4th Cassini Hackathon: EU Space Data for the Financial World

From November 4^th-6^th, hackers from across Switzerland met at ZKSD for the 4th CASSINI Hackathon organized by Space4Impact. The competition is part of the CASSINI Space Entrepreneurship Initiative by the European Commission to support space-related entrepreneurship across Europe. Within 48h the teams were challenged to revolutionize the financial sector using earth observation data and thus provide an important contribution to sustainable development by connecting different disciplines beyond the academic boundaries.

Thanks to the welcoming atmosphere of the ZKSD and the hybrid format of the event, teams were able to interact in-person for brainstorming as well as collaborate remotely to easily connect with team members working from home. The teams quickly identified the potential applications in various fields such as the agricultural sector where water stress levels of crops indicate the sustainable use of fresh water. One team also investigated the topic of space debris and the need to sustainably use the limited space in Earth’s orbit and mitigation efforts of space hardware polluting Earth upon re-entry into the atmosphere. With direct support of experts from the space, IT and finance sector the teams formed their innovative ideas into projects and pitched their approach in front of jury panel on the last day.

The top three Swiss teams were awarded with cloud computing credits to further pursue their project. The Swiss winning team named ‘Cropernicus’ was even awarded 3^rd place out of 60 teams across Europe. The hackathon was a good example showcasing that satellite data can impact large industrial sectors and contribute to a more sustainable society.