Pittsburgh-area college students keen on mastering decision-making techniques and harnessing the power of generative AI to tackle complex challenges are invited to the T.L. Saaty Decision Making for Leaders Hackathon. This fourth annual competition on April 4 – 6, 2025, is hosted by the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Business in collaboration with the Creative Decisions Foundation.
Undergraduate and graduate students from any university in the Pittsburgh area are eligible to participate. The winning team will receive a $2,000 award, second place gets $700, and third place will receive $300. New this year, there is a first-round finalist cash pool. All teams that present a complete solution are guaranteed cash.
All participants will earn an Analytic Hierarchy Decision Making Using Python entry-level certification. If students do not have a team, they can register independently, and teams will be created by event organizers.
In its fourth year, the competition honors the legacy of the late Thomas L. Saaty, a Distinguished University Professor at Pitt known worldwide as the creator of the decision-making methods the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Analytic Network Process (ANP) to solve complex problems.
This Year’s Theme: Tackling AI Bias in Health
There are numerous ways AI is revolutionizing healthcare, from diagnosing diseases and personalizing treatments to shaping hospital strategies, optimizing resources, and influencing policy decisions.
“We selected this year’s topic because while AI can be a game-changer by spotting patterns no human could see and making medicine faster, smarter, and more efficient, it’s not immune to bias,” says Dr. Elena Rokou, Chief Research Officer for Creative Decisions Foundation and one of the Hackathon organizers.
“Whether its historical bias baked into training data, algorithmic bias amplifying disparities, or decision-making bias where human oversight fails to ask the right questions. Blind trust in AI or misinterpreting its insights can lead to flawed diagnoses, unfair treatment plans, and resource misallocation. The key isn’t to fear AI but to guide it. That’s where AHP and ANP come in—bringing structure, transparency, and human oversight to ensure AI-driven healthcare is not just powerful but fair, ethical, and effective. This year, we’re challenging students to step into that critical role and prove that better decisions lead to better outcomes.”
The hackathon kicks off with intensive AHP training led by Dr. Rokou, equipping students with the necessary tools to tackle real-world challenges. The learning journey continues into the second day, setting the stage for participants to apply their skills in a team setting.
To work on the challenge of tackling AI bias in health, the students will hear from the following speakers:
- Benny Esparra, an artificial intelligence in digital health and medical device consultant
- James Alcorn, an attorney working in policy development and responsible AI
- Nicoleta Economou, an algorithm-based CDS oversight director at Duke University School of Medicine
- Narayan Ramasubbu, a professor of business administration at Pitt’s School of Business
The teams of students will use a blend of hard data and personal insights to create a solution to AI bias in health. This practical exercise will be evaluated by a distinguished panel of judges from the global community of decision-making and optimization experts, making for a truly enriching experience.
Feedback from Past Participants
One of the members of last year’s winning team, Ana Cecilia Reyes (MS ’24), says, “I strongly encourage students to participate in this competition for the knowledge, connections, and problem-solving skills.”
Bishal Dasqupta (MBA ’24) participated in the hackathon in 2023. He has experience working as a consultant and understands the value of learning these methods. He says, “with this hackathon experience, you learn how to transform a business problem into an analytical problem and then how you solve that problem.”
To learn more and register, students can visit https://business.pitt.edu/t-l-saaty-decision-making-hackathon/. Registration deadline is March 29.