to focus by ideating a solution for a problem you find interesting. This is about meeting new people, from different backgrounds who like you want to solve real problems, and explore new ideas together.
🌍 Blue Sky Concept Track
Got a breakthrough idea that could transform food and farming? The Blue Sky Concept Track is your space to think boldly. Inspired by ARIA’s mission to push the boundaries of plant innovation, we invite you to pitch a technology, venture, research direction, or creative solution that helps unlock the power of underutilised crops.
Example project ideas:
Proposing a new gene delivery method that could be used to engineer a broad-spectrum of crops.
Designing a venture to engineer and scale native or overlooked crops.
Imagining new models to connect farmers, scientists, and consumers with alternative crops.
Reframing crop development strategies by exploring how to transfer valuable traits from underutilised crops into major crops, or conversely, how to boost underutilised crop performance to make them competitive with major crops.
💻 AI Track
Use Bio Foundation Models to unlock novel insights from plant genomes. In this track, you’ll tackle real-world computational challenges in crop improvement - like addressing major data gaps in under-researched species or discovering stress-resilience traits. Through Helical's platform, you’ll have access to Helix-mRNA (a large-scale foundation model trained on mRNA data) & Evo2 (The largest open-source DNA foundation model to date. While Evo2 wasn’t originally built for plants, you’re invited to push its boundaries through personalization techniques or other creative adaptations.).
Example project ideas:
Testing how Evo2 or similar models perform on plant genome data.
Evaluating the limits of these genomic models on plants like Lathyrus sativus (grass pea).
Proposing new AI or data strategies to support underutilised crop development.
Applying computational methods to other plant engineering challenges, e.g. plant immunity proteins or signal peptide design.
Need inspiration? We’ll share a list of suggested target crops at the start of PlantHack, including species such as Lathyrus sativus, but you’re welcome to bring your own.
Final Challenge: The Pitch
On Sunday, every team will pitch their solution to our judging panel in a 5-minute presentation. Your pitch should explain:
The challenge you’re tackling
Your proposed solution and why it matters
The potential impact on building a more resilient, diverse, and sustainable food system
Both tracks are judged on creativity, relevance, and potential impact - not just technical completeness. This is your chance to show the judges your reasons for focussing on a specific challenge, and the thought process behind your solution.