Join Evidence Jam 2026 — Turn Ecological Knowledge into AI-Powered Insight
Evidence Jam 2026 (Causapalooza!) is a weekend hackathon at the University of Waterloo's DRAGEN Lab, November 13–16, where teams use AI to turn ecology literature into structured, practitioner-ready causal knowledge. We're recruiting software developers, ML engineers, restoration ecologists, UX/UI designers, data scientists, and philosophers — interdisciplinary teams of 2–4 are strongly encouraged and prioritized in selection.
Prizes include the Gold Raccoon awards (Dell hardware, with a Dell Pro Max workstation with GB10 for first place), a Green Raccoon sustainability award for the most energy efficient solutions, and the collaborator-voted Most Valuable Possum for best collaborator. Featuring judges and mentors from the World Wildlife Fund, Nature Conservancy of Canada, Conservation Halton, and more.
Beyond the hardware, this is a chance to compress a years-long literature synthesis into one weekend, with real ecological data, GPU compute, and mentors on hand to help you ship something a restoration practitioner could actually use. Create open source software in a collaborative setting, with great food and prizes!
Applications close Friday, October 9 — apply with your team or solo at https://evidencejam.tim-a.ca. Teams must contain at least one current UW student. There is no cost to participate and food will be provided.