Water4Future Hackathon "Water and sustainable cities": high-school students get their hands on innovative projects!

Following in the footsteps of students, high-school pupils from all over the world got down to work on the theme of "Water and sustainable cities" at the Water4Future Hackathon Lycéens 2023, organized by the UNESCO ICIREWARD International Center in a hybrid format at the Cité de l'Économie et des Métiers de Demain, Montpellier, on March 16 and 17.

The 17 international teams from France (Montpellier, Lattes, Baillargues, Nîmes, Loches, Reunion Island), Europe (Ireland), Africa (Morocco, Senegal, Ivory Coast), America (USA, Ecuador, Bolivia) and Asia (Singapore) worked simultaneously to propose technical, regulatory and/or social solutions.

To help them put the finishing touches to their project, coaches in hydrology, energy, IT, entrepreneurship, marketing, communications, finance, etc. were on hand for over 48 hours to answer questions from all over the world.

The challenge of this 4th edition was to manage time differences ranging from -6h to +7h. The challenge was accepted and met in a spirit of good humor, benevolence and creativity!

After the semi-finals, 9 teams pitched their projects to the grand jury, which included Isabelle Parrot, Vice-President of the University of Montpellier in charge of Science-Society relations. 5 projects were rewarded:

• 1st place: YEERI (Lycée Scientifique d'Excellence de Diourbel, Senegal).
• 2nd place: Q'uma uma (Lycée franco-bolivien de la Paz, Bolivia).
• 3rd place: Les Eau'ptimistes (Lycée Rochambeau - The French International School, USA).
• 1st Jury's Favourite: Electro Fall (International French School Singapore, Singapore).
• 2nd Jury's Favourite: Skywater (Dallas International School, USA).

The winning projects will soon be summarized on the Water4Future Facebook and LinkedIn pages. In the meantime, you can find a preview of the event on the ICIREWARD UNESCO Center website, with a report produced by France 3 Occitanie.