DECODE THE OCEAN!
7, 8 & 9 February 2022
GEAR UP AT YOUR OWN PACE OVER A 3-WEEK IDEATION JOURNEY, JOIN A 3-DAY VIRTUAL HACKATHON AND WIN UP TO €60,000 IN PRIZES!
About the Blue-Cloud Hackathon
The Blue-Cloud Hackathon is an open invitation to marine scientists & researchers, data scientists, ICT experts, innovators, students, and anyone who is passionate about the Ocean to explore and test Blue-Cloud: A new, Open Science platform for the marine domain offering a wealth of data, analytical tools and computing power to support you in developing solutions for a safe, healthy, productive, predictive and transparent Ocean.
Participants will be challenged to develop applications that contribute to improving knowledge of marine ecosystems; support the transition to a greener, blue economy; advance Ocean literacy; and/or enhance international collaboration towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations Agenda 2030.
How to participate
Get familiar with Blue-Cloud
Follow a 3-week (optional) virtual ideation warm-up at your own pace and learn about Blue-Cloud’s services & tools
Form a team and propose your idea
During the warm-up, you will be invited to form a Team and shape the idea that you will work on during the hackathon.
Participate in the 3-day virtual hackathon
Together with your Team and your Blue-cloud mentors, build your idea to decode the Ocean!
Challenge Categories
You will be asked to deliver a “proof of concept” for an innovative solution that could be developed to address an Ocean challenge. Check out the challenge categories envisioned!
Understanding the Ocean.
How might we use collaborative science to advance knowledge of plankton and the key role it plays in supporting life in the Ocean?
Plankton is the fabric of marine ecosystems. They support the Ocean food webs and our fisheries, and they produce an estimated 50% of the Planet’s oxygen. However, in spite of successful efforts to gather a wealth of data, our knowledge of plankton remains difficult to analyze with integrative approaches. With your help, we can hack available plankton Big Data to address important knowledge gaps.
Feeding the World.
How might we balance our need to source healthy food from the Ocean to feed the World today with the need to secure a healthy Ocean for future generations?
Aquaculture has a crucial role in meeting the challenge of feeding a growing population while reducing the environmental impacts of food production. It has already overtaken fisheries as the main source of fish for human consumption. But aquaculture also poses risks to the marine environment. And it is affected by marine events that impact its productivity. With your help, we can make smarter aquaculture choices to feed the World without harming the Ocean.
Predicting environmental risks.
How might we use environmental indicators to understand complex phenomena affecting marine ecosystems and detect changes in their status with sufficient time to respond?
Climate change is causing severe impacts on marine ecosystems. However, these changes are often difficult to anticipate, leading to delays in the implementation of actions that could mitigate risks and help us adapt to new conditions. With your help, we can evolve early warning mechanisms to anticipate a more effective response.
Wild Card: Hack the Blue-Cloud!
How might we use Blue-Cloud to advance knowledge of the Ocean? Or to support the transition to a more sustainable Blue Economy? Or to promote Ocean literacy? Or to advance international cooperation to deliver the UN Sustainable Development Goals?
The Ocean does so much for us. And our health and wellbeing are intrinsically connected to it. With your help, we can make Blue-Cloud a powerful tool that brings people together to drive science-based action in support of the Ocean!
Registrations are now closed.
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CHECK THE AGENDA
Training & Ideation Warm Up
17 January – 4 February, 2022
Training, Innovation & ideation Workshops, matchmaking & team formation. Check the full agenda
3-Day Live Hackathon!
7, 8 and 9 February, 2022
Hacking time, coaching sessions, delivery proof of concepts, and more!
Winners announcement
9 February, 2022
Judges will announce the winners of the challenge!
€25,000
Towards further evolving and giving outreach to the winning solution, promoting its uptake
2 “innovation” coaching sessions to guide Team in evolving the solution
Travel costs covered for up to 2 Team members to participate in Blue-Cloud Final Conference
€20,000
Towards further evolving and giving outreach to the winning solution, promoting its uptake
2 “innovation” coaching sessions to guide Team in evolving the solution
Travel costs covered for up to 2 Team members to participate in Blue-Cloud Final Conference
€15,000
Towards further evolving and giving outreach to the winning solution, promoting its uptake
2 “innovation” coaching sessions to guide Team in evolving the solution
Travel costs covered for up to 2 Team members to participate in Blue-Cloud Final Conference
Blue Skies
Granted by “popular vote” of participants that join the “Pitch & Award Event”
Travel costs covered for up to 2 Team members to participate in Blue-Cloud Final Conference
The Winners commit to investing the awarded prize to further develop, boost and promote their solutions. The monetary component of the Prizes can be delivered only to legal entities registered in an EU Member State or in EU associated countries, as explained in the applicable Terms & Conditions.
Join us for the final “Pitching & Award Event” of the Blue-Cloud Hackathon!
Watch the video-pitches delivered by the Teams, follow a thrilling Q&A session with the Teams & Judges, vote for your favourite idea and get ready to discover the Winners of the hackathon!
“BLUE-CLOUD” HACKATHON JUDGES
Emilio Fortunato Campana
Director Engineering, ICT and Technologies for Energy and Transport at CNR.
Emilio is the director of the CNR Department of Engineering, ICT, and Technologies for Energy and Transport. He has a degree in Mechanical Engineering (with honors) and a Ph.D. in Numerical Fluid Dynamics. At the national level, he is the coordinator of the maritime project of the National Technological Cluster on surface mobility “Trasporti Italia 2020”, of which he is a member of the Strategic Guidance Council.
Silvia Dalla Costa
European Environment Agency
Silvia works at the European Environment Agency (EEA) and coordinates the information design and the data and content integration of the “Natural Capital and Ecosystems” information systems on marine and freshwater waters and on biodiversity, jointly managed with the European Commission. She has a PhD in New Technologies and Geoinformation for the management and monitoring of the territory and environment. She has been working for European institutions since 2012, leading the design and development of information platforms, and has participated in initiatives and task forces related to data accessibility and interoperability to support policy and decision making.
David Mills
Bangor University
David is Director of IMARDIS (The Integrated Marine Data and Information System) at Bangor University, a marine data infrastructure co-developed with the Welsh marine renewable sector to provide easy access to data and information arising from the SEACAMS2 program. As a former UK government scientist, David also brings significant experience in designing and implementing data gathering and information systems to meet EU and international policy requirements.
Ghada El Serafy
Deltares
Ghada is an expert on data sciences in ecosystem modeling and services. As a Specialist in data assimilation, data sciences, and applied informatics, she is actively involved in the strategic research and developments within Deltares. She is an associate professor in data science in aquatic ecosystems at the Technical University of Delft.
Othman Cherkaoui Dekkaki
Young Ambassador, All-Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance
Othman obtained his master’s degree in 2017 in “Applied mathematics: Help in decision making” from the Mohammed V University in Rabat, where he is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in the same field with a research focus on Optimization, Modelling, Optimal Control to assist decision-makers in their decisions. During this time, he has lectured about the importance of Modelling in decision making. He believes that coming together as an Ocean community, including youth in decision making, would tremendously help us in sustainability topics.
Elisa Ravagnan
NORCE
Elisa is a senior environmental scientist at NORCE, a Norwegian Research Centre, with more than 20 years of experience in environmental modelling and statistics, and inter-and cross-disciplinary approaches to environmental challenges. She has been leading and participating in many national and international projects and industry-financed projects in Oil&Gas aquaculture and marine sciences. She is co-leading the Nordic Centre of Excellence for Blue Bioeconomy SUREAQUA (funded by NordForsk) and she is the coordinator of the H2020-BG-08-2019 ASTRAL project.
Massimiliano Assante
CNR, D4Science
Massimiliano is the Operations and VRE Manager of the D4Science Infrastructure, and a Research Technologist at CNR-ISTI (Institute of Information Science and Technologies of the Italian National Research Council) skilled in leadership, with a strong foundation in math, logic, and cross-platform coding. He holds a Ph.D. on Information Engineering from University of Pisa and has more than 15 years of experience working on distributed systems, e-infrastructures and Virtual Research Environments.
Barbara Sierman
Digital Preservation, EOSC FAIR Champion
Barbara is active as a freelance digital preservation senior consultant. From the very first start in 2008, Barbara was an active participant in the National Coalition Digital Preservation – later incorporated in the Dutch Digital Heritage Network.
Dimitri Schuurman
Manager & Living Lab expert, IMEC
Dimitri manages the Business & Domain Expertise Center at imec’s Digital Transformation Department. He holds a PhD on Living Lab organization and methodology from Ghent University & the Free University of Brussels in Belgium. Together with his imec colleagues, Dimitri developed a specific Innovation Management approach & framework (called Innovatrix) which is designed for multi-stakeholder and multi-disciplinary innovation projects. He also leads a Special Interest Group on Living Labs in the International Society for Professional Innovation Management (ISPIM) and is active in the European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL) as a Living Labs expert.
DO YOU HAVE QUESTIONS?
WE ARE HERE TO HELP
What is the goal of the Blue-Cloud Hackathon?
The Blue-Cloud Hackathon is an open invitation to explore and test an innovative, web-based Open Science environment that has been developed by the Blue-Cloud project, geared at facilitating science-based solutions for a safe, healthy, productive, predictive and transparent Ocean.
Do I need to be a resident or live in a specific country to participate in the Hackathon?
Anyone is welcome to join this Hackathon.
How many people can my Team have?
The Hackathon is expected to welcome 60-100 participants, grouped into 6 to 10 Teams. Each Team should have a minimum of 2 and a maximum of 10 participants.
What do I do if I do not have a Team?
You are welcome to register as an individual. During the registration process and throughout the 3-week Virtual Ideation Warm Up, you will be able to meet other participants to set up a Team or to apply to join a Team that shares your interests or that might benefit from your talent, know-how or expertise.
How do I apply to join a Team?
You can visualise all the ideas that apply for the hackathon in the section “IDEAS”, directly on the platform HERE.
Do I have to pay to participate in the hackathon, at any stage?
Participation in the Blue-Cloud Hackathon and/or in any related program activity is completely free of charge.
Organized by
Blue-Cloud & Hackathon Partners
Blue-Cloud is powered by Open marine data and resources from:
