The IN-CYPHER Hackathon is a competition complementary to the IN-CYPHER Conference where teams build an autonomous AI agent to solve a Capture-the-Flag. You don’t solve the challenges by hand — you build an agent that does, on its own.
The challenges span classic Capture The Flag (CTF) categories — web, pwn, crypto, reversing, forensics and more — with several set in medical and healthcare scenarios. The more your agent solves without human help, the higher your team places.
The event comes out of IN-CYPHER, a joint Imperial College London & Nanyang Technological University research programme focused on securing the medical systems and healthcare technology people depend on.
Hackathon kicks off in
⏳ IN-CYPHER Hackathon Countdown
Key Information
Prizes
1st place
SGD$1,500
2nd place
SGD$1,000
3rd place
SGD$500
How it works
01 · Build — online, from 14 September 2026
The environment and challenges open. Build and tune your agent remotely, off-site.
02 · Adapt — on-site, 21 September 2026
Day one in Singapore. Get your agent running against the live competition platform.
03 · Compete — on-site, 22 September 2026
The real run. Agents go fully autonomous. Scoring, then awards.
Registration
Who can take part?
Open to university students and above.
No medical background required.
Newcomers and experienced hackers alike.
What you build & submit
You build an autonomous agent that works the challenges on its own. There are no restrictions on how — use any Large Language Model (LLM) such as GPT, Claude, Gemini, or a local model, and any tools or frameworks you like.
You submit your agent as a Docker container. On competition day it runs inside that container, fully autonomously, against the challenges.
Scoring
Full scoring details will be announced closer to the event day.
Rules
- During the competition run, agents operate fully autonomously — any human intervention is penalised.
- Responsible, defensive research — only the provided systems are in scope.
- No attacking the platform, other teams, or shared infrastructure.
- Do not share flags or solutions during the event.
Held alongside the IN-CYPHER Conference (23–24 September 2026) — a joint Imperial College London & Nanyang Technological University programme, funded by Singapore’s National Research Foundation.