Cornell Six Sigma Hackathon

About the challenge

A team sprint for Cornell Systems Engineering students. Your team picks a prompt, invents the data, and ships a working quality-control tool. 

• Who: Cornell students in the Systems Engineering MEng/MS program or enrolled in SYSEN 5300 / MAE 5390 or SYSEN 5900 — up to 5 per team
• Where: Upson Hall 116
• Submissions: on Devpost — the event page and submission instructions are shared at the event
• On-Campus Version: 24 hours, October 16, 3PM - October 17, 3PM
  • required for on-campus students, unless excused
• Virtual DL Challenge: 7 days, October 16, 3 PM - October 23, 3 PM 
  • required for distance learning students and any others who cannot attend in person.

You will tackle one real-world quality control and reliability problem, drawn from industry, healthcare, energy, or infrastructure.

• 🧩 Prompts are released at kickoff — each tied to a dataset you design and build yourself
• 📊 The statistics are the graded core. Statistical process control, process capability, reliability modeling, failure analysis. The app is the delivery vehicle for the analysis, not the point.
• 🧱 Ship a dashboard / web app (React, Shiny, etc.) that answers the prompt, and anything you need to make it work (eg. an R or Python library, a public REST API, a design scheme, etc.)
• 🚀 Deploy it live to the course Posit Connect server — publisher credentials are handed out at the event
• 🔢 Every project is scored 0-100 by the event staff. Read the criteria
• 🏆 Top team wins a prize and bragging rights

• 🗓️ Schedule of Events (24 hour event)
• 💬 Prompts — revealed at the start of the event
• 🔢 Evaluation Criteria
• 📚 Resources for Building Your Tool
• 🧰 Starter Templates
• 🤖 Agent context bundle — read this before you start building
• ⁉️ FAQ

Form a team (max 5) and register through DevPost. No team? Sign up anyway and we'll match you.