From 1 to 3 October, Barcelona hosted Respira Hackathon 2026, organised by the CIBER of Respiratory Diseases (CIBERES) and AstraZeneca, in collaboration with the Barcelona School of Informatics (FIB-UPC) and the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC-CNS). The initiative brought together nearly one hundred participants from fields including research, healthcare, data, engineering, artificial intelligence and design.
Over 50 hours of collaborative work, teams developed technological solutions to address four real-world respiratory health challenges related to pulmonary fibrosis, COPD, severe asthma and the long-term effects of respiratory infections. Participants received specialised mentoring and access to data to develop their proposals.
The FIB community played a prominent role in the hackathon. Students from the Bachelor's Degree in Bioinformatics (BBI), Bachelor's Degree in Informatics Engineering (GEI) and Bachelor's Degree in Artificial Intelligence (GIA) were part of the winning teams across all four challenges, highlighting FIB students' ability to apply their technological knowledge to real-world healthcare challenges.
FIB Dean Anna Rio took part in the opening session, participating in a round-table discussion on the opportunities created by collaboration between researchers, healthcare professionals, technology specialists and patients to accelerate the development of innovative solutions with an impact on the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of respiratory diseases.
FIB was also represented by Daniel Jiménez González, a member of the School's teaching and research staff, further strengthening the FIB community's involvement in an initiative that connects computer science and artificial intelligence with biomedical research.
Respira Hackathon 2026 concluded with four winning proposals, one for each of the challenges, highlighting the potential of multidisciplinary collaboration to turn data and technology into solutions with a real impact on people's health.
More information in this link: Respira Hackathon 2026
