Hackathon — Tue 26 May 2026

Explainable Brains.

From signals to understanding: a 4-hour sprint to make complex brain data accessible, interpretable, and actionable — because better tools mean better treatments for brain disease.

Countdown

Explainable Brains.

Tue 26 May 2026 · 16:00–20:00

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API credits

Link goes live Tue 26 May · 16:00

$20 in API credits, on Anthropic.

A one-time perk for hackathon participants — credits arrive in a few minutes after you claim. Built into Claude Code so you can spend the night building instead of worrying about quota.

Claim link — appears here at startWe’ll publish the link on this page the moment Anthropic releases it

Before you claim

Use your Organization ID from console.anthropic.com, not your Claude.ai user ID — UUIDs are rejected. Credits are for API use only.
One claim per participant.
Anti-fraud is automatic: submitting from multiple accounts gets you blocked, and support can’t reverse it.

Not set up yet? Walk through the prep guide before the night so credits work from the first prompt.

Full setup guide →

Dataset access

Coming soon

Connecting to the brain imaging data.

Teams work with a real brain imaging dataset provided by Vibraint, hosted on a cloud bucket sized for the volume.

Bucket credentials, the data schema, and connection instructions will be published here closer to the event, and shared with registered participants in the lead-up email. Check back the day before, or look for the announcement in your inbox.

Date

Tue 26 May 2026
16:00–20:00

Venue

Mesh Matrikel1
Højbro Plads 10, Copenhagen K

Cost & seats

Free
40 seats, registration required

Format

In-person
Workbar Community Stage

With

Vibraint, Danish Cancer Institute, Danish Data Science Community, Applied Futures. Sponsored by Anthropic.

Agenda.

Four hours. Short brief, long build, demos in front of the partners.

16:00: Doors open, settle in
16:05: Welcome — Jacob & Diana
16:10: Challenge brief — Johanna (Vibraint) & Alicia (Danish Cancer Institute)
16:25: Teams form and build — 2.5 hours
18:55: Demos — 3 minutes per team
19:20: Judging and wrap-up
19:40: Networking
20:00: Close

About this hackathon.

The Explainable Brains Hackathon is a free neuroscience and AI hackathon in Copenhagen. Cross-disciplinary teams use Claude Code and real brain imaging data from Vibraint to build tools that make complex brain data interpretable for drug discovery.

Neurological conditions are among the fastest-growing health challenges globally, yet the brain remains largely a mystery. Understanding it depends on extracting meaning from vast, complex datasets. The latest AI coding tools like Claude Code are rapidly expanding what’s solvable. Join us for a hackathon that brings practitioners from across fields together to turn that potential into reality.

The problem worth solving.

Why this hackathon, why now, why these people in the same room.

The brain is under pressure.

Neurological and mental health conditions are among the most widespread and least solved problems in medicine. As populations age and daily life grows more cognitively demanding, the burden on patients, families, healthcare systems, and economies continues to grow.

Data is ahead of our tools.

Developing treatments for brain diseases has one of the highest failure rates in medicine — fewer than 1 in 10 candidates ever reach patients. Not for lack of data: brain research generates vast volumes of imaging, spatial, and molecular information. The problem is that most of it stays locked in specialist pipelines, inaccessible to the people who could act on it. The science is ready. The tooling isn't.

Brain health is a European priority.

Brain health is moving up the political and economic agenda across Europe. The first European Brain Economy Summit convenes in Brussels on 5 May 2026 around a shared premise: that cognitive capacity is infrastructure, and that investing in it is a strategic, not just a medical, choice.

Building at the intersection.

Progress on these problems requires people from very different fields to work together. AI tools like Claude Code are lowering the barrier to creating functional prototypes fast, making interdisciplinary collaboration more productive than ever. This hackathon brings STEM professionals together around a shared problem to discover new ways of tackling it.

The challenge.

How can we make brain imaging data accessible and interpretable?

Vibraint will share the full challenge brief before the event. What we can tell you now: you’ll work with real brain imaging data and build tools that could help neuroscientists deep-dive into complex brain data to draw conclusions.

Teams will approach this from different angles depending on their background. Some will focus on data analysis and visualization, others on building interfaces or AI-powered tools. All approaches are valid. Working prototypes only.

Partners

About the partners.

Vibraint

vibraint.dk →

Data partner

Vibraint builds tools to accelerate drug discovery for brain diseases. Their platform processes complex 3D microscopy scans of rodent brains into interactive, interpretable brain maps.

This makes it possible to track how drugs distribute across brain regions, map neural activity patterns in response to treatment, and localise specific receptors and cell types at the scale and resolution that drug development demands.

Their customers are neuroscientists in academia, biotech, and pharma working on some of the hardest problems in brain disease research.

Danish Data Science Community

ddsc.io →

Co-host

An open community connecting data scientists, AI engineers, and ML practitioners across Denmark through talks, meetups, and projects. Co-hosts the hackathon and brings the Copenhagen data-science crowd into the room.

Danish Cancer Institute

cancer.dk →

Advisor's institution

The research arm of the Danish Cancer Society, with deep expertise in AI and computational imaging. Provides the data-science and AI advisor for this challenge.

Anthropic

anthropic.com →

Sponsor

Makers of Claude and Claude Code. Sponsors the free API credits every participant receives, and the tooling teams build with on the night.

Who’s in the room.

Biologists, data scientists, software engineers, product people. The challenge is real, the data is real, and the teams are deliberately cross-functional. Below: the people running the night.

Host · Claude Code Community / Applied Futures

Jacob Langvad Nilsson

Claude Community Ambassador and co-founder of Applied Futures. Brings community framing and product strategy to the event.

Co-host · Danish Data Science Community

Diana Meda

AI & Data Engineer representing the Danish Data Science Community, connecting the data science and AI builder communities in Copenhagen.

Neuroscience & Computer Vision Advisor · Vibraint

Johanna Perens

Co-founder and CTO of Vibraint, responsible for the technical foundation of the platform. Guides the vision of the challenges, bringing deep expertise in whole-brain imaging and computational neuroscience.

Data Science & AI Advisor · Danish Cancer Institute

Alicia Parra Acero

Staff Scientist in AI and computational imaging at the Danish Cancer Institute. Frames the challenge from a data science and AI perspective and supports teams during the build.

Judges panel.

Names announced closer to the event

Four judges will score working prototypes at demo time — a mix of practitioners and domain experts from the partner organisations and beyond.

Judge 01

To be announced

Judge 02

To be announced

Judge 03

To be announced

Judge 04

To be announced

Questions.

The short answers. Reach out if anything else.

Who can participate?: The hackathon is for STEM students, graduates, and young professionals — including product management and adjacent roles. No neuroscience background is required. Teams are deliberately cross-functional so different backgrounds work together during the build.
What data will teams work with?: Teams will work with real brain imaging data provided by Vibraint. The full challenge brief is shared with participants after registration.
What tools will be used?: Teams build with Claude Code, Anthropic's AI coding assistant. Every participant gets free Claude Console API credits to use during the event. You're free to bring any additional tools, languages, or frameworks alongside it.
Who are the judges?: Judges will be announced closer to the event.
Is the hackathon free?: Yes. The hackathon is completely free to attend. Registration is required and limited to 40 participants.
Where exactly is the venue?: Mesh Matrikel1 (Matrikel1 Workbar), Højbro Plads 10, 1200 Copenhagen K, Denmark. The event takes place at the Workbar Community Stage.