# Torchlight Summit Hackathon: Call for Mentors (May 7–8 2026, Virtual Office Hours)

**URL:** <https://awg.osdr.space/t/torchlight-summit-hackathon-call-for-mentors-may-7-8-2026-virtual-office-hours/4099>\
**Category:** AWG Discussions\
**Tags:** conferences\
**Created:** [April 27, 2026, 5:14pm UTC](https://awg.osdr.space/t/torchlight-summit-hackathon-call-for-mentors-may-7-8-2026-virtual-office-hours/4099 "2026-04-27T17:14:16Z")\
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**Author:** ![Dr.Overbey](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex001/user_avatar/awg.osdr.space/dr.overbey/32/885_2.png) [@Dr.Overbey](https://awg.osdr.space/u/Dr.Overbey)\
**Post date:** [April 27, 2026, 5:14pm UTC](https://awg.osdr.space/t/torchlight-summit-hackathon-call-for-mentors-may-7-8-2026-virtual-office-hours/4099/1 "2026-04-27T17:14:16Z")

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We’re inviting members of the AWG community [@AWGall](https://awg.osdr.space/groups/awgall) to serve as mentors for the Torchlight Summit Hackathon, held alongside the summit on May 8–9 at the University of Austin.

Student teams will be working with real human spaceflight omics data, and we’re assembling a group of mentors to support them through focused virtual office hours. This is a lightweight, high-impact way to engage—mentors host a **1–2 hour Zoom session** where teams can drop in for feedback, troubleshooting, and guidance.

**Mentoring windows:**

- Thursday, May 7: 12:00–6:00 PM

- Friday, May 8: 12:00–6:00 PM  
(_Select any 1–2 hour block within these windows_)

**Relevant areas of expertise:**

- Data science / machine learning

- Statistics / quantitative modeling

- AI/LLMs for scientific workflows

- Software development (Python, data pipelines, visualization)

- Genomics / multi-omics

- Bioinformatics / computational biology

- Systems biology / network analysis

Broadly, we’re looking for mentors who can help students think more rigorously about their data, methods, and interpretations.

This is also an opportunity to pilot a model that could be scaled for future AWG-led hackathons.

**Learn more:**

- Hackathon: [https://torchlightsummit.org/hackathon](https://torchlightsummit.org/hackathon)

- Full schedule: [https://torchlightsummit.org/agenda](https://torchlightsummit.org/agenda)

If you’re interested, please register here: [Torchlight Summit Hackathon Mentor Interest Form](https://forms.gle/ZBw31aKJt4Ti59QYA)  
(Open to faculty, postdocs, and advanced graduate students)

I’ll follow up with scheduling, Zoom details, and a brief orientation.