The 5TH CASSINI Hackathon and Mentorship in Nicosia, Cyprus. 24 to 26 March 2023
In March 2023, CIP, inspired and guided by the HEIDI methodology and the DAs upskilling opportunities of the HEIDI project, organised and facilitated the 5th CASSINI Hackathon and Mentorship in Nicosia, Cyprus. The event was run under the auspices of the Cyprus Space Exploration Organisation (CSEO).
Within the framework of the European Commission’s Competitive Space Start-ups, the 5th CASSINI Hackathon took place as a motivator for participants to develop innovative solutions for defence and security through the use of EU Space technology, data, and services.
This year’s topic was “Space for Defence & Security” covering three main challenges:
Challenge #1: Enabling Cross-terrain Mobility
This challenge called on the development of innovative concepts or the design of new products/services that enable cross-terrain mobility for defence forces, emergency response teams, and humanitarian aid forces in a variety of weather conditions.
Challenge #2: Making the seas more secure
This challenge called on the development of innovative concepts or the design of new products/services to strengthen maritime intelligence against direct security threats, organised crime, and environmental crime.
Challenge #3: Protecting our critical infrastructure
This challenge called on the development of innovative concepts or the design of new products/services that assess the risk of disruption to critical infrastructure and plan for mitigation and recovery scenarios.
This event took place across 10 different locations throughout Europe simultaneously.
The participating teams received mentoring and training throughout the weekend to identify the challenges faced in terms of defence and security, and harness digital infrastructure to provide coherent solutions. They were mentored by a team of experts comprised of Michalis Strouthos, Abdullah Bin Masood, Asfa Jamil, George Mendrinos, George Michas, Marios Glytsos, Colm Larkin and Marios Iakovou.
The pan European winner was a Cypriot team called “Hiris Guider” Identifying the high cost of creating emergency response plans and the use of outdated technologies in such responses, as a key problem leading to the underpreparetndess of local authorities in the face of natural disasters, Hiris Guider, designed a platform based solution that is able to evaluate evacuation plans and localise high-risk areas in advance.
The CIP Team would like to extend their congratualtions to the winning team and thank all participants for their insights contributions, making this DA event a success.