Their organizers were: the Warsaw University of Technology Student Government, the Herbion Biotechnology Scientific Circle of WUT in cooperation with the Center for International Cooperation, the Ventures and Startups and Innovation student research groups from the Warsaw School of Economics.

More than 540 participants from all ENHANCE universities have registered to take part in the hackathons. The event was attended by 89 students (Smart City Challenge - 61, BioHackathon 28) from 13 European universities: Chalmers University of Technology, ETH Zurich, Gdańsk University of Technology (TU Gdańsk), Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Politecnico di Milano (POLIMI), Rhine-Westphalia Technical University of Aachen (RWTH), Technische Universität Berlin (TUB), Technische Universiteit Delft (TU Delft), Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), Warsaw University of Technology (WUT), National Technical University of Ukraine (Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute), Lviv Polytechnic National University, Warsaw School of Economics.

ENHANCE Hackathons participants from Ukraine, photo by Piotr Szczepański

Thanks to funding from NAWA Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange, 14 students from Ukraine (Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute and Lviv Polytechnic National University) participated in both hackathons.

ENHANCE Smart City Challenge participants, photo by Piotr Szczepański

The idea behind the ENHANCE Smart City Challenge was to bring together technical and business students to jointly create an innovative solution to one of the major problems facing modern cities.

ENHANCE BioHackathon participants, photo by Piotr Szczepański

The ENHANCE BioHackathon aimed to encourage participants to solve existing environmental problems creatively.

On Thursday, as part of a team-building activity, members of PW's Herbion biotechnology research club organised a field game for BioHackathon participants, intending to establish contacts between participants and introduce them to the concept of circular economy. 

During the inaguration on Friday, Grzegorz Robak, Director of the Center for International Cooperation at WUT welcomed the hackathon participants, then they were divided by lot into international project teams, which worked intensively for the next 48 hours.

The work of ENHANCE Smart City Challenge participants was enriched by meetings with mentors and invited guests: Marcin Dominiak talked about the process of generating ideas in business (and for business), Marcin Waryszak gave a presentation on pitching and public speaking, and Jakub Panek and Kajetan Przybylski gave a lecture on product creation. BioHackathon participants, meanwhile, could listen to a series of lectures entitled Circular economy and waste valorization , delivered by Marta Sokołowska-Słuszniak (founder of RecoFIBER), Dr. Iwona Gientka (SGGW), Dr. Eng. Karolina Drężek (PW), Zoja Trojan (EcoBean), a lecture titled The idea development , delivered by Aleksandra Owczarek (founder of BinderLess), and a presentation lecture led by Łukasz Sztern (WUT Innovation Center).

On Sunday, a parallel pitching session of all teams took place in the Small Hall in the WUT Main Building and in Room 4.07 on Rektorska 4 Street. The projects and speeches prepared as part of the ENHANCE Smart City Challenge were evaluated by a jury consisting of Łukasz Dwulit, Grzegorz Ganczewski, Wojciech Jeznach, Mariusz Zieja, Agata Żak. Meanwhile, the projects prepared as part of the ENHANCE BioHackathon were evaluated by a jury consisting of Prof. Joanna Cieśla, Prof. Agnieszka Gadomska-Gajadhur, PhD and Anna Iuliano, PhD, from the  Department of Chemistry at WUT, and Katarzyna Dąbkowska-Susfał, PhD, and Kamil Wierzchowski, PhD, from the Department of Chemical and Process Engineering at WUT.

ENHANCE Smart City Challenge winners, photo by Piotr Szczepański

The 1st prize in the ENHANCE Smart City Challenge went to a team consisting of Benedict Armstrong (ETH Zurich), Yaolin Ge (NTNU), Michale Kleine (TUB), Mateusz Stryjek (WUT), Darya Vasilchyk (WUT) for the LIMPIFY project, dedicated to cleaning the city of garbage.

Winners of the 2nd prize in the ENHANCE Smart City Challenge, photo by Piotr Szczepański

The 2nd prize went to the team composed of: Valentyn Bondarenko (WUT), Rafal Lasota (PW), Gustav Malinovsky (WUT), Daryna Vasylashko (Lviv Polytechnic), Bidita Zaman (CHALMERS) for a project called Lagaam, which dealt with minimizing the risks of gas leaks in developing countries.

Winners of the 3rd prize in the ENHANCE Smart City Challenge, photo by Piotr Szczepański

The 3rd prize was won by a team consisting of: Gabriela Gacek (WUT), Anita Qadir (WUT), Michal Pavol Podolinsky (TU Delft), Alaeddine Tebib (RWTH), Joanna Tokarska (WUT) for a project called MyZone, which dealt with minimizing sound pollution in cities.

Zwycięzcy ENHANCE BioHackathon, fot. Piotr Szczepański

The 1st prize in the ENHANCE BioHackathon was won by a team consisting of: Aleksandra Jaskiewicz (WUT), Anna Prosvietova (Kyiv Polytechnic), Magdalena Kucharczyk (WUT), Miguel Rodríguez Fuentes (UPV), Oksana Krailo (Kyiv Polytechnic) for their project Processing cigarette butts into hyaluronic acid, which concerned the conversion of cigarettes into hyaluronic acid using bacteria.

ENHANCE BioHackathon award winners, photo by Piotr Szczepański

The 2nd prize went to a team consisting of Ilenia Lo Iacono (POLIMI), Jan Górniaszek (PW), Lieke Hamoen (TU DELFT), Mariia Nechyporenko (Kyiv Polytechnic University) for the BACT-TERY project, which dealt with the recovery of lithium from used lithium-ion batteries using microorganisms.

The winners received a check for 2,000 euros. For the other participants, the organizers prepared gifts and diplomas.

Sponsors of the event: ENHANCE, NAWA, National Chamber of Commerce for Electronics and Telecommunications (KIGEiT), LG Energy Solution Wrocław Sp. z o.o., Red Bull.