About the challenge

The umbrella term “rare disease” is, unfortunately, a misleading one. While each rare disease is indeed uncommon in isolation, the word “rare” fails to convey the cumulative 30 million individuals in the US affected by over 7,000 rare diseases recognized to date – 95% of which are still incurable, and remain poorly managed due to a lack of funding, attention, and collaboration in service of these small and highly heterogeneous patient groups.

Let's be clear: Rare diseases are a public health crisis.

If you are interested in… 

- Harnessing artificial intelligence to improve diagnostics, clinical trials, and treatments for rare diseases;

- Hearing directly from patients and caregivers about their unique experiences grappling with a rare disease;

- Learning from leading physicians, researchers, and biostatisticians in the rare disease space;

- Hacking for an underserved cause (check out our 12 partner patient organizations);

And want to…

- Meet like-minded students interested in the intersection of medicine + CS;

- Enjoy free food for a weekend (Flour, OTTO, Mr Bartley’s and more);

- Receive some cool merch;

This hackathon is your chance!

This March 2-3 (Sat-Sun), join us for the 2024 Harvard Rare Disease Hackathon, where undergraduate + graduate students will gather on Harvard’s campus to set forth their own data-driven solutions for rare diseases. Participation is free and open to all undergraduate and graduate students who register with their .edu email address.

Get started: Register Here and see Event Agenda

• Relevance
  We are looking for hacks that are blueprints for change that acknowledge and address the unique challenges faced by rare diseases, and have the potential to move the needle on such diseases in years to come.
• Novelty
  We are looking for projects that think so far outside the box that one might be forced to wonder why there was a box at all in the first place!
• Feasibility
  We are looking for projects that aren’t just pie-in-the-sky proposals, but may actually be implemented and rolled out one day.