Ocean Hackathon® 2023: 13 teams from around the world come together for the Grand Finale

Ocean Hackathon®: Grand Finale 2023

The Ocean Hackathon® 2023 Grand Finals, 14 winners from all over the world.

Team from Rimouski

They came to Brest as a team, sometimes accompanied by the adviser of their local edition. They came from Boulogne-sur-mer (France), Bournemouth (UK), Brest (France - the locals), Cherbourg (France), Concepción (Chile), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), La Rochelle (France), Cape Town (South Africa), Peniche (Portugal), Rimouski (Canada), Plymouth (UK) and Toulon (France). The team from Nouméa (France) took part by videoconference, adapting to our time difference. They pitched in the middle of the night. We'd also like to thank Brittany Ferries for offering the crossing to the Plymouth team. A great partnership.

Replay of the Ocean Hackathon® 2023 Grand Finale

The Grand Finale was the final stage of the Ocean Hackathon® 2023 adventure, which brought together a total of 79 teams, over 600 participants and more than 200 coaches. Take a look back at the atmosphere of the 14 local editions on video:

Video medley of the Ocean Hackathon® 2023 local editions

The Ocean Hackathon® 2023 Grand Finale is a pitch competition and much more besides

Toulon team pitch

Each team had 6 minutes to present its project and 5 minutes to answer the jury's questions and convince them. As well as being an international pitch competition, the Ocean Hackathon® Grand Finale is also, and above all, a high point, mixing languages and cultures and resolutely focused on preserving the ocean. On Monday evening, the first people to arrive were welcomed to a dinner in Brest city centre. An ice breaker to get to know each other and/or take a breather after a long journey.

This morning, at the Plateau des Capucins, the mood was one of rehearsal. Fine-tuning the presentation and resolving any last-minute technical problems. The participants then gathered for a convivial lunch at the Totem de la French Tech Brest Bretagne Ouest.

14h. 5th Ocean Hackathon® Grand Finale, officially opened by Michel Gourtay, President of Technopôle Brest-Iroise. The event was once again hosted in English by Rob Gwinner, English Apart. This was followed by the 14 pitches prepared by the finalist teams.

Guillaume Mazé et  Kevin Balem, Ocean Hackathon® 2023

During the much-awaited calculation of points, participants had the chance to attend the keynote address "The history of ARGO data: from the sensor to your smartphone", by Guillaume Mazé (research oceanographer-physicist, Ifremer) and Kevin Balem (development and data processing engineer, Ifremer). ARGO is an international programme for collecting oceanographic data (temperature, salinity and biogeochemical parameters) in real time from 4,000 autonomous profiling floats that drift with ocean currents and regularly dive below the ocean surface. Ifremer has been a major player in the ARGO programme since its inception.

The Ocean Hackathon® 2023 Grand Finale, a high quality jury

The jury consisted of representatives of the Ambassadors and the organisers of the local editions (the latter could not vote for their own team). The criteria: clarity of presentation, expression of the problem to be solved, dynamism and originality of the pitch, adherence to time limits and involvement of all team members in the project.

Many thanks to Alastair Morrison (Bournemouth), Françoise Duprat (Brest), Samaneh Rajaeidoust (Cherbourg), Valérie Barbosa (Kuala Lumpur), Mathieu Godard (La Rochelle), Sergio Leandro (Peniche), Lorraine Rupert (Plymouth) and Iliass Lamrini (Rimouski), Florence Sergent (Boulogn-sur-mer), Herland Cerveaux (Cape Town), Nayat Sanchez Pi (Concepción) and Chalotte Blottière (Toulon).

Many thanks also to Michel Cousquer (Cerema), Pierre Serodes (Ifremer), Céline Liret (Océanopolis), Jean-Claude Le Gac (Shom), Alexandre Luczkiewicz (Cluster Maritime Français), Fabrice Messal (Mercator Ocean International) and Minh Tâm Hua (Secrétariat d'Etat chargé de la mer).

Finally, thanks to Krishna Chaitanya Rao Kathala (University of Massachusetts Amherst) and Linwood Pendleton (OceanKAN) for their involvement in the jury.

The Ocean Hackathon® 2023 Grand Final: 3 winners

The podium was rewarded as follows: €5,000 for 1^st place, €3,000 for 2^nd place and €1,500 for 3^rd place. The prizes were donated by the event's Ambassadors: Cedre, Cerema, the French Maritime Cluster, Ifremer, Mercator Ocean International-Copernicus marine service, Météo France, Océanopolis, Shom and the French Secretary of State for the Sea.

Representatives from Océanopolis, Shom, Ifremer and Cerema were on hand to hand over the large cheques, symbols of this 2023 victory.

And the 3 Ocean Hackathon® 2023 winners are:

1^st place: Toulon (France)

• Title: Vanessa
• Topic: Vanessa, Simplifying marine communication with VANESSA, a new marine tool

2^nd place: Concepción (Chile)

• Title: License to krill
• Topic: License to krill: an IA biogeophysical model to manage krill ecosystems

3^rd place: Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia)

• Title: iHAB
• Topic: Advancing Management of Harmful Algal Blooms: A High-Performance Predictive Tool for Enhanced Prevention and Mitigation!

The 3 winning teams of Ocean Hackathon® 2023

Next edition of Ocean Hackathon®

The Campus mondial de la mer and Technopôle Brest-Iroise would like to thank the Brittany Region and Brest Métropole for their support. We look forward to seeing you in 2025 for the next Ocean Hackathon®. In the meantime, 2024 will be a year of reflection on the model, exchanges with all the partners, particularly the data-supplying partners, and feedback on the projects developed.