Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Timisoara, Iasi, Oradea, October 11, 2023 – by rbj – Five teams will represent Romania at the NASA International Space Apps Challenge, the world’s largest annual hackathon in which tens of thousands of people participate to find real solutions to problems on Earth and in space. Among the winning projects of the hackathon, which took place on 7-8 October, were solutions for geo-agriculture, for fire management in areas without mobile phone or internet access, and an app that uploads videos from space, each image being then turned into sound.
The teams represent the five cities where the competition took place this year in Romania (offline in Bucharest and Cluj-Napoca and online in Oradea, Timisoara and Iasi), with one team chosen per city.
Thus, the five winning teams are: Dvloper.io in Bucharest, R.A.G.E in Cluj- Napoca, Open 360 in Timișoara, Kilonova in Iași and Soft Hoarders in Oradea.
More than 50,000 participants from over 400 cities
The five teams were chosen from a total of 28 teams in Romania. In terms of the number of participants, there were 189 competitors in Romania, our country being ranked sixth in Europe in terms of number of participants.
Globally there were over 50,000 participants in over 400 cities.
The mission of the NASA International Space Apps Challenge is to foster collaboration, creativity and critical thinking, encourage interest for Earth and space exploration, raise global awareness of NASA data, and develop the next generation of scientists, engineers, technologists and designers.
During the hackathon, participants use public data from NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) and its space agency partners.
Programmers, scientists, designers, engineers, technology enthusiasts, storytellers from all over the world may participate in the hackathon.
Who are the winners from Romania and what solutions they proposed. The winners include high school students
Dvloper.io, the team that won the competition in Bucharest, proposed Demeter, a geo-agriculture application that adapts to the needs of the parcel. Thus, the solution can improve decision-making and forecasting capabilities, provide analysis of past crop performance and data for planning future harvests (e.g. what type of cereals are best suited to be grown) or save water consumption. Team members are Răzvan Georgescu, Thushara and Andrei Zvirid
R.A.G.E, the winning team in Cluj-Napoca, created an emergency early warning system for fire-risk areas. The system can send emergency messages and information to and from remote areas and communities without access to GSM infrastructure or the Internet. Team members are Gabriel Oltean, Eusebiu Ștefan Coltanel, Răzvan Udrea and Adrian Costea.
Open 360, the team that will represent Timisoara, has created a marketplace platform through which volunteers can follow their favorite NASA Open Science projects, receiving an email every week with the progress of the project. The members of the Open 360 team are Alexandru-Florin Boboc and Cătălin Andrei Bora.
Kilonova, the winning team in Iasi – a team of high school students – developed Selenotone, a website that allows users to upload videos from space. The video is then processed by a programme created by the Kilonova team, which then provides sound to match the visuals. Members of the team are high school students Dragoș Lazăr, Octavian Găinaru, Andrei Pătrașcu, Maria Vasilache, Teodor Moscaliuc and Rareș Neculau.
Soft Hoarders, the winning team from Oradea, created a water use education and awareness app that is called “The Water Cycle: Balancing Act”. The team members are Bogdan Alexandru Văduva, Vlad Ciunel Vlad and Alexia Bulubasa.
“Participating as a juror in the NASA International Space Apps Challenge hackathon was a great experience, and what I really liked was to see again what creative people Romania has. As for the participants in future editions, I think they should think about their solutions as thoroughly as possible, to see who and how would use the proposed solutions. It would help a lot if participants could think in advance about what topics to choose so that during the hackathon to have a clear idea of what their solution will look like. I would also hope that they would have more confidence in themselves and when presenting their solutions they would think and talk like winners. I was glad to see very young people in the teams because an event like this allows them to find solutions to real problems with no bureaucracy and no limits. This way, participants can really let their imagination run wild”, said Armand Domuța, General Manager of Restart Energy and member of the NASA International Space Apps Challenge jury.
“It’s impressive to see so many passionate, creative, innovative and entrepreneurial young people in one place, putting all their skills to quickly advance from an idea to an MVP that addresses real needs in their ecosystem. I discovered many interesting projects and different approaches to similar challenges, innovative thinking patterns, orientation towards solutions and native technology integration. That’s how innovation really happens, and the hackathon is one more proof that the next generation is equipped for the digital transformation of the future”, said Gerke Witteveen, NN Pensions CEO and NASA International Space Apps Challenge mentor.
In Romania, the biggest hackathon in the world is organized by ROTSA and DiFine PR. The first edition of the NASA International Space Apps Challenge in Romania took place in 2016.
The event is organized with the support of Google Romania, NN, Restart Energy and Cloudsoft.
The NASA International Space Apps Challenge (Space Apps) is an international hackathon for programmers, scientists, designers, storytellers, creators, builders, and technologists. During the hackathon, teams from cities around the world use public data from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and its space agency partners to tackle real-world problems on Earth and in space.
The Space Apps Challenge is NASA’s annual innovation incubation program. The program co-opts thousands of people from around the world, who work with NASA’s public data for 48 hours. Since its launch in 2012, the NASA Space Apps Challenge has engaged over 220,000 people from over 185 countries and territories.
Space Apps is managed by the Earth Sciences Division, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC.
