During the weekend on 5-6th October 2024, NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration in the US) organized an annually recurring global hackathon called the NASA International Space Apps Challenge. As a part of this hackathon, numerous organizations and partners organize in cooperation and training from NASA, local events all around the world - one of them was organized here in Gothenburg - NASA International Space Apps Challenge at YESBOX. This year’s theme was “The Sun Touches Everything”, to celebrate the Sun’s influence on Earth and the entire solar system.
We are thrilled by the fantastic turnout at the hackathon, which drew SKIP members and Software Engineering and Management bachelor’s students from all year levels. Following the initial ceremony, teams collaborated to build innovative solutions for a variety of intriguing challenges!
NASA and their partner agencies and organizations from all around the world have provided tools and datasets for the participants to base their project on them. During the weekend, several Local Event’s sponsors and partners hold presentations (Chalmers, ESA…). The first day ended with an opportunity to visit the Universeum’s Wisdome and later to mingle with other participants and organizers.
On Sunday’s afternoon, the teams presented their solutions and demo their MVPs in front of judges from GU Ventures, Beyond Gravity and University of Gothenburg/Chalmers, who also asked questions about both the products and the businesses. The teams had to submit their projects by Sunday’s midnight to be judged and 2 teams to be declared the local event winners - Global Nominees, who are then to be assessed by NASA and their partners.
With the Global Nominees being announced just a few days ago, we are very proud to mention that both winning teams are from SEM.
Team Mus Musculus is a team comprised of first year SEM students, whose majority just started university 1 month before the hackathon. They have worked on a tool that should ease the cognitive load that comes with grasping the contents of scientific data.
Team, SPACE JUNKIES, is a team comprised of 3rd year SEM students who worked on an innovative educational platform designed to make the fascinating world of exoplanets accessible to children.
Congratulations to all the groups for creating and innovating and thank you for representing our programme!