Natalia Ogorelysheva as a jury member at TU Dortmund Hackathon
This past weekend, the TU Dortmund Hackathon [1] took place at the Center for Entrepreneurship and Transfer, bringing together a vibrant mix of creative minds in Dortmund. The Smart Home Hackathon, themed “Shape the Future of Smart Homes!”, invited technology enthusiasts, innovators, data experts, and curious individuals to collaborate on developing digital solutions for the smart homes of tomorrow.
Participants engaged with three real-world challenges presented by the hackathon partners:
- VREEDA GmbH [2]: Developing a viable business model for smart lighting services tailored to insurance and end customers.
- fior familie GmbH [3]: Creating a smart heating concept that promotes efficient heating while reducing energy consumption.
- PARAX GmbH [4]: Enhancing an existing bike holder with a digital component, the "Zenbox", to explore new smart usage scenarios that focus on mindfulness and living environments.
With passion and dedication, teams dove into these challenges, engaging in discussions, testing ideas, and even programming solutions. The results showcased a range of innovative concepts, from sustainable usage models to digital comfort features and pioneering ideas for the smart home of the future. At the conclusion of the event, all teams presented their concepts to a panel of judges, with the best ideas competing for a total prize pool of 1,200 euros.
Natalia Ogorelysheva served as a jury member, actively listening to the final presentations. The decision was challenging, as all teams demonstrated remarkable effort and creativity over the two days of the hackathon. Ultimately, the team addressing the fior familie challenge emerged as the winners, having demonstrated an outstanding solution as well as delivering an excellent pitch.