Two teams of New Mexico State University students earned top honors at the 2026 Desert Dev Lab Hackathon, a statewide competition held in Albuquerque on April 18 and 19, that challenged participants to build artificial intelligence solutions for the food and agriculture sector. 

Hosted by NM Tech Talks, the hackathon brought together 27 teams from across New Mexico. Participants were given datasets and tasked with using machine learning and artificial intelligence models to develop a working minimum viable product addressing a real problem in food and agriculture. The Hunt Center for Entrepreneurship, housed within NMSU's Arrowhead Center, served as a sponsor of the event. 

Taking first place out of 27 teams was NMSU's Crimson Devs, which developed pantry.ai, an AI-powered application designed to help households reduce food waste. The tool allows users to photograph their pantry and uses the Gemini Vision model to identify items and estimate expiration dates. Additional features include expiration alerts paired with recipe suggestions that make use of soon-to-expire ingredients, AI-generated meal plans tailored to cuisine preferences and dietary restrictions, and a sustainability tracker that estimates how much food waste a user has prevented. 

The Crimson Devs team includes Rupak Dey, a computer science student specializing in artificial intelligence and president of the NMSU Computer Science Student Association, along with fellow computer science students Christopher Meraz and Antonio Luna.

"Our team's goal was to build a product that solves a real-world problem, and we were excited that our solution, which addresses a challenge faced by nearly every household, food waste, was something everyone at the competition could relate to," Dey said. "In just 36 hours, we developed pantry.ai, and it was a great experience collaborating with my team to build a working product under a tight deadline." 

Claiming second place was Team Beep Boop, which built a decision-support tool to help farmers determine which crops would be most profitable based on the water available in a given season, a question of growing importance in the arid Southwest. The team drew on research and data provided by Frank Ward, an NMSU professor of agricultural economics and agricultural business whose work focuses on water and agricultural policy. 

Team Beep Boop is made up of Shokhina Jalilova and Hailey Hudson, both computer science students, and Allison Barricklow, a cybersecurity student. 

"The Desert Dev hackathon was a hub of smart minds and great advice," Barricklow said. "Our team, coming from an agricultural university in the desert, developed a decision-maker to help farmers decide what crops would be most profitable based on the water available that season. The hackathon allowed us to grow and learn so much in just two days." 

Carlos Murguia, director of the Hunt Center for Entrepreneurship, said the results reflect the strength of student talent coming out of NMSU and the wider Borderplex region. 

"Seeing two NMSU teams recognized at a statewide hackathon focused on food and agriculture speaks directly to the strengths of our students and the mission of our university," Murguia said. "These are exactly the kind of founders and problem solvers who power the entrepreneurial ecosystem of New Mexico and the Borderplex, and the Hunt Center is proud to sponsor events that give them a real stage to build, compete and connect with industry." 

The Hunt Center for Entrepreneurship supports student and startup innovation across the Borderplex through programs, mentorship and access to capital. It is part of Arrowhead Center, NMSU's economic development and innovation engine. 

Registration for the 2027 Desert Dev Lab Hackathon is open. NMSU students interested in participating can sign up at https://www.nmtechtalks.com/desert-dev-lab-2027.  

The full article can be seen at https://newsroom.nmsu.edu/news/nmsu-students-take-first-and-second-place-at-statewide-desert-dev-lab-hackathon/s/41256a2b-6f2f-412e-aa90-e3e31edbe3c8