Green Waves Hackathon rewards apps for a better world

The Green Waves Hackathon presented 21 challenges focused on water management and sustainable IT, offering participants a variety of creative opportunities. So, for instance participants could designing an app to help households monitor and manage their water usage. Or develop a predictive model to forecast potential flooding in vulnerable areas. How to create a plug-in to inform users about the CO₂ emissions of storing files in the cloud? Or can you build a simple social network client for pre-2000 smartphones (think Nokia).

These challenges were crafted by climate professor Herman Russchenberg (Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences) and Dr Przemyslaw Pawelczak (Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science), known for his groundbreaking work in battery-free electronics.

ICT against climate change

Submissions poured in from all over the globe, shared TU Delft alumnus and co-organiser Maarten Küppers, who studied Computer Science at TU Delft. “From Lesotho to Colombia, and Peru to Australia.”

Alarmed by recurring temperature records, Küppers reached out to Russchenberg, who revealed that there’s still a wealth of untapped data streaming in daily from satellites and monitoring stations. This sparked the idea of the Green Waves Hackathon – using IT to combat climate change.

Global Participation

When the challenges were published (English text below Dutch) seven weeks ago, 160 participants signed up. At the end, 10 teams made it to the finish line with apps tackling water management or green IT. A jury then spent a week selecting winners for both themes: one for the best response to a challenge and another for the best free submission. The winners were unveiled on Friday 22 November, at the closing event held at the Co-Creation Centre in The Green Village.

Winners in Green IT

The jury – Pawelczak and three green IT experts from the industry – chose second-year IT student Adam Bouafia (Free University of Amsterdam) as the winner in the challenge category. Competing as Team Neo, he developed the Think Before You Save plug-in, which informs users about the CO₂ emissions of cloud storage and offers tips for greener IT practices.

In the free submission category, the Ilionx Hacktivists team won with a dashboard that compares users’ energy consumption. By gamifying the experience, the creators hope to spark friendly competition and encourage more energy-conscious use of IT systems.

Winners in Water

Cloud researcher Dr Geet George (CEG) and Matteo de Felice (RaboResearch) reviewed the water-focused apps. Team Sustain.ai, consisting of Juan Carlos Guzman and Luis Loaiza from Peru, took the top spot. Their app, sustain.ai, raises awareness of water and energy usage when using AI. It also gives tips on reducing water use and CO₂ emissions in AI usage, such as improving prompts or selecting a local server.

In the free category, Water Watch, developed by Lieke Giltay (Rabobank) and Nico Brinkkemper (Bluefront), claimed victory. The app is a ChatGPT-based database where users can upload photos of floating debris, often plastic. The app identifies the material, assesses its potential risks to the environment, and estimates decomposition times. It also maps the locations of floating waste, which the developers aim to link to clean-up initiatives.

Riding the Green Wave

A weekend after the hackathon’s conclusion, Küppers was still buzzing with excitement. “Everyone involved was enthusiastic and talked about a sequel,” he shared. Plans are already in motion for not just another green hackathon to coincide with the next climate summit, but also quarterly meetups on the latest IT and climate news. The Climate Action Programme will handle communication regarding these developments.