The hackathon
In mid-December, Dec 8-11, our big hackathon “GreenHack~IT” took place for the first time in Munich. The hackathon is a cooperation between the Institut Mines Télécom (IMT) and the Technical University of Munich (TUM), made possible and sponsored by GFA.
Students from 5 schools of IMT (Atlantique, Nord-Europe, Mines Alès, Mines Albi, Mines Saint-Étienne) participated in the hackathon alongside German students from TUM and Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU).
The challenge
For a full 4 days and 3 nights, the nearly 50 master’s students worked on the challenge to reduce the energy consumption of ArianeGroup’s production sites by 15% and thus contribute to a less polluting industry.
The Challenge was a major task for the mixed Franco-German teams and consisted of developing an application to visualize energy consumption with forecasting and the possibility of energy saving measures for mainly non-technical personnel. The only input the students had, was integrated data on the total consumption of one of their factories over a few months, with very little information about the equipment involved and its usage (sensitive data)!
The outcome
The teams came up with creative ideas and great solutions, which made a lasting impression on our industry partner. They followed different approaches to solving the problem, such as separating consumption sources to moderate and predict consumption for shorter or longer periods, like whole weeks and months, but also for single days of the week. External factors such as weather, energy prices and CO2 consumption were also included in these calculations.
The challenge required the students to use skills from their studies on the one hand, which are in the field of Machine Learning, Data Science and AI, and on the other hand they also had to prove soft skills by using project and time management, team work and foreign language proficiency to solve the task successfully.
“We learned a lot by working with different people. We created teams with students from the Institut Mines- Télécom, but also with German students, which was really enriching. We all gave 100%, and the members of Ariane Group were very satisfied with our work,” Quote of the students from IMT Atlantique. (https://www.imt-atlantique.fr/en/news/three-challenging-days-and-nights-greener-industry-6-imt-atlantique-students-greenhack-it-munich)
On the last day a jury with experts from the GFA, researchers from IMT & TUM, as well as the coaches from ArianeGroup decided on the best solutions.
The first three places were awarded with models from the space rockets Ariane5 and Ariane6.
GreenHack~IT 2023
There will also be a second edition of the Hackathon at the end of 2023. If you would like to participate as an industrial company (challenge provider), organizing university or student, let’s talk!
Olivia Pahl (Coordinator for Education Projects in the GFA, olivia(dot)pahl(at)imt(dot)fr)
