UZH hackathon awards prizes to five concepts for Starlab mission

(CONNECT) Eleven student teams developed and presented their ideas for the commercial use of Starlab at the Starlab Space Mission Hackathon. Five of them were honoured at the end of this 30-hour competition at the Innovation Park Zurich. This hackathon was organized by the Dübendorf-based Space Hub of the University of Zurich(UZH) together with various partners. The background to this is the entrepreneurial space economy that is currently emerging and for which new ideas are needed.

According to a UZH report, the participants were looking for new solutions. A total of 260 people applied for the 60 advertised places. They came from various universities in Germany and Switzerland and from different disciplines such as sociology, mechanical engineering, biotechnology, psychology and game design.

"Our first Space Mission Hackathon with Starlab shows the power of interdisciplinary collaboration at its best," says Maria Olivares, Head Innovation at UZH. "This is exactly the kind of cross-disciplinary innovation we promote at the University of Zurich."

Eleven teams with five to seven participants each competed and five were awarded a total of 9000 francs. First place went to the project for growing crystals for semiconductors in low-Earth orbit. Second place went to the photonics manufacturer project: circular use of materials for the needs-based production of tools. Third place was shared by the StarWash team with its research into how people can wash their clothes in space and the ACE project, which focused on automated experiments in space as a service. In addition, the special diversity prize for an interdisciplinary team was awarded to Space Minders for its concept "Share a hot beverage in space, to mitigate sensory deprivation and social isolation". ce/mm