Programming for the environment: 48-hour hackathon in Mannheim

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The Hackfestival took place last weekend in Mannheim. The 48-hour hackathon organized by The Hackathon Company aimed to develop sustainable ideas in six coding challenges in order to reduce CO₂ emissions under the motto "Decarbonize the Planet". Around 300 developers from 53 countries took part, as did around 700 other people in the public visitor program.

At the opening on September 6, the perspective also extended beyond the blue planet. The Challenge sponsors – the City of Mannheim with the Local Green Deal and the Rhine-Neckar metropolitan region, SAP, Schwarz IT, KION Group and Roche – as well as Mannheim's Lord Mayor Christian Specht, Member of the Bundestag Anna Christmann and ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst were present.

Climate protection for future generations

In an interview with Oliver Brümmer, CEO of The Hackathon Company, Gerst provided exciting insights into his career as an astronaut and emphasized the importance of climate protection. His message to his grandchildren, recorded on the international space station, was played, in which he apologized for mankind's climate-damaging treatment of the Earth. On stage, Gerst struck a much more serious note, as it was not only climatic events such as forest fires that could be seen from space. In particular, it was hard to bear when the realization dawned in the face of a brightly shining dot on Earth: this is war.

In response to Brümmer's final question as to whether the climate challenges could be overcome, he was positive: People are inventive – and he is an optimist. ESA is also focusing on sustainability and launched the ESA Green Agenda in January 2023, for example.

Challenges for energy-efficient LLM use, circular economy and waste reduction

The results of the coding challenge also gave cause for optimism: in the 48 hours of the hackathon, the participants – around 30% of whom were women – came together in around 40 teams to tackle the six challenges. The winning ideas were awarded prize money totaling 15,000 euros. The challenges revolved around topics such as reducing and recycling food waste, reducing CO₂ emissions in the food sector and in working life and the efficient use of LLMs (Large Language Models) to save energy. The winning ideas include an app for fridge management using image recognition, the development of an energy-efficient LLM and an app for playfully imparting knowledge to children.

Start-up funding aims to increase diversity

During the hack festival, Anna Christmann, Federal Government Coordinator for Aerospace and Commissioner for Climate Protection for the Digital Economy and Start-ups, expressed her confidence that the ideas from the hackathon could possibly even lead to new start-ups. In relation to this, she stated in the interview that the German government would like to use the EXIST-Women initiative in particular to increase the EXIST female start-up rate from its current level of around 20 percent. EXIST is a funding program of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection for start-ups from science.

(mai)