Green City Hackathon
Environmental data for the Heilbronn of the future
How can a city become more sustainable and liveable? And how can data help? Shape the city of tomorrow with your idea using real environmental data collected by Heilbronn residents.
Work with real environmental data collected by Heilbronn residents and turn your ideas into something that shapes the city of tomorrow. Over three days, you will analyse, program, visualise and discuss. After a joint introduction, you will get started straight away: developing questions, working in a team with datasets on topics such as temperature, particulate matter or urban greening, and turning your ideas step by step into a prototype. There are no limits to your imagination! Experienced mentors will support you throughout, helping with questions, technology and implementation.
The ideas and prototypes developed at the hackathon will be more than one-off results. They will feed into the ongoing work of the Green City Heilbronn initiative and help make environmental data visible and useful in the long term. This means you will become part of a project that presents environmental data in an accessible way and makes it available to the wider community.
What to expect
> Working with real environmental data from Heilbronn
> Plenty of Hardware (3D-Printer, Arduino, sensory and more!) will be provided to tinker around with and use for your ideas
> Analysing, interpreting and visualising data
> Developing your own ideas and prototypes as a team
> Support from experienced mentors
Prize
Good ideas deserve to be celebrated: selected projects will receive an award at the end of the hackathon. We will announce the prize at a later date.
Schedule
Registration, Introduction & Kick-Off
Check-In, opening-ceremony, who are we, what are the goals, some input from our side, presentation of the usable data
The Hacking Begins
Start brainstorming, experimenting, building, exchanging and discussing
Workshops
One hour after the official start of the Hackathon, we will offer a variety of optional Workshops for sport, hardware assistance, 3D-printing, guidance by mentors and much more! This will be offered on both main hacking days.
Hacking, workshops & meals
A full day to build. Workshops run again, mentors are on site.
Submission & selection of the finalists
Each team will pitch their project to their mentor. This will decide who gets to present their project on the big stage and a potential place on the podium
Finale & award ceremony
The selected finalists will pitch their project to the jury and the participants. Afterwards a jury will decide the winners who get their prizes in the following Award Ceremony.
Common Questions
Do I need experience or prior knowledge in Software or Hardware?
Absolutely not! Everybody is invited to sign up for the Hackathon. We have plenty of mentors, experts and experienced peers on site to help you with all the technical questions and challenges. Don't be discouraged, you will learn plenty of new stuff if you just try it out!
Who can apply?
The Event is for anybody from 16 to 99 years old (or above). If you are younger and want to participate, check out the Autumn School.
What do I need to bring to the Hackathon?
We offer lunch and dinner, plenty of drinks and snacks, toilets, and a place where you can setup your sleeping area. Mattresses and blankets etc. are not provided and need to be supplied by yourself if you want to sleep on site! Bring your laptop, cables, adapters and any hardware you want or need to use.
Is a fee or deposit required for participation?
No! The entire event is free of charge, we also don't request deposits for hardware usage provided by us.
Do I need a Team or can I apply solo?
The Hackathon will be done in Teams of up to 6, but you can apply solo and find teammates on site.
Details
Date
October 27, 2026 - October 29, 2026
Location
OpenSpace Heilbronn
Capacity
200 people
