The 1st Hack ARIADNA 2020 is held

5/12/2020

CIT UPC, Y4TP and the rest of the members of the ARIADNA project consortium organised the first hackathon ‘1st Hack ARIADNA 2020’, as part of the ARIADNA project. The main objective was to seek solutions and applications that, using GALILEO, can resolve the main challenges in the urban mobility and public transport sectors.

Hack ARIADNA 2020 started on 15 October and lasted 5 weeks. It had fifty participants from all around the world who were advised by 11 Global Mentors. A total of 11 teams reached the final that was held on 22 November. They presented their proposals to a jury formed of six members: three from the ARIADNA consortium and three from the Y4TP foundation.

The challenges set in the hackathon were related to COVID-19 and sustainable mobility. They were:

• Public transport during and after COVID-19: guaranteeing social distancing and consequently the safety of users.
• More sustainable, healthier mobility: reducing emissions, promoting healthy, sustainable mobility, improving the quality of life of people who live in urban areas.

The first prize was won by two teams equally. One was the startup HAMBA, represented by Kartik Mistry from South Africa who presented an algorithm on how to apply artificial intelligence (AI) through traffic lights and manage urban movement depending on traffic, to reduce journey time and improve the carbon footprint. The other was the startup SENSE4AIR, comprised of Marc van Nieuwenhoven, Massimo Santi, John Heesterbeek and Sander Claassen, from Holland and Italy, who presented an App to recommend routes with less pollution through sensors that monitor air quality at different points.

The winner of the second prize was the NETVAN group, comprised of Sofía Crespo, Juan Fernández and Rodrigo Galván, from Ecuador and Mexico, who proposed a free wi-fi implementation system for Mini Vans to reach rural zones affected by the COVID-19 crisis.

Third prize was awarded to the team SHEMOVES, comprised of Iqbal Noor and Rahmatullah Sherzai, from Afghanistan and the USA, who proposed an app to promote the use of public transport by women, designed especially for countries where mobility of women is unsafe.

The representatives of the first two winning teams will take part in the Y4PT Global Hack 2021 that will be held in Melbourne, Australia, in December 2021.

CIT UPC would like to thank all the people in the 11 teams from around the world for participating in the ‘1st Hack ARIADNA’. Thank you for developing more intelligent solutions and improving public transport effectively and sustainably, using the European satellite navigation system GALILEO.