Ocean Hackathon 2023

Take part in Plymouth’s first Ocean Hackathon
Plymouth Hoe. Image credit: Jay Stone

Plymouth Hoe. Image credit: Jay Stone

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    Market Hall, Duke Street, Devonport, Plymouth PL1 4PS

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The Ocean Hackathon, coordinated by the Campus mondial de la mer, is being hosted in Plymouth (and the UK) for the first time in November 2023, supported by The Arts Institute and the Marine Institute, University of Plymouth and Plymouth Sound National Marine Park.
We’re inviting the brilliant marine, maritime and digital ecosystem in Plymouth, the South West and beyond to be part of this international event, now in its 8th year, alongside 14 other locations around the world.
Just like 300 challenge teams before you…
  • Explore an idea, test a project, or remove a technical barrier!
  • Form a multidisciplinary team to develop all aspects of your project.
  • Access to tools and data. This is a unique opportunity to access a broad range of various data sets: nautical charts, photos, seabed, juridical aspects and maritime security, activities at sea, oceanographic forecasts, satellite data, etc.
  • Receive support from expert coaches during the weekend, benefitting from their technical, scientific and project expertise.
  • Join an international community.
  • Discover the innovative community of our city and expand your network.
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What is Ocean Hackathon?

For this non-stop, 48-hour event during, teams form around ocean challenges and develop a prototype based on marine data available from local, national and international providers. The call for challenges identifies projects which the teams will respond to in each of the participating towns and cities. Ocean Hackathon takes place in different locations worldwide at the same time. The event weekend culminates in the selection of the top local team, who will then compete at the Grand Finale in Brest, France in December 2023 and could win one of the prizes donated by the Ocean Hackathon Ambassadors.
Ocean Hackathon map
Ocean Hackathon banner for challenge
The 8th edition of Ocean Hackathon will take place from 17–19 November 2023, in 15 cities around the world.
Research organisations collect large volumes of data to improve knowledge and support public policies. 
Ocean Hackathon is an opportunity to explore the great potential of this data to address social, economic and environmental challenges. 
In order to enrich the prototypes and allow teams to develop their challenges, the identification and provision of data for the challenges is carried out by the local organisation teams and by many global data partners. 
The data available during the weekend is both open and private data, from local to large scale. It can be in situ data, satellite data or data from oceanographic campaigns and numerical models.
In each location, teams tackle challenges submitted by challenge owners – registration to take part will open in September. 
The call for challenges is now closed. Final challenges will be announced when registration opens in September.
What is a challenge?
If you have any innovative idea based on data integration that you would like to develop as a team, it is your time to shine! A challenge is an idea related to the ocean, its knowledge, its preservation or the sustainable use of its resources. The Ocean Hackathon is an opportunity to explore this with your team, supported by the coaches. Or the project may also be more mature, in which case this is a great opportunity to test it or add a technological component.
The project leads to a prototype using marine data. Ocean Hackathon is a 'data-centric' hackathon. Data suppliers and the Ocean Hackathon coordination team will help you to identify the data you might need. You can also bring your own data.
Some examples of previous themes include: pollution control, sustainable fishing, aquaculture, preserving the health of ecosystems, maritime history, sustainable tourism, coastal oceanography, education at sea, sustainable maritime transport, art and design, boating and water sports, impacts of climate change, marine energies, safety at sea.
Challenge owners may be involved as individuals or on behalf of their organisation (a company, research centre, training establishment, association, public institution).

Know someone who might be interested?

Share this with your network – this can include academics, students, professionals and businesses and organisations.

Event details

  • VENUE: Market Hall, Duke Street, Devonport, Plymouth PL1 4PS
  • DATE: 17–19 November 2023
  • TIME: tbc (Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon)
  • TICKETING INFO: Registration for participants will open in September

Other ways to get involved

Data: data sets and data coaches needed
We are also interested to hear from any organisations who would like to contribute data sets, alongside the international data partners supporting the Ocean Hackathon (more on that here). This data is key to being able to match make challenges with the information required to solve them! 
It’s a great opportunity to the data sets available to be applied – and we are also looking for some local coaches with data know how to support the event on 17–19 November. 
If either data sharing or coaching sounds a good fit for your organisation or a colleague in your team, please do follow up with Lou Hoskin directly (lou.hoskin@plymouth.ac.uk).
Partnering on the event
We’re delighted to be supporting Plymouth Sound National Marine Park by hosting this event in Plymouth – it’s the first time it has happened in the UK and this year both Plymouth and Bournemouth are participating for the first time. We’ve had interest from across the UK, which is really exciting – and it feels like a great platform for the incredible activity and capability taking place in Britain’s Oceans city and the location of the first National Marine Park. 
If your organisation is interested in getting more involved, perhaps sponsoring elements of the event, getting involved in other aspects of coaching for participants over the weekend or contributing a prize for the local winners then please contact Emily Barrett directly (emily.barrett@plymouth.ac.uk).

About The Arts Institute

The Arts Institute is a multi-skilled team, based within the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business at the University of Plymouth, which fuses research, Knowledge Exchange (KE), experiential education, civic and business engagement, and cultural programming; transforming lives by helping people and places to see and realise their potential.
The team works with a wide range of projects and partners, including the Marine Institute, Marine Research Plymouth and the Plymouth Sound National Marine Park, to embed and embody placemaking; using creative, strategic, and tactical collaboration to enable positive socio-economic and environmental change.
 

Event photography and video

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