We are thrilled to announce that a team of FINS students has clinched first place at the University of Florida’s 2025 AI Days hackathon—Gator Hack. Their project titled “Plato’s Cave – A Human-Centered Agentic System for Validating Research Papers” wowed judges with its innovative approach to augmenting scientific integrity using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and human-in-the-loop design.
The Gator Hack competition (hosted as part of UF’s AI Days) challenged participants to build transformative AI systems addressing real-world issues. Our FINS team crafted a system that combines agentic components, interactive human oversight, and explainable-AI to assist in the validation of research papers—a timely and crucial domain given the growing importance of trustworthy scholarship.
The winning entry leveraged natural-language processing, visualization, and workflow automation to help researchers verify claims, uncover inconsistencies, and surface hidden dependencies in scientific publications. By placing humans at the center of the “agentic” loop, the system underscores FINS’ mission of responsible, human-centric AI in support of national-security-relevant research.
This victory reflects FINS’ commitment to developing AI/data-science talent and leading applied AI innovation. The recognition no doubt underscores our status as a hub where students don’t just learn — they lead, build, and win.
Learn more about the winning project → Plato’s Cave – A Human-Centered Agentic System for Validating Research Papers
Meet the team and mentors: Matheus Kunzler Maldaner, Stephen Wormald, Kristian O’Connor, and James Woelke – advised by Professor Damon L. Woodard, and Raul Valle – advised by Professors Jose Principe and Joel Harley
See how FINS is building the next-gen AI workforce → FINS Talent Pipeline & About Us