Sustay: An App Idea for Sustainable Travel Wins Baltic Sea Region Hackathon 2024

Around 50 participants from the Baltic Sea states worked on new ideas for Baltic Sea cooperation at the Baltic Sea Region Hackathon [#b_hack] from 18 to 21 July 2024 in Lübeck, Germany under the motto "Bridging Borders, Shaping the Future". The winning team impressed with "Sustay", an app prototype designed to make sustainable travel easier.

The 18 to 30-year-olds were particularly focused on finding digital solutions to build bridges between the Baltic Sea states. In the presence of the Schleswig-Holstein head of the State Chancellery, Dirk Schrödter (Digitalisation), and the Minister for Agriculture, Rural Areas, Europe and Consumer Protection, Werner Schwarz, they presented their results on Sunday, 21 July. The teams then evaluated each other and chose the “Green Routes Connect” group with their prototype of the “Sustay” app to take the winners’ podium.

“We are proud and happy that Schleswig-Holstein can host the Baltic Sea Region Hackathon for the second time. It underlines how important it is to us to promote digital innovations and cross-border cooperation,” said Digitalisation Minister Dirk Schrödter. “I am very pleased that so many young, committed people from different countries are gathering together in Lübeck and networking to work intensively on digital solutions that can, for example, help us live, travel and work more sustainably. With their creative ideas, they are making a positive contribution to the digital transformation and development of the Baltic Sea Region.”

Sustainable Tourism: A Question of Commitment

“We wanted to do something good and show with the prototype that you can leave a city more beautiful than it was before,” said Alina Nikula from the “Green Routes Connect” team, who was participating in the Baltic Sea Region Hackathon for the second time. Alina Nikula, Szymon Jóźwiak, Ēriks Eduards Kalniņš, Sara Nyman, Justina Ramonaityte and Mattias Stålgren first looked into the topic of sustainable tourism. From their research, they identified three principles: the local community should be involved in tourism, the “restoration” of the environment should be promoted and culture should be maintained. The result is a prototype that shows users on a single platform which voluntary and sustainable projects there are in a city. “The projects in our app are all fictional, but I would be happy if they were implemented,” said Alina Nikula.

“It was great to see how the group bonded in such a short time,” said workshop leader Sofie Ostrau. “I provided small theoretical inputs and gave them the tools to develop the prototype, but the great achievement lies in the implementation by the team.” A glimpse of the prototype is currently available here.

The Key to a Peaceful Future in the Baltic Sea Region

Werner Schwarz, Minister for Agriculture, Rural Areas, Europe and Consumer Protection, is enthusiastic about the second edition of the Baltic Sea Region Youth Hackathon: “I am very pleased that we were once again able to bring so many interested young people from all over the Baltic Sea Region to Lübeck. This shows that we are on the right track with this format. In my role as chairman of the network of subregions in the Baltic Sea Region, I am particularly committed to Baltic Sea youth cooperation. The key to a peaceful future in the Baltic Sea Region lies in these encounters!”

Overcoming Boundaries, Growing Beyond Yourself

The participants could choose from eight workshops. The workshop organisers gave impulses from their respective fields of expertise and supported the participants in overcoming their own boundaries and growing beyond themselves. The results ranged from an AI bot providing factual and positive news information to a Baltic Sea Region board game with digital components to an AI “writer bot” that helps write short stories about the Baltic Sea Region.

The topics of this year’s Baltic Sea Region Hackathon were:

Developing a dashboard for student mobility for the Baltic Sea Region
Gamification and regional identity building
Concept for an intercultural exchange platform for the Baltic Sea Region
Green Routes Connect – Shaping the future of Baltic Sea transport
Stories & visions from the Baltic Sea Region
Good News AI
Baltic Sea perspectives
Prototyping a sustainable future

The b_hack 2024 was organised and financed by the state of Schleswig-Holstein in cooperation with the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS) and the Technical University of Lübeck (TH Lübeck). From 2024 to 2026, the state of Schleswig-Holstein will hold the presidency of the Baltic Sea States Subregional Cooperation (BSSSC), with digitisation and the use of AI being key focuses of the presidency, in addition to the removal of old ammunition and the expansion of renewable energies.

see more images from the [#b_hack] 2024