CIQ Launches AI Hackathon for Supercomputing 2026

RENO, Nev., Oct. 07, 2026 /CourierPR/ -- CIQ, the founding commercial sponsor of Rocky Linux, has launched the CIQ Supercomputing Local AI Hackathon, a hands-on technical build weekend set to take place in Chicago just before the Supercomputing 2026 (SC26) conference. The event, presented in partnership with NVIDIA and Drive Capital, and supported by Lenovo, VAST Data, and Moonlite, aims to challenge up to 20 teams to scale real AI workloads across a full cluster.

Each team will receive two Lenovo ThinkStation PGX systems, powered by the NVIDIA GB10 Grace Blackwell Superchip, connected into a cluster and orchestrated through CIQ Fuzzball. The hackathon is designed to address a common challenge in AI development: the transition from single-machine work to multi-node environments.

Teams will compete in one of four tracks: - Multi-Node Training: Train or fine-tune a model across multiple nodes. - Inference at Scale: Increase throughput, concurrency, model capacity, or performance with multi-node inference. - Scientific AI: Apply distributed AI to a scientific or research workload. - Cluster and Scheduling: Build around orchestration, scheduling, resource allocation, or utilization.

The top three teams will win SC26 conference passes and will be recognized at the CIQ booth during SC26 and featured on an NVIDIA Developer Livestream. Participation is open to teams of three to five members with multi-node or HPC experience, and registration requires approval. To apply, visit luma.com/local-ai-hack-chicago.

CIQ's Fuzzball job-based container orchestration, combined with the powerful NVIDIA GB10 Grace Blackwell Superchip, aims to provide teams with the tools necessary to tackle complex AI challenges.

The hackathon is set to take place in Chicago, right before the Supercomputing 2026 conference, offering participants a unique opportunity to showcase their work and network with industry leaders.