[#b_hack] – Baltic Sea Region Hackathon 2026

Get ready to geek out at [#b_hack] – the Baltic Sea Region Hackathon 2026, happening 2–5 July 2026 in the beautiful city of Lübeck, Germany!

This year’s edition of [#b_hack] invites young people from across the Baltic Sea Region to explore the theme “Free and Secure Societies. Working together in challenging times.” Through innovation and teamwork, participants will tackle real-world challenges and develop ideas that strengthen both individual freedoms and collective security.

Dive into the exciting worlds of AI, storytelling, prototyping, and more. Collaborate with like-minded young tech innovators from across the Baltic Sea Region and enjoy an all-expenses-paid adventure filled with creativity, networking, and unforgettable experiences.

_who can apply?

We’re looking for passionate changemakers aged 18–29, living in or from a CBSS Member State (Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, or Sweden). Whether you’re into IT, social media, or simply want to help shape the future of our region — this is your moment!

Got skills in programming, IT, audiovisual tools, or graphic design? Amazing! Not a tech wizard? No problem — we’ve got specially designed non-tech sessions too, so there is a place for everyone.

_topics

You will team up with around five participants and tackle one of eight exciting hackathon topics tailored to your interests and skills. With expert guidance from TH Lübeck coordinators and access to top-notch datasets and tools provided by the TH Lübeck, you will co-create innovative solutions and showcase them to VIP officials from Land Schleswig-Holstein and the CBSS on the final day.

Get ready for an inspiring blend of learning, networking, and fun. Let’s bridge borders and shape the future — together!

#1. Fake News Detection

In this track we will explore how misinformation spreads online and how technology can help stop it. We will look at examples from social media and news platforms, learn how to recognize typical patterns of misleading content, and discuss why fake news can be so persuasive. We will explore different methods of fake news detection, from technical ideas to educational or design-based approaches.

Our goal is to design and prototype ideas for tools that can help users question what they read, check sources more easily, and make more informed decisions in their everyday digital lives.

Technical requirements and skills:

A good mixture of participants with an interest in programming / software development, design, analysis and investigation would be ideal. Bring your laptop.

#2. Pirates of the Baltic Sea

Jack Sparrow is alive! But he is undercover. He has traded his legendary Black Pearl for the less seafaring romanticism of today’s internationally sanctioned merchant ships. Some of these monohull-tankers threaten the Baltic Sea region by posing severe environmental risks. In this track, we examine how independent, open-access information databases and real-time information streams could be used to understand how internationally sanctioned shipping operates in the Baltic Sea—and all of this in full public view, if you solve the problem of fusing and visualizing these data.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to track today’s “Black Pearls” in the Baltic: following their traces across the globe via open, independent data sources to surface suspicious routes, cover maneuvers, and patterns—so sea tales become checkable evidence, and the Baltic is better protected.

Technical requirements and skills:

A good mixture of participants with an interest in programming / software development, data science, data analysis, and an “criminal investigator’s instinct” would be ideal. Bring your laptop, programmers: have an IDE and, preferably, Python installed.

#3. RoboFamily: Physicalization of Artificial Intelligence to make Algorithms Walk Among Us

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is around us, but invisible, yet – mostly existing in chat windows still. AI is missing physicality, including sensor-organs to perceive us and actuation capabilities to manipulate our world. In future, we would like to include AI as a part of our family and therefore, we introduce RoboDog, RoboTurtle, and RoboLoomo. We would like to embody AI agents with their own personalities, such as a mother, father, and child. RoboFamily is to be built on a large language model (LLM) with tool access, allowing agents to control robotic platforms through Python interfaces. The architecture consists of three cooperating agents: a planner for high-level decisions, a hardware controller for embodied actions, and a programmer that generates code and extends system capabilities. The agents communicate, model one another, and coordinate toward shared goals. In our experiment, the agents are granted full-autonomous control of their robotic embodiments and allowed to act freely in real-world interactions. This granted autonomy represents a leap of faith from humans towards AI. In return, this experiment investigates how multiple embodied AI agents cooperate and behave in our beloved real-world.

Technical requirements and skills:

Interest in the topic. Programming skills recommended, but not required.

#4. Voice of the public – What moves us?

Liberty and democracy work hand in hand. Freedom of speech, the right to assemble and civic participation are what makes us be heard. But what are people across the baltic region really talking about, even marching for? Sustainability? Safety? Individual rights? In this challenge, you’ll explore the public pulse of democracy through data. From demonstrations and media narratives to trending hashtags and search behavior, you and your team will decide what angle excites you most and how you want to approach it. Your goal is to create a data-driven exploration that uncovers patterns, contrasts, and connections that reveals what moves societies today.

You’ll move through four dynamic phases:

  • Conceptualization: Shape your core question and define how you want to set your focus.
  • Research: Discover and gather relevant data sources across countries and platforms.
  • Data Analysis: Structure, combine, and critically reflect on your data to make meaningful comparisons.
  • Visualisation: Transform your insights into a compelling visual story through maps, timelines, or creative data experiences.

Technical requirements and skills:

You only need your laptop. No specific technical knowledge required.

#5. Resilience by Design – Develop your crisis readiness checker and trainer

In this track, participants will design and prototype Crisis Readiness AI, a privacy-first personal resilience assistant that helps individuals assess, simulate, and improve their preparedness for disruptive events such as blackouts, natural disasters, or cyber incidents. Teams will build three core components: a structured readiness assessment that generates a transparent resilience score, an AI-driven crisis simulation that models evolving scenarios and user decisions, and an adaptive recommendation engine that suggests concrete improvement steps. The challenge is to strengthen security through competence-building, while preserving liberty through privacy-by-design, local data processing, and transparent decision logic.

Technical requirements and skills:

Bring your laptop. Python or web skills recommended.

#6. Liberty and Security Dashboard

Liberty and Security have different meanings depending on personal life, preferences, and experience. For example, for some, the legal status of recreational substances might be relevant. Its use may be legal in one country but may carry hefty punishments in another. Marginalized groups have completely different requirements from mainstream groups. The challenge for this track is to develop a dashboard to visualize aspects of liberty and security for students going abroad in an exchange. This track should

identify relevant aspects of liberty and security for students of different groups, find reliable sources for the identified aspects, and retrieve and visualize the data.

Technical requirements and skills:

Some members need programming / development experience. Bring your laptop.

#7. Cyberattacks as Predictors

In recent years, military conflicts have increased significantly, including within Europe. These operations are often accompanied by cyberattacks targeting critical digital infrastructure. Notably, such cyberattacks frequently precede conventional military actions. This track focuses on leveraging information about cyberattacks to anticipate potential military operations. Given the limited availability of real-time data, the analysis begins with historical records to assess whether such predictions are feasible. The objective is to collect reliable historical data on cyberattacks, visualize relevant patterns, and integrate this information with data on past military actions to explore predictive relationships.

Technical requirements and skills:

Some members need programming / development experience. Bring your laptop.

#8. Mystery Track

Stay tuned…

_travel, accomodation & venue 

Come as you are: your travels, accommodation and meals will be covered by the event organisers. If your application is successful, you will receive a lump sum for your travel arrangements. You will be staying in double rooms at central hotels in Lübeck.

_additional information & resources
_Apply now

Application form: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/e/atxjFDeiqv

The application window will close on 26 April 2026.

_organisers

The event is organised and financed by the German Land of Schleswig-Holstein, in collaboration with the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS) and Technische Hochschule Lübeck (TH Lübeck).