Caltech Mathathon – first hackathon ever devoted to research level mathematics • Hacker News Board

Won't deny that this is an interesting idea, but I feel like waiting on the output of an LLM for 40 hours feels like it is completely antithetical to what makes classic Hackathons appealing / educative.

More generally, I don't think the shape of a hackathon (intensely working for a short timespan) maps at all onto the way LLM Math progress has seemingly been made so far; AFAIK it mostly involves picking out something for the Model, then having it run for a week with sporadic correction / encouragement.

Re: Caltech Mathathon – first hackathon ever devoted to research level mathematics

#6

Post by Aboutplants » Mon, Sep 07, 2026, 11:51 AM UTC

Semkas wrote: post #5

Won't deny that this is an interesting idea, but I feel like waiting on the output of an LLM for 40 hours feels like it is completely antithetical to what makes classic Hackathons appealing / educative. More generally, I don't think the shape of a hackathon (intensely working for a short timespan) maps at all onto the way LLM Math progress has seemingly been made so far; AFAIK it mostly involves picking out something…

If the goal is to accomplish something then why limit yourself with available tools?

I’m not a full on AI optimist but it is absolutely the most powerful tool in a host of applications. From a Hackathon perspective, obviously in the 90s it was much more unorganized, but the same ethos existed. Use all available tools to accomplish the goal/task, it’s where a lot of incredible learning came out of. The same will hopefully happen in scenarios like this one

Re: Caltech Mathathon – first hackathon ever devoted to research level mathematics

#7

Post by loloquwowndueo » Mon, Sep 07, 2026, 12:02 PM UTC

Aboutplants wrote: post #6

Semkas wrote: post #5

Won't deny that this is an interesting idea, but I feel like waiting on the output of an LLM for 40 hours feels like it is completely antithetical to what makes classic Hackathons appealing / educative. More generally, I don't think the shape of a hackathon (intensely working for a short timespan) maps at all onto the way LLM Math progress has seemingly been made so far; AFAIK it mostly involves picking out something…

If the goal is to accomplish something then why limit yourself with available tools? I’m not a full on AI optimist but it is absolutely the most powerful tool in a host of applications. From a Hackathon perspective, obviously in the 90s it was much more unorganized, but the same ethos existed. Use all available tools to accomplish the goal/task, it’s where a lot of incredible learning came out of. The same will hopef…

If the goal is to run 42km why limit yourself? Use a car and win.

Re: Caltech Mathathon – first hackathon ever devoted to research level mathematics

#8

Post by a2ff6eeb0 » Mon, Sep 07, 2026, 12:07 PM UTC

Aboutplants wrote: post #6

Semkas wrote: post #5

Won't deny that this is an interesting idea, but I feel like waiting on the output of an LLM for 40 hours feels like it is completely antithetical to what makes classic Hackathons appealing / educative. More generally, I don't think the shape of a hackathon (intensely working for a short timespan) maps at all onto the way LLM Math progress has seemingly been made so far; AFAIK it mostly involves picking out something…

If the goal is to accomplish something then why limit yourself with available tools? I’m not a full on AI optimist but it is absolutely the most powerful tool in a host of applications. From a Hackathon perspective, obviously in the 90s it was much more unorganized, but the same ethos existed. Use all available tools to accomplish the goal/task, it’s where a lot of incredible learning came out of. The same will hopef…

It seems like making progress on math is letting the AI run fully autonomously for a few days, occasionally asking it to keep going.

I'm not sure people need to organize a mathathon to wait for a computer to give a printout. They mainly need tokens.

Re: Caltech Mathathon – first hackathon ever devoted to research level mathematics

#9

Post by Fraterkes » Mon, Sep 07, 2026, 12:09 PM UTC

Aboutplants wrote: post #6

Semkas wrote: post #5

Won't deny that this is an interesting idea, but I feel like waiting on the output of an LLM for 40 hours feels like it is completely antithetical to what makes classic Hackathons appealing / educative. More generally, I don't think the shape of a hackathon (intensely working for a short timespan) maps at all onto the way LLM Math progress has seemingly been made so far; AFAIK it mostly involves picking out something…

If the goal is to accomplish something then why limit yourself with available tools? I’m not a full on AI optimist but it is absolutely the most powerful tool in a host of applications. From a Hackathon perspective, obviously in the 90s it was much more unorganized, but the same ethos existed. Use all available tools to accomplish the goal/task, it’s where a lot of incredible learning came out of. The same will hopef…

Did you read the article? This is not a hackathon where you build software, it’s one where you’re trying to get a model to make progress on a frontier math problem. The point is that that activity may not map well onto the shape of a hackathon

Re: Caltech Mathathon – first hackathon ever devoted to research level mathematics

#10

Post by youoy » Mon, Sep 07, 2026, 12:25 PM UTC

Should I read this as the big labs trying to move maths forward? Or the big labs trying to use professional mathematitians as (cheap?) Labour for validating LLM outputs? On yesterdays "An Alien Mind" post from openAI they openly said that maths is not a priority for them, so I personally know what to think...