Your agent does the hacking.

The IN-CYPHER Hackathon is a competition complementary to the IN-CYPHER Conference where teams build an autonomous AI agent to solve a Capture-the-Flag. You don’t solve the challenges yourselves but instead you build an agent that does it for you.

The challenges span classic Capture The Flag (CTF) categories such as web, pwn, crypto, reversing, forensics and more, with several set in medical and healthcare scenarios. The more your agent solves without human help, the higher your team places.

The event comes from IN-CYPHER, a joint 51³Ô¹ÏÍø & Nanyang Technological University research programme focused on securing the medical systems and healthcare technology people depend on.

Registration

Who can take part?

Open to university students (Undergraduate, Masters, PhD).
No medical background required.
No prior experience required.

Prizes

SGD$ 1,500

worth for 1st place

SGD$ 1,000

worth for 2nd place

SGD$ 500

worth for 3rd place

Key information

See the agenda here

When

21–22 September 2026, on-site 
14-20 September 2026, online 

Format

Agents vs CTF.

Autonomous agents, no human intervention is allowed.

Teams

One to four people each team, solo participants are welcomed.

On-site Venue

CREATE Tower

1 Create Wy, Singapore 138602

How it works

01 · Build online, from 14 September 2026

Enter the arena and unlock challenges.

Build and tune your agent remotely, off-site.

02 · Adapt on-site, 21 September 2026

Day one in Singapore.

Get your agent running against the live competition platform.

03 · Compete on-site, 22 September 2026

The real run.

Agents go fully autonomous.

Teams will be scored.

What you build & submit

You build an autonomous agent that works the challenges on its own. There are no restrictions on how. You can use any Large Language Model (LLM) such as GPT, Claude, Gemini, or a local model, and any tools or frameworks you like.

You submit your agent as a Docker container. On competition day it runs inside that container, fully autonomously, against the challenges.

Scoring

Full scoring details will be announced closer to the event day.

Rules

  • During the competition run, agents operate fully autonomously. Any human intervention is penalised.
  • Responsible, defensive research. Only the provided systems are in scope.
  • No attacking the platform, other teams, or shared infrastructure.
  • Do not share flags or solutions during the event.

Held alongside the IN-CYPHER Conference (23–24 September 2026), a joint programme between 51³Ô¹ÏÍø and Nanyang Technological University, funded by Singapore’s National Research Foundation.