It might have been the first time a B.C. team participated, but that didn’t stop Victoria-based Centre for Ocean Applied Sustainable Technologies (COAST) from making waves at the global Ocean Hackathon.
On Dec. 2, local ocean innovators representing B.C.’s hub for the sustainable economy took second place out of 57 teams at the Ocean Hackathon® 9 Grand Finale in Brest, France, earning global recognition.
Their project, Ocean Drift, uses AI and deep learning to analyze complex ocean currents in the Strait of Georgia to optimize search and rescue (SAR) operations.
“One of the neat things about it is that it is scalable,” said Camille Ruest, operations coordinator at COAST. “It can be applied for use anywhere this kind of data is available.”
The team’s prototype was built from scratch during a 48-hour hackathon in Victoria. They then refined their pitch leading up to the finals in Brest, with their core work done during that non-stop weekend.
Hackathon, a global annual 48-hour international competition from Campus Mondial de la Mer, is designed to unlock new ideas for digital technologies in ocean science, sustainability and management. Each city’s winning team earns a spot at the Grand Finale where they present their prototypes to an international jury.
The second-place winning team from Victoria was made up of five students from UVic, UBC, Northern University and BCIT: Yi (Leon) Zhen, Noel John, Udbhav Kansal, Dom Torres and Polina Erofeeva. “They actually met for the first time at the local Victoria Ocean Hackathon. They all chose to work on the same challenge, which was put forward (and supported with data) by Ocean Networks Canada. So their collaboration formed organically during the event itself,” Ruest said.
The COAST team was the only team from North America to make it to the finale, taking home 3,000 euros with their second place award.
None of this would have been possible if it wasn’t for COAST and Ocean Networks Canada teaming up to host B.C.’s first-ever Ocean Hackathon event in Victoria at the COAST Hub this year.
“The global Ocean Hackathon aligns closely with COAST’s mission to strengthen the Pacific region’s ocean innovation network,” said COAST’s executive director Jason Goldsworthy. “Competitions like these give early-stage teams a platform to experiment and test ideas on their path from concept to commercialization, and it gives new, important purpose to the vast ocean data resources we have here in B.C., and in Canada.”
As well as sending a team to compete in the grand finale, B.C. was represented on the international judging panel by Ruest, who also led production of the Victoria competition.
“It was an honour to host the first Ocean Hackathon competition ever to be held in British Columbia, and then to watch the Victoria team take their place among the top teams in the world,” said Ruest.”We’re really excited about what the team accomplished.”