Thornton Tomasetti | CORE studio, in partnership with CBT Architects and Perkins & Will
September 19-21 | 2025 | BOSTON, USA
Thornton Tomasetti | CORE studio is excited to announce the inaugural
AECtech + Boston Hackathon & Workshops!
Partner & Sponsor
Join us on Friday for a series of inspirational Workshops in partnership with Perkins & Will followed by a Happy Hour at Thornton Tomasetti’s Boston Office.
Partner and Hackathon Host
Then on Saturday - Sunday, get ready for an incredible Hackathon, hosted at CBT Architects on Constitution Wharf.
Create something incredible with a team of your peers during the 26-hour hackathon. Starting on Saturday morning and ending on Sunday afternoon. AEC Tech’s Hackathon is an event for all levels of programmers, developers, engineers, and others. Collaborate, network, build new relationships and new technologies for the AEC community.
AECtech Workshops | NYC 2023
AECtech Hackathon | NYC 2023
Workshops
Join your peers for a full day of Workshops hosted by design innovators and software pioneers developed to introduce participants to a wide range of powerful new workflows that enable new ways of working and enhance existing design processes.
AGENDA
9:30 am
10:00 am
1:00 pm
2:00 pm
Registration
Morning Workshops Begin
Workshop Ends
Afternoon Workshops Begin
Agentic AI and MCP for AEC
📍 Location | Thornton Tomasetti Boston
🕤FULL DAY | WORKSHOP (9:30 am - 5:30 pm)
2025 is undeniably the year of AI agents! In this workshop, you will learn about Anthropic's Model Context Protocol (MCP), which is quickly becoming an industry standard for connecting Language Models to tools and custom data sources. Together, we will build a series of MCP servers that extend the functionality of Claude Desktop by enabling it to perform actions on your computer and call third-party APIs. We will then build a custom AI Agent that can use our MCPs to reason through problems and even interact with design software. This workshop will give you a solid foundation for automating parts of your daily workflow with MCPs and agentic AI systems.
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Sergey Pigach is a Senior Associate Applications Engineer at CORE studio | Thornton Tomasetti. Sergey's work builds on his architectural training by bridging the domains of technology and design, driving him to develop computational tools for architects, designers, and engineers. Since joining CORE studio he has worked on desktop and web-based projects including Swarm, a cloud compute solution for Grasshopper; ShapeDiver, a desktop client integration following a merger; and—most recently—Cortex, CORE Studio's new MLOps platform.
Prompt, Respond, Refine: Vibe Coding in Design
📍 Location | Perkins & Will Boston
🕤HALF DAY | MORNING WORKSHOP (9:30 am - 1:00 pm)
As AI becomes increasingly embedded in design practice, a new paradigm is emerging—one where we code not through syntax, but through conversation. This workshop introduces Vibe Coding, a design-oriented workflow that uses large language models (LLMs) as collaborative partners in generating scripts, geometry, patterns, and more. The participants will explore how to frame the right question, interpret responses, and refine outputs—all without traditional programming experience.
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My journey as a designer has always been about exploration and innovation. I thrive on diving into the endless possibilities of technology and design, constantly pushing my boundaries as a computational designer. From scripting in Grasshopper to experimenting with the latest VR tools, I’m always on a quest to discover new ways to bring ideas to life.
But it’s not just about the tech—it’s about sharing that journey. I love guiding and teaching others, helping them harness the power of different programs and techniques. It’s the collaboration and the shared excitement of discovery that get me out of bed every morning. Together, we can shape the world into a better, more creative place.
Modern UX for AEC Stack: Building Web Interfaces in Revit & Rhino
📍 Location | Perkins & Will Boston
🕐HALF DAY | AFTERNOON WORKSHOP (2:00 pm - 6:00 pm)
This hands-on workshop will guide participants through building a modern web-based application on top of an AEC-focused tech stack, integrating with both Revit and Rhino. Over the course of 4 hours, we’ll create a shared web interface loaded inside each host application using WebView2, and connect it to their respective APIs to perform a fun, lighthearted task. The focus will be on showing how a web interface can help deliver delightful, intuitive, and visually polished user experiences, while keeping the architecture clean and maintainable. Attendees can choose to follow along, building only the Revit add-in, only the Rhino plugin, or both if they’re feeling adventurous.
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I am an architectural engineer with an interest on the technology used to design buildings.
Happy Hour
After the Workshops, kick off the Hackathon weekend early at the AECtech Happy Hour! 🍻 Open to all Workshop and Symposium ticket holders—come mingle, relax, and get inspired before the fun begins.
📍 Location | Thornton Tomasetti Boston
🕕 KICKS OFF AT 6:00 PM
🎟️ Open to all Workshop & Hackathon participants
Hackathon
Create something incredible with a team of your peers during the 26-hour hackathon. Starting on Saturday morning and ending on Sunday afternoon. AEC Tech’s Hackathon is an event for all levels of programmers, developers, engineers, and others. Additionally, it aims to facilitate collaboration, networking, building new relationships, and generating new ideas and processes for the AEC community.
📍 Location | CBT Architects
Check out our Hackathon Archive to see all the amazing past projects!
AGENDA
Saturday, September 20th 9:00 am
9:30 am
10:00 am
10:30 am
11:00 am
1:00 pm
7:00 pm
Sunday, September 21st 11:00 am
11:30 am
12:00 pm
2:00 pm
2:30 pm
Registration
Hackathon Kickoff
Lightning Round
Team Formation
Hacking Begins!
Lunch
Dinner
Pencils Down
Submit Presentations / Lunch
Team Presentations
Hackathon Judging
Winners Announced
Judging & AWARDS
Categories
There are three awards for the best Hackathon entries.
Best Overall Hack
MOST COLLABORATIVE HACK
Most Impactful Hack
Judges
A multidisciplinary panel of judges will review each team’s hackathon project.
