CNES launches third ActInSpace hackathon

This competition designed for students but open to everyone gets teams to solve problems set by CNES, ESA and their partners in just 24 hours. Space experts and entrepreneurs are on hand to assist participants. Besides encouraging the competitors to explore their limits and work with other enthusiasts to get to grips with leading-edge technologies, this event initiated by CNES promotes applications of space technologies for the benefit of citizens, job creation and the planet.

The launch of this third edition of ActInSpace gave CNES and ESA the opportunity to affirm their commitment to the values underlying the event. Candidates who took part in previous editions and each city partnering this year’s event were also able to explain the importance they attach to taking part. Eight space agencies—AGEOS, CNES, CSA, DLR, ESA, JAXA, NASA and NSPO—and the main sponsors Airbus Defence & Space, Novespace, CLS, GSA (the European GNSS agency), Maif, Les Entrepreneuriales and Air France were present.

Among the cities already signed up to take part are:
-    In France, 15 cities from 12 out of the 13 regions: Albi, Bayonne, Biarritz, Bordeaux, Brest, Cannes, Dijon, Besançon, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Montpellier, Nantes, Angers, Paris, Rouen, Strasbourg and Toulouse.
-    In Europe, cities in 18 countries: Athens (Greece), Cyprus, Cluj (Romania), Coimbra (Portugal), Krakow (Poland), Darmstadt (Germany), Graz (Austria), Harwell (United Kingdom), Liège (Belgium), Luxembourg (Luxembourg), Madrid (Spain), Munich (Germany), Noordwijk (Netherlands), Prague (Czech Republic), Riga (Latvia), Rome (Italy), Tallinn (Estonia) and Warsaw (Poland).
-    In Asia, Africa, the Americas and Oceania, 20 cities are already signed up or working on the project: Abuja (Nigeria), Adelaide (Australia), Bogota (Colombia), Buenos Aires (Argentina), Canada, Canberra (Australia), Ecuador, Israel, Istanbul (Turkey), Cape Town (South Africa), Libreville (Gabon), Los Angeles (USA), New York (USA), Porto Alegre (Brazil), San Francisco (USA), Sao Paulo (Brazil), Singapore, Taiwan and Tokyo (Japan).

See the challenges that were set for the second ActInSpace here

1    Set up in 2013, the ESA Business Incubation Centre (BIC) Sud France is the European Space Agency’s first such centre in France (there are 15 others in Europe). It is coordinated by the Aerospace Valley competitiveness cluster in conjunction with CNES and the SAFE cluster. It comprises six incubators in the Nouvelle Aquitaine, Occitanie and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur regions: Technopole Bordeaux Technowest, ESTIA Entreprendre, Théogone, the Midi-Pyrenees and PACA-Est incubators and the Montpellier BIC. Since its inception, ESA BIC Sud France has incubated 40 start-ups.

For more information, see www.esa-bic.fr and http://esabicsudfrance.scoop.it/t/news-187

Contacts
Fabienne Lissak - Head of Media    Tel. +33 (0)1 44 76 78 37    fabienne.lissak@cnes.fr
Pascale Bresson - Press Officer    Tel. +33 (0)1 44 76 75 39    pascale.bresson@cnes.fr
Raphaël Sart - Press Officer    Tel. +33 (0)1 44 76 74 51    raphael.sart@cnes.fr

cp104-2017_-_siae_actinspace_va.pdf (pdf - 358.42 KB)