The “BELLA Hackathon: Copernicus Innovation Development” began with the participation of 53 research groups from Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean. The activity is organized by RedCLARA and the BELLA II project, with the aim of promoting the use of data from the observation program of the Earth of the European Union (EU), Copernicus, in both regions.
The launch ceremony took place in a hybrid format on Tuesday, July 4: In person, at the offices of the Spanish national research and education network, RedIRIS, and virtually, in a videoconference that brought together more than 100 people. Representatives of the organizations involved in the Hackathon attended the session, such as Joselyn Vargas, Project Assistant of the European Union in Costa Rica, Stephane Ourevitch, Project Director of the General Directorate of the Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW) of the EU / Copernicus Support Office, Alberto Pérez, Executive Director of RedIRIS, Enzo Capone, Head of Research Support at GEANT, and Luis Eliécer Cadenas, Executive Director of RedCLARA.
According to Ourevitch, the Hackathon demonstrates the strength of Latin America and the Caribbean in leading actions for the use of Copernicus. “The programme has a global reach and impact in areas such as climate change, emergency management, air and water quality predictions, among others. Today, with the support of RedCLARA, this is expanding to the entire continent, with the power to touch many researchers and networks. There is a multiplying effect, as a result of the alliance with RedCLARA and BELLA, which makes me think that we are reaching a higher level to face the challenges of the region”, he said.
Specifically, the Hackathon seeks to propose innovative and creative solutions to the challenges posed in two winning concept notes from the BELLA Ideathon, held in March this year: "Satellite Data Interpreter - SADAI (SAD - Decision Support System + AI - Intelligence Artificial)” and “Climate data visualization and interpretation platform to promote family farming in Latin American countries”. The groups generating these proposals made a detailed presentation of these, during the launch of the Hackathon.
During the event period, which closes on July 31, the registered groups will select one of these challenges and work on its innovative development. There will be synchronous and asynchronous sessions that will allow the development of an agenda with spaces for training and mentoring for the participants and spaces for the construction of the final products. The result of each group will be a final product that shows the development of the challenge and the possible implementation. The evaluation of the final products will be made by a panel of experts that will select the best three developments.
For Luis Eliécer Cadenas, the Hackathon is a response to the challenge of efficiently exploiting BELLA's connectivity. “Events like this are the apex of a long process of collaboration between Latin America and Europe, which culminated in BELLA. But it is not enough to have connectivity; it needs to be harnessed efficiently and the Hackathon comes to respond to that. Copernicus is essential for tackling many of the problems in our region, such as climate change, and promoting the use of its data is everyone's commitment.”
The Hackathon´s week activities continued on Wednesday 5th, with the first Conference of the day. On the occasion, Jaime H. Ortega, from the Center for Mathematical Modeling of the University of Chile, gave the presentation "Copernicus Satellite Program: How do satellites help us on a day-to-day basis?"
The BELLA Hackathon: Development of Copernicus Innovation is an initiative of the Latin American Cooperation of Advanced Networks (RedCLARA) and the BELLA II Project, in alliance with the pan-European advanced network GEANT and the Copernicus Programme. For more information about the Hackathon, please visit https://bella-programme.eu/index.php/es/user-events/hackathon-copernicus-innovation-development and stay tuned to the social networks of BELLA and RedCLARA.
