Oceanthon 2020 was an all-digital hackathon, aimed at young talents who in 48 hours competed on three challenges linked to the two of the concrete results of the Decade, identified for this first event in preparation for the Decade.

Each team developed innovative ideas, such as prototypes of scalable and replicable applications, using innovative technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Augmented and Virtual Reality, development of oceanographic data collection systems, sustainable materials production systems. Each proposal was a strong component of communication, stakeholder involvement and behavior change to demonstrate that science is at the service of society.

A jury decided the winners who were awarded a prize to carry out the project thanks to the support of E.ON.

The winning project

The first edition of the Oceanthon was won by the Blue Eco Line – River Cleaner team, the system that prevents marine pollution from plastics, combining industrial automation, IoT and artificial intelligence. The award was presented by Davide Villa, CMO of E.ON Italia, to the leader of the winning team during the presentation event of the Decade of the Sea 2021-2030, which will be held in Milan on 22 October 2020. E.ON Italia also supported the winning team in the realization of the idea until its launch on the market.

The Blue Eco Line team proposed the River Cleaner system, a system designed to intercept and collect floating waste from rivers, with a particular focus on macro-plastics. River Cleaner is an eco-sustainable system, energy self-sufficient and integrable into the urban context. Thanks to a high level of automation, it allows a significant reduction in management costs for the user entity compared to current market alternatives. The system provides an effective solution for transporting waste to street level, so that it can then be disposed of and recycled using the means already available to local waste management companies.

Other classified projects

The project MaRASST – Marine Risk Assessment and Shared Solution Tool was ranked third according to the jury’s votes. MaRASST is a hazard mapping tool that identifies risks related to the “marine environment” at high geographic resolution along the Italian coast, harmonizing the best existing data with the feedback of the scientific community and citizens.