The #CircularHackfest, a pivotal initiative by robo.innovate, recently concluded, with a laser focus on tackling 13 challenges in Robotics and AI taking circular economy aspects into account. Johannes Walcher from the Makerspace of UnternehmerTUM, Arne Rost, the Managing Director at TUM Venture Labs Robotics/AI, together with Nicole Ebner and Mayank Garg of robo.innovate greeted over 100 students who eagerly prepared for diverse sustainability tasks.

The hackathon, unfolding from November 10 to 17, marked two progress checks before teams dived into the prototyping phase. Over the course of these intense 6 days, teams capitalized on MakerSpace workshops to refine their prototypes and concepts. Ten different educational sessions with topics from Agile methods, hardware prototyping, product design and pitch training gave the participants further assistance in tackling their individual challenge.

The challenges were set in collaboration with start-ups like Olive Robotics, Oriens and renowned industry partners, e.g. BMW Group, Rewe Digital, Siemens, Sick, and Panasonic, and had been specially developed and designed for the hackathon with sustainability in mind.

The grand finale unfolded at the Circular Republic Festival during the Hack 'N' Talk event, where all participating teams showcased their ingenuity, presenting ideas, concepts, and prototypes.

The top-performing teams clinched well-deserved accolades:

• Winners Best Business Opportunity: Team Oriens Dönergrill
  • Prize: €4,000 cash reward
• Winnerst Best Prototype): Team Chef++
  • Prize: €2,500 cash reward
• Winner Best Circular Impact: Team CirculAR
  • Prize: €1,500 cash reward

All three winning teams will also benefit of an annual MakerPlus membership as well as Air-Up bottles.

After the impressive performance and event, the cooperation partners agreed that a repeat should take place in 2024.