With a total of 165 participants from 29 countries, the winners of the “Building The Future Hackathon”, initiative organized by Microsoft, imatch, Galp and EIT InnoEnergy. The project Solar PV Positioning Optimizer Modulea hardware module for creating data-driven reports during the solar pre-installation phase, which allows optimizing the positioning and orientation of solar panels, was the big winner of the programming marathon and received a prize of €3,000.
2nd place was achieved by ElectriciTreea system of tree solar panels with adaptable movement to maximize sun exposure, which received a prize of €1,500, and in 3rd place, with a prize of €500, was Waste Powera platform to facilitate contact between industries, so that waste from one can be used as raw material for another.
The three winning projects, among the 20 innovative solutions in competition that sought to build a Low Carbon future, were selected for their potential, for the correct identification of the problem and creation of an adequate solution, for the correspondence to one of the challenges presented by the organizations, for the development of the team during the hackathon and for the quality and impact of his pitch.
Andrés Ortolá, General Manager of Microsoft Portugalsays: “After about five months, we have reached the end of another edition of Building The Future Hackathon and we are very satisfied, not only with the projects that were presented, but also with the fact that we have captivated a very diverse audience. We had the participation of programmers from 29 countries, who presented truly innovative solutions for a greener future. At Microsoft, we believe that technology serves its purpose when it is at the service of people and the planet, so we believe that actions of this kind, which promote innovation and inclusion, are essential to overcome many of the current challenges, such as, in this case, low carbon”.
Andreia Fernandes, Country Manager Portugal da EIT InnoEnergysays that “it was inspiring for us to support the projects that applied for the Building The Future Hackathon, through our mentoring in the area of sustainable energy. It is remarkable to see how projects from all over the world have come together with the common purpose of contributing to the sustainable energy transition, demonstrating that the digitization of energy is a central part of this path that we have to travel to achieve carbon neutrality”.
The way to the podium
To respond to the challenges imposed – Electric Vehicle Batteries; Financing the Energy Transition; Find the best locations for solar communities; Alternative photovoltaic solar energy solutions; and Optimization of Hydrogen Refueling Stations, the programmers and entrepreneurs, after having formed teams and gone through a mentoring phase with specialists from Galp and EIT InnoEnergy, had to choose the challenge, design a first conception of the project, defining the problem, the value proposition, the solution and the technology, later submitting it to TAIKAI, the Portuguese hackathon platform.
The six best proposals went on to the development phase where they worked on their solution in Azure, with the support of mentors from Microsoft. This phase ended with a pitch session, in which the teams presented and defended their solution before a jury made up of one member from each entity involved in the challenge, with the public, with the highest number of votes, choosing the project. winner among the four finalists selected after the pitch session – D30 Biofuel; ElectriciTree; Solar PV Positioning Optimizer Module; e Waste Power.
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