In the annual climate hackathon «Climathon'23» : Clean Air and Climate-Friendly Urban Environment», the team «Poower» received the top prize for their idea of a crowdfunding platform that would allow city residents to invest in the construction of solar or wind energy parks, as well as to engage in the production of renewable energy resources, which would provide the opportunity to consume self-produced green energy.
At this year's hackathon, climate neutrality enthusiasts, students, and professionals from various industries searched for and developed solutions to the challenges of the Riga municipality and the Riga Energy Agency (REA), which were aimed at monitoring and controlling urban air quality, as well as the involvement of residents in air quality monitoring and improvement.
A total of 16 teams participated in the competition. The first-place winners received a cash prize of 2,500 euros. The judges also saw great potential in the «Green River» team, who received second place honors and a cash prize of 1,500 euros for their idea of combining smart traffic lights with air quality sensors, thus optimizing the traffic flow in city areas where excessive amounts of CO2 emissions are observed.
The «Birch» team of Riga Technical University and the RTU Riga Business School took third place and received a cash prize of 1,000 euros, as they offered the concept of collecting data from several sensors located in the city and interpreting them with the help of machine learning, creating heat maps.
The «MossHub» team, which offered an eco-technological solution - placing two-sided moss displays in the urban environment, thus helping to effectively reduce the level of CO2 in the city, received the sympathy award from «Rīgas meži».
«Climate change affects us all, expanding responsibility, starting from the decisions and actions of each individual up to policy makers, research, and higher education institutions must also be actively involved in offering solutions to the challenges caused by climate change in cities. We are convinced that good results can be achieved by working with municipalities and other industry representatives, as well as by inspiring urban residents to become partners in mitigating the effects of climate change. Our task, by ensuring the exchange of knowledge and providing support to the parties involved, is to help find an environment for the exchange of ideas, which can result in innovative solutions, to reduce the impact of cities on climate change and take steps towards sustainable development by joint efforts,» explained Liene Briede, RTU Vice-Rector for Innovations.
To promote the development of data-based innovative solutions, the hackathon participants had an exclusive opportunity to access the sensors of the «Tet» air quality station, the mapping service of the CO2 sequestration and phytoremediation ecosystem of «Rīgas Meži», as well as Riga's geospatial data from «GEO RĪGA».
For participants to be able to use data more successfully, Rīgas Digital organized a special workshop. More than 30 mentors advised the participants in the development of solutions. The developed solutions were evaluated by a jury consisting of four experts.
The «Climathon'23» Hackathon was organized by RTU Science and Innovation Center in cooperation with Riga Municipality, REA, European Commission Representation in Latvia, «Schneider Electric Latvija», «Riga Forests», «Tet», and «GEO RĪGA».
