This year’s T.L. Saaty Decision Making for Leaders Hackathon challenges students to design systems where AI agents handle the data-gathering and analysis, while decision frameworks like AHP and ANP provide the strategic logic to act on it. Because intelligent scaling isn’t just about knowing what to do—it’s about knowing when and how to do it.
This competition on October 31 – November 2, 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. 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 fifth 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 is Scale Smart: AI Agents for Strategic Decision Making.
AI agents are reshaping how organizations gather and analyze market data—automating competitive analysis, simulating customer scenarios, pinpointing potential users, and validating market readiness. But data alone doesn’t decide. That’s where strategic frameworks like AHP and ANP come in.
“We chose this year’s theme because every entrepreneur eventually faces the same critical question: when is the right time to scale?” says Dr. Elena Rokou, Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburgh and Chief Research Advisor at the Creative Decisions Foundation, one of the Hackathon organizers.
“Scale too early and you risk burning through resources. Scale too late and you miss the market window. This is where AI agents add real value by scanning multiple data sources, tracking competitors in real time, simulating market scenarios, segmenting customers, analyzing sentiment, and stress-testing assumptions. Data alone doesn’t decide—people do. That’s where AHP and ANP come in: they turn raw intelligence into clear, defensible decisions so leaders can act with confidence, not guesswork,” she says.
The hackathon schedule is as follows:
Day 1: Intensive AHP training led by Dr. Rokou, this equips students with the necessary tools to tackle real-world challenges.
Day 2: Hands-on problem-solving, where teams apply AI and decision frameworks to address a real business scaling challenge.
Day 3: Teams present their solutions to 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
The winner of last year’s first-place prize, Revati Wankhede (MS +BA ’25), says, “It was a weekend full of many different activities like guest lectures, lectures on PHP and Python, and we also got to implement all of our solutions all within a span of three days.” In addition, Wankhede appreciated the chance to learn and interact with industry leaders.
A member of the previous 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.”
To learn more and register, students can visit https://business.pitt.edu/t-l-saaty-decision-making-hackathon/. Registration deadline is October 24.