International Space Apps Challenge 2019 in Tartu
Date
2019-12-12
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Geograafia Osakond, Tartu Ülikool
Abstract
The Department of Geography, the Tartu Observatory and Tartu Science Park jointly organised and hosted a 48h hackathon event as part of the 2019 International Space Apps Challenge. This global event happened on the weekend 18.-20. October 2019 at more than 225 locations, 80 countries, world-wide over the course of the weekend with more than 29.000 participants, and with Tartu as the only Estonian location. We are organising this event in Tartu for the second time, after the debut in 2018.
Overall it can be concluded that this was again a very successful event: the teams developed substantial solutions and got engaged with industry and entrepreneurship; inter-departmental and inter-sectoral networks for the research institutes have been strengthened in particular between the organising institutes and with the Tartu Science Park/ESA Business Incubator and several leading innovative (geospatial) software companies, such as CGI, KappaZeta and Datel.
Description
Space Apps is a two-days international hackathon that occurs in cities around the world, globally coordinated by NASA. It is an annual event that pulls citizens together regardless of their background or skill level to address challenges we face on Earth and in Space. Project teams were formed to work on specific topics that they either developed themselves or were suggested by sponsors, the panel or ourselves. The teams' results were then presented and judged by a panel at the end of the event.
From overall 69 registrations initially, we eventually had 8 teams formed from 50 participants. This year Earth Observation was the main topic. We aimed to encourage the hackathon participants to use ESA and NASA satellite remote sensing and other global data as an ingredient to solve problems that matter.
Like last year, we wanted to provide a safe platform for motivated students from various backgrounds to work together on real problems in a hackathon event, while at the same time learning the benefits of interdisciplinary work and combined team work with different skills. The second goal was to foster networking between the research institutes and the geospatial industry in Tartu, and expose students to the field of geospatial and Earth Observation (EO) applications.
Keywords
Research Subject Categories::TECHNOLOGY, Research Subject Categories::FORESTRY, AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES and LANDSCAPE PLANNING, NASA, ESA, SpaceApps, hackathon, geography, earth observation, remote sensing