C is for Carbon, Hack is for….

 By Katie Ewing & Dejan Jotanovic

See bottom of this post for registration details for #C15Hack!!!

We here at ResPlat love hackathons (as Fiona so passionately explained why), so we were eager to jump on board when we heard about the #C14Hack at the University of Melbourne.

The #C14Hack was birthed from a group of students from the Postgraduate Environment Network (PEN) and the Ecopreneurs.  As Friedrich, one of the hackathon’s organisers, explains in the video below, the #C14Hack is an eco-innovation workshop aimed at hacking five very real sustainability problems on campus: organic waste, solid waste, biodiversity, energy efficiency, and policy change.  

Over a day and a half, participants worked in teams to generate ideas and develop solutions using unconventional problem-solving techniques (think gamification). Each group presented their pitch in front of the judging panel, which included our own Fiona Tweedie. The judging criteria included environmental impact reduction, feasibility, scalability, enterprisability, and innovation.  You can watch all the three-minute pitches here!

Here are the #C14hack judges! @FCTweedie @MatthewWillcox and Natalie Jamieson. pic.twitter.com/nYJ54iBvI8

— ITS Research (@ITS_Res)
May 9, 2014

The winners of the $500 grand prize were ultimately the Organic Waste group! Check out their winning interview below:

The #C14Hack provided students with a unique opportunity to work on real environmental issues on campus while showing them a different way of problem solving. As one of the participants said, “We came out of it with a ton of research and a real desire to make our project happen for real.”  Now that is what we are all about - making research exciting and practical!

#C15Hack is happening this year - on May 4th & 5th! Register here: www.c15hack.eventbrite.com.au

Your solution may even spark a start-up idea that you can pitch at the Melbourne Accelerator Program. Happy Hacking!

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  1. resbaz posted this