Space Hacking of COVID-19

Second Edition Copernicus Hackathon Sofia 2020

Dear friends,

In April 2019, the first edition of Copernicus Hackathon Sofia, organized by the Risk-Space Transfer Office (RST-TTO), a member of the Copernicus Relay Network, was successfully held and was of great interest and attracted more than 60 participants from leading universities in the country. Encouraged by the positive outcome of this event, we are preparing the next edition of Copernicus Hackathon Sofia 2020, which was to take place on April 24-26, 2020 in Sofia, as part of Space Week Sofia 2020 - a big international event including an international conference, two hackathons and an industrial exhibition.

Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic, which not only obstructed this event but also put humanity before an unprecedented test, has once again proved how crucial the role of research and new technology in crisis situations is. That is why we have decided, despite the difficulties and the unusual situation, to try to contribute to overcoming this crisis by:


SPACE HACKING OF COVID-19


And if before the crisis, we had the ambition to give to the participants the opportunity to get acquainted with the latest technologies for Earth observation from space and to try to find specific applications, now we want through the knowledge and skills of the Bulgarian specialists, in the field of information technologies, physics, mathematics, earth sciences, etc., to conduct this VIRTUAL HAKATON, in order to contribute for overcoming the effects of this crisis through new ideas, products and services, focused on the main services of the Copernicus program.

Dear friends, I call on you to actively participate in the virtual Copernicus Hackathon Sofia 2020 and contribute to the efforts to tackle this pandemic.

Kamen Iliev, Director of RST-TTO

The winners


WINNER – Team FLASH (Germany/Bulgaria)


Awards:

ONE SEAT FOR THE COPERNICUS ACCELERATOR

500 euro free credits for cloud resources, along with free access to Earth Observation data on CREODIAS platform
6 months subscription for Workstreams.ai Pro

Project – Smart Cities:
DemoSat – Air quality is a contributing factor to developing chronic and serious illness

2nd PRIZE – Team MRSG (Greece)


Awards:

Visit to the Phi Week, ESRIN – ESA

300 euro free credits for cloud resources, along with free access to Earth Observation data on CREODIAS platform
6 months subscription for Workstreams.ai Pro

Project – Monitoring Danube & Black Sea:
Monitoring the impacts of marine and coastal activities on the Western Black Sea

3rd PRIZE – Team SENTINEL OFFSPRING (Belgium/France)


Awards:

One year GEO Premium subscription, Geo University

200 euro free credits for cloud resources, along with free access to Earth Observation data on CREODIAS platform
6 months subscription for Workstreams.ai Pro

Project – Monitoring Danube & Black Sea:
Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on water quality in the Danube estuary

COVID19 SPECIAL PRIZE – Team eoLocK (Bulgaria/United Kingdom)


Awards:

1000 EUR free annual subscription for CloudSigma


Project – Smart Cities:
Monitoring the dynamics of air pollution during the COVID-19 pandemic

ADDITIONAL PRIZE – Team SLIDEFINDER (Bulgaria)


Awards:

Adventures / Holiday in Bulgaria


Project – EO & Artificial Intelligence for E-Government:
LandSlide – Monitoring landslides in Bulgaria

The Challenges of COVID-19

To the main topics identified, we also added additionally three topics, related to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the use of Earth observation technologies.

Smart cities

More than 50% of the world's population lives in urban areas. The trend shows that by 2050 it will be close to 70%. City authorities need to be prepared for any issues that may be caused by over-urbanization, and this topic is on the list of United Nations sustainable development goals such as SDG11: Transforming cities and towns into inclusive, safe, stable and sustainable centers. Information and communication technologies offer one way to make informed decisions.

MONITORING of the dynamics of air pollution during the Covid-19 pandemic using SENTINEL-5.

Monitoring of the Danube and the Black Sea

Problem solving at regional level always gives better results. Applications of EO technologies can improve better river basin management, Black Sea coastal management, environmental and biodiversity conservation, risk management, sustainable development of their resources and etc. The Marine Strategy Framework, the EU Biodiversity Directives, the EU's environmental policy are simply part of the legal framework that outlines the major challenges identified for the implementation of environmental policies.

ASSESSMENT of water quality (basic biological parameters) of the Danube and Black Sea during the COVID 19 epidemic, using SENTINEL 2 & 3.

Earth Observation & Artificial Intelligence for E-Government

The application of EO data from Copernicus programme with other spatial datasets could be used for improvement of the accessibility, transparency and efficiency of public services and provide better e-services for the citizens in the areas as Situation Awareness, Regional Planning and Resource Monitoring. Earth Observation data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms can be used to develop a special modules that supports automatic and semi-automatic interpretation of the areas, affected of natural disasters and accidents. AI has great potential in terms of obtaining a detailed understanding of Earth observation, specifically supporting climate change and other global issues.

ASSESSMENT of the geographical distribution of COVID19 pandemic at local and global scales, through satellite data (SENTINEL) and artificial intelligence algorithms.

Participants can also suggest their topics.

Program

The hours in the programme are in EEST (CEST+1h)

24th April 2020 (Fri)
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17:00 – 17:30 Opening Session – (Kamen Iliev)
Welcoming speech Organiser
Welcoming speech official guests
    Jeliaz Enev, Director 'Economic Policy' Directorate, Ministry of Economy of Rep. Bulgaria
    Tomas Jonsson, European Commission
    Natanail Stefanov, Vice Chairman of the Management Board at Sofia Tech Park JSC
    Jean-Jacques Tortora, Secretary General of EURISY
    Geoff Sawyer, Secretary General of EARSC
    Sofia Copernicus Hackathon (Kamen Iliev)
SLACK/#_live_stream
(YouTube Live)
17:30 – 19:00 Present the schedule for the Hackathon (Katya Dimitrova)
Present the Teams and Mentors (Kamen Iliev)
Start of teaming up (Adelina Aleksieva)
SLACK/#_live_webinar
(Zoom)
25th April 2020 (Sat)
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10:00 – 14:00 Teaming up (Organizer) SLACK/#_teaming
14:00 – 14:30 Webinar: Presentation of Copernicus Programme – Katya Dimitrova, RST-TTO SLACK/#_live_webinars
14:30 – 16:30 Technical workshop: DIAS / data provider
CREODIASMarcin Gil, CloudFerro
CloudSigmaVanya Nikolova, Viktor Grirorov
SLACK/#_live_webinars
16:30 – 17:30 Technical Mentor session – introduction (Ad. Aleksieva, K. Iliev) SLACK/#_live_webinar
26th April 2020 (Sun)
Teams work remotely
27th April 2020 (Mon)
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Teams work remotely
16:30 – 17:00 Webinar: GEO University - An education paradigm shift – Dr. Dimitris Sykas, CEO GEO University SLACK/#_live_webinars
17:00 – 18:00 Discussion with mentors of the 3 main topics and the COVID 19 specific challenges of the Hackathon SLACK/#_mentors_chat
28th April 2020 (Tue)
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Teams work remotely
16:00 Submit a presentation with first ideas e-mail
16:30 – 17:00 Webinar: Project PARSEC-H2020 – Weronika Borejko, EARSC SLACK/#_live_webinars
17:00 – 18:00 Review of the progress with Hackathon Organiser & Mentor session SLACK/#_mentors_chat
29th April 2020 (Wed)
TimeActionsTech. Inf.
Teams work remotely
16:30 – 17:00 Webinar: Satellite applications for safer and resilient cities – Jean-Jacques Tortora, EURISY SLACK/#_live_webinars
17:00 – 18:00 Review of the progress with Hackathon Organiser & Mentor session SLACK/#_mentors_chat
30th April 2020 (Thu)
TimeActionsTech. Inf.
Teams work remotely
11:00 – 12:00 On-Line Briefing Meeting for the Sixth Call of ESA under the Plan for European Cooperating States (PECS) in Bulgaria, Webinars – ESTEC-ESA, Ministry of Economy, BG WEBEX/#_live_webinars
SLACK/#_live_stream
16:00 Submit a presentation with first ideas e-mail
16:30 – 17:00 Webinar: Workstreams getting started and basics – Elie Goldfarb, Workstreams.ai SLACK/#_live_webinars
17:00 – 18:00 Review of the progress with Hackathon Organiser & Mentor session SLACK/#_mentors_chat
24:00 Registration closes
1st May 2020 (Fri) – 3rd May 2020 (Sun)
Teams work remotely
4th May 2020 (Mon)
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Teams work remotely
18:30 – 19:30 Video meeting with each team
Review of the progress with Hackathon Organiser & Mentors session
Evaluation Criteria, Announcement of the Jury and Awards
SLACK/#_live_webinars
SLACK/#_mentors_chat
5th May 2020 (Tue)
Teams work remotely
18:00 – 18:30 Webinar: Project Management basics for Earth Observation missions – Stella Alexandrova SLACK/#_live_webinars
18:30 – 19:30 Review of the progress with Hackathon Organiser & Mentors session SLACK/#_mentors_chat
6th May 2020 (Wed)
Teams work remotely
7th May 2020 (Thu)
TimeActionsTech. Inf.
Teams work remotely
16:00 – 18:00 Review of the progress with Hackathon Organiser, Mentors session, Instruction for preparation of presentations SLACK/#_mentors_chat
Hacking and preparation of the presentationsSLACK
8th May 2020 (Fri)
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08:00 Deadline for submission of final presentation Send by email
12:00 – 16:00 Presentation of the results SLACK/#_live_webinars
17:30 – 19:00 Announcement of the winners
Rewarding and closing
Virtual drinking - a bottle wine for the participants
SLACK/#_live_webinars
Registration closed on 30.04.2020

Contact

Phone: +359 2 979 2498 (2453)
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