From 7 to 9 february EMODnet Chemistry took part in the Hackathon dedicated to the Blue-Cloud, the marine thematic platform of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC). The competition was mainly open to marine scientists & researchers, data scientists, ICT experts, innovators, and students. 32 teams took part in the hackathon, featuring 149 participants from 73 countries. Participants were challenged to discover and use Blue-Cloud's web-based ecosystem of services and resources to address specific challenges within three topics and one wildcard:
- 1. Understanding the Ocean
- 2. Feeding the World
- 3. Predicting environmental risks
- 4. Wildcard: Hack the Blue-Cloud!
Sebastian Mieruch from the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) led the team who participated in the following challenge of topic three: How might we use historical data to make predictions about the environmental conditions of a marine area?
The team, named EutroWarn, including ICT experts and marine scientists from AWI and OGS, proposed the idea of an Early Warning System for Severe Eutrophication: the enrichment of nutrients in estuaries and coastal areas by industry, agriculture and other human activities, which represents a topical issue for ecosystems and coastal aquatic communities. The data needed for such a system were provided by EMODnet Chemistry and retrieved from the BlueCloud Data discovery & access service.
Get all details on this idea thanks to the deliverables produced by the team:
The Particle Trackers came out on top winning the first prize with their “Sea Clearly” idea, which can help aquaculture providers, managers and end-users track pollutants such as microplastics in areas near aquaculture farms.
Watch the video of the Pitching & Award Live Event, where 10 teams were invited to defend their ideas.