International port technology hackathon PORTATHON will take place in the port city of Klaipėda for the fifth year in a row – this time on October 6-8. Every year, the initiative gathers a wide international community of innovators, who dedicate 48 hours to unlocking the presented challenges and generating innovative solutions.
4 thematic directions
The main organizers of the event are the Klaipėda Science and Technology Park and the Lithuanian Maritime Cluster, along with long-standing hackathon partners and new supporters from Lithuania and abroad. This year, the hackathon will also stand as the flagman of the international project Blue Supply Chains and will seek to respond to the challenges related to the creation and development of sustainable supply chains in the Baltic Sea Region countries.
PORTATHON challenges represent problems and questions that are extremely relevant for Klaipėda and other ports, businesses operating in them, as well as residents of port cities. Challenges are presented and grouped according to consistently refined thematic directions – these are logistics, energy, sustainable environment of ports, port cities and ecosystems, digital solutions for the maritime industry.
For the second year in a row, the initiative will be implemented in a hybrid format: individual participants and teams will meet in the Klaipėda Science and Technology Park and other physical locations in foreign countries, as well as online.
Registration has already started – it is open to startups, students, teachers and lecturers who want to help young people gain practical experience in the development and implementation of technological ideas.
Representatives of IT, shipbuilding, transport and logistics and other business organizations operating in the port also make up a significant part of the participants every year – for specialists in various fields, whose teams are delegated by companies, this event opens up the opportunity to look at everyday processes, problems in a new way and to look for creative solutions, with the help of and competences and insights of external experts.
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A strong community
Last year, more than 100 participants registered in PORTATHON, who were assisted by mentors from Lithuania, Germany, Sweden, Romania and Poland – scientific and business organizations. Innovative ideas were developed in the Klaipėda Science and Technology Park, as well as remotely in other Lithuanian and foreign cities, by students of engineering, IT and other fields of study, mixed teams of young people and teachers and lecturers, and business representatives.
The World Maritime University team has joined this hackathon for the first timeas well as the European university alliance EU-CONEXUS.
The result: 16 solutions
During the 48-hour event, technology enthusiasts and professionals from different fields generated 16 technological solutions last year. The winners of Portathon shared the prize fund of 4,000 EUR.
Hackathon teams were led to victory by an internationalline-up of mentors – experts from Lithuania, Sweden, UAE, Germany. The participants were assisted by professionals from Omega 365, Klaipėdos Nafta, Inobiostar, Klaipėda University, Lithuanian Higher Maritime School, Klaipėda City Municipality, Innovation Agency, Blekinge University of Technology, Hochschule Wismar University of Applied Sciences and other organizations.
REGISTRATIONS
Teams/ Participants: https://bit.ly/Portathon2023Participants
Mentors: https://bit.ly/Portathon2023Mentors
Challenges: https://bit.ly/Portathon2023Challenges
Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme 2021-2027
https://interreg-baltic.eu/project/bluesupplychains/
This article has been produced with the financial assistance of the European Union. The contents of this article are the sole responsibility of Klaipėda Science and Technology Park and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the European Union.
