2026 Global Student Challenge

Build | Solve | Change the World

The IEEE Computer Society 2026 Global Student Challenge (GSC) provides a platform for students from around the globe to create innovative solutions to real-world programming and data analytic problems. For this year’s competition, students in teams of two are required to work on several challenge problems based on real-world use cases and/or real-world data sets provided by various academic and industry teams. This initiative aims to energize students and young professional members of the IEEE Computer Society by involving them in large-scale technical challenges while making a special effort to encourage participation from less-covered regions of the globe.

2026 Finalists

420 teams participated in the first round, solving three real-world challenges with deep thinking and innovative implementations.

After evaluation of the solutions from the first round, which were based on objective metrics as well as subjective judgment of the novelty and elegance of the solutions, five teams have emerged as finalists. Each team will present in an in-person final event at the IEEE ACSAC conference in Los Angeles, CA on 9 December and the award winners will be announced and recognized on 10 December.

• Vaibhav Sidana and Soham Shrinagar (India)
• Oussama El Boujjadia and Rayen Ben Abdallah (Canada)
• Ayomikun Adesuyi and Matthew Maccelari (Nigeria)
• Aadi Joshi and Kavya Bhand (India)
• Treyvon Matthews and Pasquale Mesagna (USA)

About the Challenge

Challenge Prompts

1. Backdoor Attacks in Distributed ML and their Remediation
2. Automatic Discovery of Vulnerabilities in Github CI/CD Workflows and their Patches
3. Analyzing Resource Usage in Data Center Computers and Predicting Events (i.e. Failures or Performance Slowdowns)

Competition Rules

Each team must:

• Submit solutions for all three challenge prompts for Phase I;
• Consist of no more than two (2) students;
• Have at least one member available for Phase II in-person presentation* in December
• Each team can have a professional mentor (optional).

*Travel support for finalist presentations will be provided by IEEE Computer Society

Challenge Timeline

• Registration Opens: 27 May
• Registration Closes: Sunday, 28 June at 11:59 pm ET
• Challenge Phase I Opens (Virtual): Monday, 13 July
• Challenge Phase I Closes (Virtual): Sunday, 9 August
• Judging Period: 10-23 August
• Finalists Announced: Monday, 24 August
• Challenge Phase II (In-Person): Top Five Teams from Phase I to Present to the Judges at IEEE Annual Computer Security Applications Conference (ACSAC) in Los Angeles, CA (7-11 December 2026)

Prizes

• Total Prize Pool: US$5,000 to be distributed among the top 3 teams, plus 1 year of IEEE and IEEE Computer Society Student Membership
• Travel Support: US$25,000 is budgeted for finalist travel and lodging to ensure teams can present in person.

Reasons to participate

• Global Engagement: Join a community of students from across the world and engage with the IEEE Computer Society.
• Mentorship: Optionally work with a professional member as a mentor, providing high-visibility interaction with industry practitioners.
• Career Exposure: Showcase your skills in a large-scale competition designed to spotlight students and young professional members.

Have questions about the IEEE Computer Society Global Student Challenge? Email us at gsc@computer.org.

Organizing Committee

Technical Contributors