Water4Future Hackathon “Water and Sustainable Cities”: Now It’s the High School Students’ Turn to Launch Innovative Projects!
Following in the footsteps of college students, high school students from around the world tackled the theme “Water and Sustainable Cities” during the 2023 Water4Future High School Hackathon, organized on March 16 and 17 by the UNESCO International Centre ICIREWARD in a hybrid format at the Cité de l’Économie et des Métiers de Demain, Montpellier.
The 17 international teams from France (Montpellier, Lattes, Baillargues, Nîmes, Loches, Réunion Island), Europe (Ireland), Africa (Morocco, Senegal, Ivory Coast), the Americas (United States, Ecuador, Bolivia), and Asia (Singapore) worked simultaneously to propose technical, regulatory, and/or social solutions.
To help them bring their projects to fruition, coaches specializing in hydrology, energy, IT, entrepreneurship, marketing, communications, finance, and other fields took turns over the course of more than 48 hours to answer questions pouring in from all over the world.
The challenge of this fourth edition was to manage time differences ranging from -6 hours to +7 hours. We accepted and rose to the challenge with good humor, kindness, and a creative spirit!
Following the semifinals, nine teams had the opportunity to present their projects to the grand jury, which included Isabelle Parrot, Vice President for Science-Society Relations at the University of Montpellier. Five projects were awarded prizes:
- 1st place: YEERI (Diourbel High School for Scientific Excellence, Senegal).
- 2nd place: Q’uma uma (French-Bolivian High School in La Paz, Bolivia).
- 3rd place: Les Eau’ptimistes (Rochambeau High School – The French International School, United States).
- Jury's First Choice: Electro Fall (International French School Singapore, Singapore).
- The jury's second favorite: Skywater (Dallas International School, United States).
The winning projects will soon be featured on Water4Future’s Facebook and LinkedIn pages. In the meantime, you can find a recap of the event on the UNESCO ICIREWARD Center’s website, including a report by France 3 Occitanie.