Ecotech Hackathon- Making Urban Water Smart

When 19-21 September 2024

Where Mektory, room MEK-031 Innovation HUB (Raja 15, Tallinn)

  • Overview
  • Agenda
  • Hackathon Rules
  • 🌊 EcoTech Hackathon: Making Urban Water Smart 🌊

    Join us for a groundbreaking hackathon focused on tackling one of today's most pressing urban challenges: the sustainable management of stormwater runoff. Climate change is exacerbating flooding and water quality issues in urban areas, affecting both city infrastructure and receiving water bodies. Blue-green stormwater infrastructure, including Nature-Based Solutions (NBS), can help mitigate the problems. We need your ideas to innovate smart sensing technologies that enhance the performance, maintenance, and monitoring of NBS!  

    What We'll Work On:

    • Novel sensing: Develop advanced sensors for monitoring of NBS performance indicators, such as infiltration rates, hydraulic loading ratios, erosion, water quality and retention or detention performance. Think machine vision, image processing and drone surveys.

    • Data Collection, Integration and Analysis: Create a system for processing and analyzing sensor data to inform maintenance and operational decisions. Integrate data from weather patterns, urban infrastructure, water quality and quantity sensors, and satellite imagery.

    • Predictive Modeling: Build machine learning models to predict the impact of contaminated stormwater on receiving water bodies. Analyze historical data to forecast future trends and identify high-risk areas.

    • Sustainable Infrastructure: Innovate in integrating NBS with existing urban infrastructure for holistic water management solutions using geospatial data and urban planning models. Think green roofs, rain gardens, permeable pavements, and constructed wetlands.

    • Community Engagement and Education: Develop tools and resources to raise awareness about the benefits of NBS and engage citizens in performance monitoring. Empower communities with information to drive behavior change and support grassroots efforts.

    • Partnership and Collaboration: Create a platform for collaboration between government agencies, environmental organizations, research institutions, and local communities. Sharing data, resources, and expertise can accelerate the development and implementation of NBS.

    Who Should Attend?

    • Developers, data scientists, designers, and engineers of all kinds

    • Environmental scientists and urban planners

    • Anyone passionate about protecting our ecosystems and creating future-proof cities

    You can join the hackathon as an individual or a team, with or without an idea. We will facilitate a Pitching and Matchmaking Pre-event on September 19th, during which you can learn more about the others and their ideas and choose the team you would like to work with.


    Why Participate?

    • Collaborate with like-minded individuals and experts

    • Contribute to innovative solutions for a critical urban challenge

    • Gain hands-on experience with cutting-edge technologies

    • Make a tangible impact on our water bodies!

    • Get an amazing hackathon experience, brought to you by Garage48 and TalTech UWS


    🏆The prize fund for best ideas is 5000€!🏆

    Register Now and be part of the solution to preserve our future!



    Sep 19 (Thursday)

    13.00 - Catalogue of designs - technical solutions of LIFE LATESTadapt demo sites (TalTech).

    14.30 - Coffee / tea break

    15:00 - Hackathon Opening (by Garage48)

    15.10 - Presentation of ideas

    15.55 - Team formation

    16.25 - Impact-implementation matrix. What is a solution?

    17:10 - Final presentation

    17:55 - What’s next?

    18:00 – End of the day. Teamwork begins

     

    Sep 20 (Friday)

    09:00 - Coffee & light breakfast. Teamwork continues

    10:20 - Checkpoint #1. What are you going to build?

    11:00 - Mentors go around

    13:00 - Lunch

    14:00 - Pitch training

    14:30 - Teamwork continues

    18:00 - Checkpoint #2- Show us what you got. PPP
    19:00 - Dinner

    20:00 Teamwork continues; mentors go around

     

    Sep 21 (Saturday)

    09:00 - Coffee & light breakfast. Teamwork continues

    10:20 - Checkpoint #3. Show us the final prototype.

    11:30 - Pitch drill session #1

    13:00 - Lunch

    13:30 -14:10 Pitch drill session #2

    14:30 - Final event & LIVE pitching - 180 seconds

    15:00- Jury Deliberates. Light dinner.

    15:30-16:00  Award Ceremony. Networking



    Hackathon rules and guidelines

    1. Team formation happens on the 19th of September, 2024. Idea owners will have the chance to pitch their idea
    and individual participants will get to choose the idea they would like to work on during the hackathon days.

    2. Minimum number of participants in the team is 3, maximum number of participants in the team is 6.

    3. It is mandatory to fill out the RSVP form, even if the answer to participation is "No". Please also let the organizers know if you or some of your team members will participate in the hackathon online.

    4. The teams will be judged by the quality of the prototype,  team composition, problem-solution fit, feasibility to implement the prototype after the end of the hackathon and impact.
    WHAT IS SAID

    #ecotechhackathon2024

    THE SUPERSTARS
    The Mentors 

    Alar Kuusik
    Hardware developer and researcher of IoT, Smart City and telecare technologies. Senior Researcher at Communication System Research Group, Thomas Johann Seebeck Department of Electronics, TalTech
    Kerta Kõiv
    Chartered Engineer in Water Supply and Sewerage, EstQF Level 8. Junior Researcher at Urban Water Systems Research Group, TalTech
    Kristjan Suits
    Water Engineer. Junior Researcher at Urban Water Systems Research Group, TalTech
    Murel Truu
    Expert at Urban Water Systems Research Group, TalTech. Expert of sustainable & water sensitive urban planning
    Jurijs Kondratenko
    Extensive experience in urban planning with focus on climate adaptation, sustainable mobility, nature-based solutions, socio-economic impact assessment and cost-benefit analysis
    Joao Rei
    Garage48 host, business and marketing mentor

    Organizers

    Katrin Kaur
    Researcher at Urban Water Systems Research Group, TalTech. Expert of environmental fluid dynamics.
    Kseniia Karpenkova
    Project Manager at Garage48

    The Program is brought to you by: