The sixth Ocean Hackathon, with six teams competing to win and get to go to the final competition in Brest mid-December, ended on Sunday, November 7. The winner was the team SHELLIFE from the Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries (IOR) and the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture (FESB), with a system for measuring age and assessing how environmental factors impact the growth of commercial shellfish species.
The winning team was led by Daria Ezgeta Balić, Hana Uvanović and Kristina Križnjak, from the Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries, and Alen Greb, Goran Gašparević, Josip Volf and Josip Marelja from FESB and Domina Sokol from the Faculty of Science. Over the weekend, an interdisciplinary team developed a solution that accelerated the process of estimating the age of shellfish, scallops in particular, by as much as 18,000 times.
The SEA ID team from ‘Oceanus’ was second, with an application that, scanning, provides information on different species of fish. Third place went to CRO SEA CLEAN APP team from ‘Sunce’ and the Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries with their application for recording amounts of waste collected during sea and coastal area clean-up operations.
Split’s teams’ solutions were evaluated by an expert jury consisting of Vice-rector for science and innovation, prof. Leandra Vranješ Markić Ph.D., director of SPINIT incubator and professor at FESB, prof. Sven Gotovac Ph.D., last year Ocean Hackathon’s winner and ‘Sailboat RC’s CEO, Josip Marasović, and ‘Plurato Sailfin’, the company that sponsored the third prize’s CEO, Nino Mijač,.
Special awards were presented to the contestants Anđela Brzica and Andro Rudan, participating in the Ocean Hackathon for the second time, for encouraging the entrepreneurial spirit among students.
Vice-rector, prof. Leandra Vranješ Markić Ph.D. congratulated the winners and emphasized that the University and the Student Entrepreneurship Incubator, as well as ICT County, that sponsored the first two awards, are at their disposal through various support programs and counselling services.
During the weekend, the teams were assisted by mentors, including head of the Maritime Meteorological Center Lidija Fuštar, who instructed and advised them on how to best use available data. This year, the State Hydrometeorological Institute provided its digital data to the Split teams, which greatly helped them in developing and solving the challenges. For any advice on developing a business model, there was prof. Ljiljana Najev Čačija Ph.D. from the Faculty of Economics, for presenting ideas and their innovative aspects, Nikola Balić, Head of University’s Department of Science and Innovation from, and Ivana Vuka, Head of the Technology Transfer Office, could provide any advice on intellectual property.