Sign up to solve one of the 7 challenges that will compete in the first Ocean Hackathon in Santiago

Between November 5th and 7th, the international scientific event Océan Hackathon will be held for the first time in Chile and South America. In its sixth edition, this activity is organized in France by the Campus Mondial de la Mer and in our country by the French Embassy, ​​the French Institute and Inria Chile, with the cooperation of the Data Observatory.

The challenges, all related to climate change, pollution of the seas and different problems in the marine environment, have already been chosen, and today they are looking for researchers who want to join the teams to solve them.

Do you want to participate? We have already selected the 7 challenges to solve during the Hackathon. Applications are open from September 16 to October 19 to form the teams that will participate in this two-day scientific-technological marathon. During the competition, with related digital databases related to the sea, a challenge will be solved through the development of a pilot or proof of concept.

The winning team from Chile will travel to Campus Mondial de la Mer in Brest  (France) in December to compete with the winners from each of the 16 cities around the world where this Océan Hackathon takes place. The three winning teams will receive a cash prize.

This is an official meeting of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Sciences for Sustainable Development (#OceanDecade). In Chile it has the support of Séché, the Veolia group and ValpoSub.

Our country ranks tenth in the world with the largest maritime territory and the first in Latin America in terms of sea surface, which is why the Océan Hackathon seeks to involve the Chilean innovation ecosystem and young people in the protection of the oceans, and strengthen French cooperation -Chilean in digital sciences.

These are the 7 challenges:

• 1. "LaboratorIA" is led by Renzo Valencia, leader of the KITAI organization's "The Other Lab" project, and seeks to create a chip-scale laboratory to observe the problems generated by climate change.

• 2. “Satellite detection system for red tides in the fjords of Patagonia” is led by Vera Oerder, from the San Ignacio de Huinay Foundation, and seeks to develop an application that detects harmful algal blooms automatically and in real time.

• 3. “Relationship between genomic signals in ocean and environmental metagenomes” is headed by Alejandro Maass, director of the Center for Mathematical Modeling of the University of Chile, and aims to understand the genomic relationships of the bacterial soil.

• 4. “Where do the ghost nets go?: pinnipeds as bioindicators of vulnerable ecosystems” is led by Diego Pérez, and seeks to understand how the overexploitation of fishing affects interactions with related fauna.

• 5. “Determining plankton species in satellite images” is led by Luis Martí, scientific director of Inria Chile, and aims to determine the variation of plankton species that inhabit an area of ​​the ocean by crossing genomic data with satellite images.

• 6. “The environmental impact of salmon farming in southern Chile: a view from above” is led by Léa Cabrol, from the Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity of the University of Chile, and seeks to geolocate salmon farming centers on an interactive map, as well as analyze satellite images to assess the marine environmental impact generated.

• 7. “The Grey-headed Albatross: Sentinel of Global Climate Change at the Southern Summit of the Americas” is led by Francisco Aguirre, from the Cabo de Hornos Sub-Antarctic Center, who intends to integrate existing long-term and freely accessible databases, from albatross colonies to distribution and extractive effort of fisheries.

Participating in the Ocean Hackathon® is the opportunity to:

• Develop useful and innovative technological tools that provide solutions to ocean problems.
• Work as a team with people from different disciplines and researches in a relaxed environment.
• Test ideas and have access to a diversity of data related to seas and oceans.
• Get advice in different areas (data science, information technology, marine science, entrepreneurship, etc.)

• The team selected at the end of the 48 hours of hackathon will be able to participate in the grand finale in December 2021.
• The 3 winning teams of the grand final will share a prize of €18,000.

• Challenge proposals: until June 13th, 2021.
• Selection of the challenges: June 2021.
• Registration of participants and election of teams: from September 16th to October 19th.
• 48 hours of hackathon: November 5th-7th, 2021.
• Grand final to be held in the city of Brest (France) or virtually: December 2021.