Stanford Big Earth Hackathon:
Wildland Fire Challenge
About
Big Earth Hackathon: Wildland Fire Challenge bridges the gap between innovation and impact by bringing Stanford students together with real-world stakeholders to design, build, and prototype solutions to one of today’s most pressing global systems crises — wildfire.
Big Earth Hackathon is a 9 week challenge and optional companion course launching this fall quarter at Stanford, open to undergraduates, graduate students, and postdocs across all disciplines at Stanford. Teams will tackle some of the most pressing wildfire challenges – from early detection and suppression, to fuel management, to community prevention – developing technology solutions using a user-centered design approach. Teams hear directly from practitioners and stakeholders who define the needs, and are supported by technical workshops throughout the quarter.
A launchpad for fire tech solutions
By joining, you get:
Real world exposure — Work directly with wildfire stakeholders who bring live challenges, field knowledge, and authentic feedback.
Wildfire Resilience Network — Connect with the researchers, innovators, and operators shaping the future of fire resilience.
A pipeline to scale — Top projects enter a firetech innovation pipeline for continued development and support.
Funding and pilot access — Top teams are considered for direct funding and access to field testbeds to validate and scale their solutions in real environments.
Optional companion course:
🔥 CEE 165H/CEE 265H
🗓️ Fall Quarter - Sept 21 - Dec 1, 2026
📚 2 credits
Auditors welcome!
Challenges are sourced directly from fire agencies to ensure solutions address real, felt needs across the following areas:
Challenge Thematic Areas
Ecosystem & Landscape Scale Resilience
Early Detection & Fast Fire Suppression
Ignition Reduction
Community Risk Reduction
Challenges coming soon!
Upcoming Events
June 4, 2026
Stanford Wildfire Innovation Community Luncheon
Join Stanford students, staff, and faculty for lunch and conversation about wildfire innovation at Stanford and how to get involved. Lunch provided!
FAQs
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A hackathon is fun event where people gather to turn crazy ideas into real solutions/products. This hackathon aims to bring together students from across campus in all disciplines to gather and solve real problems of interest relevant to planet Earth. Many of us have a passion to protect and preserve our planet, and the big earth hackathon aims to realize these passions in a tangible way through using different data sets available about the Earth system.
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Big Earth Hackathons are open to any enrolled Stanford student (undergrad or grad). Postdocs are invited to join too.
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Teams can be anywhere from 1-4 students.
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Sign up as an individual and we will have the opportunity for individuals or pairs to mingle and form teams on the spot.
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While many projects will be "freshly baked" over the eight week event, you are welcome to work on something you are already passionate about and have worked on previously. Judges will of course take into account the level of prior work in evaluating your final product/solution.
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Big Earth Hackathon is a great place and time to learn how to code if you want to pursue a software/data driven hack. We will provide mentors and mini-workshops to help you get up-and-running. You can also join a team with more seasoned coders.
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Signing up for the class is not necessary to participate in the hackathon. The two unit course is offered as a means to provide participants with guidance with their project and the opportunity to earn units in the process of participating. The first few weeks of the class will provide students with the chance to learn some of the current issues related to wildfire and to define their project with the guidance of some mentors.
More Questions?
Please reach out to the course instructor, Derek Fong (dfong@stanford.edu)
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