A global research and building competition · by Exea Labs
Catalyst gives students the compute, tools, and mentorship to run a real research project online across nine fields, then brings the strongest teams to regional semifinals in San Francisco and New York City, before the best advance to the final in San Francisco.
Presented by Exea Labs. Applications open Fall 2026.
The event, end to end
Online round
6 weeks of research and building, open worldwide
Regional semifinals
San Francisco · New York City
The final
San Francisco — the strongest teams advance
Applications open Fall 2026 presented by Exea Labs
03Why this event
Every barrier below is real, and none of them are about talent. Catalyst is built to remove five of them at once, because removing only one does not help.
Hardware decides who does research
The interesting experiments need GPUs. GPUs cost more than most students' whole computer.
Ideas outnumber allocations
Plenty of students have a good question and no way to run it even once.
Hackathons reward speed
48 hours rewards what can be demoed, not what can be found out. A training run does not fit.
Research programs gate on credentials
Most require a university, a professor's introduction, a GPA, a fee, or a passport.
Research rarely becomes a product
The result gets a poster and then nothing. Students almost never get to build the polished version.
Free compute, allocated
Eligible participants receive finite GPU allocations tied to their project. The hardware barrier stops deciding.
Six weeks, not one weekend
Long enough to run something, watch it fail, and run it again. That is where the learning is.
Nine research tracks
From neurotech to climate, each field is judged on its own. You compete inside your track, never against another.
Mentorship and a public feed
Office hours, weekly feedback, and hundreds of people posting what broke this week.
An in-person build sprint
Findings become a polished, working thing, in one room, with hardware and help on hand.
Shipping is the finish line
Every project publishes: repository, demo, write-up. A result nobody can use is not finished.
Take the six weeks away and this is a hackathon. Take the compute away and it is a reading group. Take the in-person final away and it is a competition nobody remembers. The three together are the argument.
04The journey
Start online, earn a place at a regional semifinal, then bring the strongest version of your project to San Francisco.
Stage 1 · Six weeks
Start solo or find a team, choose a pathway, and turn a real question into a working project with free compute.
OutcomeYou leave with a shipped project and written feedback.
Stage 1 · Six weeks
Start solo or find a team, choose a pathway, and turn a real question into a working project with free compute.
Stage 2 · In person
Selected teams meet in San Francisco or New York City to present what they found and improve the project with direct feedback.
Stage 3 · San Francisco
Finalists gather for one last build sprint, a public showcase, and live judging focused on what the project can do.
05Research tracks
Catalyst is built around research fields, not beginner and advanced divisions. Pick the track that matches what your project actually contributes — every track is judged on its own, and every track can win.
Brain-computer interfaces, neural signals, and the technology that reads and responds to them. The official track partner g.tec provides professional EEG/BCI systems, mentors, and judges.
Machine learning, systems, and language. Applied models, new methods, and the software that makes them usable.
From the bench to the bedside: diagnostics, devices, and the computation that turns biological data into understanding.
The science of what things are made of and how they react — from batteries and polymers to the processes that scale them.
Experimental and applied physics: light, instruments, quantum systems, and the hardware that measures the world.
Flight and space: the vehicles, propulsion, and autonomous systems that operate above the ground and beyond it.
Things that move and the power behind them: robots, machines, mechatronics, and the energy systems that drive them.
The math and modeling underneath every other field: simulation, optimization, and methods that make hard problems computable.
The planet as a system: climate technology, sustainability, and the engineering behind the energy transition.
NoteEvery team competes within the track that best matches the primary technical contribution of its project, and every track is judged on its own. You pick your track when you apply, and you can change it later if the project moves.
06Where it happens
Semifinals bring selected teams together in San Francisco and New York City. The strongest projects return to San Francisco for the final.
Host city for the West Coast semifinal and for the final. Finalists from New York City travel here to compete for the title.
City detailsExact venue and dates coming soon
NoteCities are confirmed. Exact venues and dates are coming soon. Travel support is subject to partnership and funding.
07Wall of Fame
No invented winners and no placeholder rankings. When Catalyst begins, this wall will fill with real projects, real builders, and the stories behind what they shipped.
The first public projects will unlock these spots as participants begin shipping.
Build toward the wallReserved for a real participant project.
Reserved for a real participant project.
Reserved for a real participant project.
Examples of what teams could take home. Final items depend on funding, availability, and region.
Examples only. Specific rewards are not guaranteed and may vary by region.
Partners
Catalyst is made possible by organizations that give participants access to technology, compute, and expertise that are normally hard to reach.
Provides professional EEG and brain-computer interface systems, mentors, and judges for the Neuroscience & Neurotechnology track, plus a dedicated neurotech lab at the in-person events.
Backs the cloud GPU compute that Exea Labs distributes to students, making free access to real research hardware possible across every track.
Supports Catalyst's engineering and technology tracks with industry expertise, tools, and mentorship for teams turning research into working systems.
Gives participants professional tools to write, collaborate on, and publish the research behind their projects.
Questions
The essentials about eligibility, teams, compute, travel, and what counts as a project.
Catalyst is open to teens ages 13-18 for the global online round. No institutional affiliation, credentials, or hardware of your own are required.
Create your profile, start solo or find teammates, and keep the full story of your project in one place from the first idea to the final demo.