CASSINI Hackathon in Riga will seek new business ideas for sustainability

From 13 to 15 September Riga will be one of ten cities hosting the 7th CASSINI Hackathon – an international space business support programme, which is focused this year on promoting sustainability by using satellite data. In Latvia, the event is being organised by the Latvian Space Industry Association, which won this opportunity as a result of a competition held by the European Union (EU) Space Programme.

The CASSINI Hackathon is open to anyone, however it may be of particular interest to specialists in information technology, environmental protection, business and communication, entrepreneurs, as well as students. A team of experts-mentors will assists the participants by advising them about satellite data analysis, business development and communication.

The participants of the Hackathon will have the opportunity to work with satellite data provided by the EU Space Programme from such programmes as “Copernicus”, “Galileo” and “EGNOS”. Additionally high-quality data will also be made available to the participants by international aerospace company “Airbus”, which is a cooperation partner of the Latvian Space Industry Association.

Participants will be able to compete with their ideas or choose from the already established problems and work on solving those. Several cooperation partners of the Hackathon have defined specific problems, the proposed solutions to which may be implemented in practice. For example, the Riga City Council is urging the participants – young scientists to propose innovative solutions for developing the concept of a sustainable smart city, while the Latvian National Peat Society wants to see how satellite data could be used in managing peat bogs and calculating greenhouse gas emissions. Other cooperation partners, such as “Privātais mežs” and “Gravity Team”, have established their own sustainability problems in regard to using satellite data in ensuring sustainability and optimisation in forestry, as well as the use of block-chain technologies.

The Hackathon will simultaneously take place in ten countries: Latvia, Norway, Spain, Romania, Poland and elsewhere. The national winners will participate in a European level final, which will take place on-line on 18 September.

The Riga Hackathon will be held at the Science and Innovation Centre of the Riga Technical University at Ķīpsalas iela 6A. The winners of the Latvian event will receive valuable prizes, and they will also have the chance to participate in the final where the prize money totals EUR 9000 and includes 100 mentor hours with experts from various European organisations.

Cassini is part of the EU Space Programme and is aimed at providing support to businesses in the space industry. Use of space technologies to create sustainable development solutions is a topical issue throughout Europe. Information from satellites (satellite data) could potentially be used for environmental monitoring, e.g., monitoring the status of forests, water resources and the atmosphere, as well as for forecasting natural disasters and reducing damages thereof. Moreover, satellite data can be useful in agriculture for optimisation of production processes and improving land management practices, as well as in urban planning by facilitating efficient development of infrastructure and energy management. Space technologies also provide opportunities to improve the functioning of the transportation and logistics sector, and to promote innovations in developing new business solutions. 

Information material prepared with the support of the Recovery Fund.