HackaTUM 2023: Students Innovate Solutions for Practical Problems in Eighth Annual Hackathon

HackaTUM 2023: Students Innovate Solutions for Practical Problems in Eighth Annual Hackathon

(IN BRIEF) The eighth edition of the annual “hackaTUM” hackathon, organized by the TUM School of Computation, Information, and Technology (CIT), recently took place, drawing participation from students across 75 universities spanning three continents. With a focus on addressing practical challenges, the hackathon welcomed over 1,750 applications, ultimately selecting 900 participants without requiring TUM enrollment. Organized by a dedicated team led by Alexandra Klymenko, the event featured real-world challenges from nine prestigious sponsor companies, workshops, and networking opportunities. Teams of two to four participants worked tirelessly over a 36-hour period to create innovative solutions, with the winning team, “TreeFriends,” developing an app to protect urban trees during extreme weather events. Beyond the prizes, hackaTUM emphasized camaraderie and enthusiasm for coding, with plans already underway for hackaTUM 2024.

(PRESS RELEASE) MUNICH, 24-Nov-2023 — /EuropaWire/ — Energy transition in the household, personalization of cooking recipes, help with extreme weather conditions – this year’s “hackaTUM” was once again all about creative solutions to practical problems. Students from 75 universities on three continents took on the tasks set by companies.

The official Hackathon of the TUM School of Computation, Information and Technology (CIT) took place for the eighth time last weekend. Originating from a research project, the programming competition has now developed into one of the largest of its kind in Europe. The organizing team received over 1,750 applications this year. 900 participants were selected. An enrolment at TUM is not required.

“Anyone who is enthusiastic about coding and can withstand the 36 hours can take part,” Alexandra Klymenko explains with a smile. The doctoral candidate from the Chair for Software Engineering for Business Information Systems has been organizing the weekend event in her spare time for several years together with her colleagues Stephen Meisenbacher, Nektarios Machner, Tim Schopf and Juraj Vladika. Nine prestigious sponsor companies provided the challenges this year. “On Friday evening, the participants were introduced to the various tasks,” explains Alexandra Klymenko. “These are real problems from everyday life.” There was also a so-called “Wild Track”, where participants were able to present their own tasks. In addition to the challenges, the companies also offered workshops and networking events.

Once the teams of two to four people had been formed, it was: eat, code, drink, repeat. The schedule was tight. Very few people got to sleep in the prepared seminar rooms. The aim was not just to develop a concept over the weekend. At the end, there had to be a finished product, for example in the form of an app – including a convincing short presentation. The organizing team not only provided the necessary food and plenty of energy drinks to keep the participants going, but also on Saturday, a Music Mania quiz and PowerPoint karaoke ensured a great atmosphere and a further boost of motivation. On Sunday, the results of the challenges were evaluated by the respective sponsoring companies and two winning teams were chosen.

Overall winner from 20 top teams

In the end, the best 20 teams competed to be named the overall winner. The jury, consisting of Florian Matthes, professor for Software Engineering for Business Information Systems and Jörg Ott, professor for Connected Mobility, decided in favor of the “TreeFriends” team. Sansha Sharma, Marcel Ganß, Nikolai Madlener and Vincent Picking had chosen the challenge of the City of Munich.

Help for threatened trees

The challenge was to find a solution that would help residents of the city during extreme weather events such as heat, storms or heavy rain. The four hackers developed an app designed to protect the green treasure of cities. “Trees in public spaces face a number of challenges in dry and hot weather, such as sealed soils and little space for roots,” explains Marcel Ganß. “Our app notifies residents near threatened trees so that they can water them in good time, for example.” Real-time alerts guide users to specific locations and provide details on the individual needs of each tree. The app provides citizens with knowledge, promotes social engagement and thus ensures the well-being of urban green spaces.

The outstanding commitment was rewarded with great prizes and invitations to the company headquarters. For many participants, the prizes are not the main focus. “hackaTUM is not just a programming competition, but also a great opportunity to have fun and make new friends with cool people who share the same enthusiasm,” says Alexandra Klymenko. For her and her co-organizers, the enormous effort involved in preparing and running the hackathon was well worth it. “We’re looking forward to hackaTUM 2024 and are already developing ideas on how we can top the previous event,” reveals the doctoral candidate.

Media Contact:

Corporate Communications Center
Doris Herrmann / Julia Rinner
presse@tum.de

Contacts to this article:

Alexandra Klymenko / Nektarios Machner
Technical University of Munich
hackatum.in@tum.de
https://hack.tum.de/

SOURCE: Technical University of Munich