Dutch Maritime Hackathon

Hackathon offers new perspective

During the second exhibition day of this year’s Holland Fisheries Event the finals of the first Dutch Maritime Hackathon took place, with participants given a limited amount of time to come up with creative and innovative ideas to future-proof fishing and food production in the North Sea.

Lieneke Schuitemaker

The Maritime Hackathon was organised by Fisheries school ROC Friese Poort Urk and Wageningen University & Research (WUR) with help from ict company FarmHack. The idea came from ROC-teacher and researcher Geert Hoekstra, who presented the final at Holland Fisheries Event.

The hackathon attracted 72 participants from Dutch and Belgian fisheries education, fisheries practice and industry. Beforehand, five problem statements were presented by maritime companies and nature organisations, including Padmos Shipyard, Wageningen Marine Research, NGO Good Fish Foundation together with skipper and entrepreneur Hendrik Kramer of MDV (Sustainable Fisheries Master Plan) and co-owner of the vessels MDV 1 and 2, fishery data company Omni-C in combination with Weforsea Shipping and Dutch NGO Stichting De Noordzee.

One of the Hackathon presentations – a fishing vessel of the future

Based on the participants’ subject choices, ten teams were assembled, which set to work for two days to find solutions to the challenges. The teams presented their ideas to each other at the end of the second day. In the process, some teams dropped out and two teams were merged, having found that they were working on the same challenges.

The remaining teams presented their findings on the second day of the Holland Fisheries Event. The jury, formed of representatives from fisheries, research and education, selected the three best teams, who then again presented their ideas. The winner was Team 8, which included four students from ROC Friese Poort in Urk with their Auto catch concept for a mother ship with six uncrewed satellite vessels, for fishing inside and outside wind farms. This won then a €500 award from local bank ABN Amro.

The jury and the audience during the presentation on the last day of this year’s Holland Fisheries Event

The jury was highly impressed by Auto Catch idea from fisheries students Harm de Boer, Thomas Koffeman, Maarten van Slooten and Kevin Visser, all from Urk. The concept is for a mother ship powered by a battery pack and able recharge directly from an offshore wind farm, while catcher vessels fish off the bottom, and the processing chain is kept short with processing on board the mother vessel.

The satellite catcher boats would be charged by the mother ship using solar and wind energy. During seasons when fishing is slow, the mother vessel could have a windfarm support role.

Speed dating

The idea for the hackathon came from Geert Hoekstra, part-time teacher at Urk’s fisheries school (ROC Friese Poort)m who also works as a researcher at Wageningen Economic Research (WUR). He got the idea from a hackathon he’d attended in 2018, also organised by Farmhack, together with The North Sea Foundation.

The jury had plenty to discuss as they considered the presentations

‘That was hugely inspiring and refreshing. A hackathon is a competition where you get the best out of yourself, because of the intensity and the working methods used,’ Geert Hoekstra said.

The Maritime Hackathon started with a pre-event on 20th September, where the five companies presented their challenges. This was followed by two rounds of speed dating for those involved to ask questions of the companies and exchange information.

‘That was prepared in advance with the students by the supervising teachers. You then basically start cracking the problem by repeatedly asking questions. Then came the choice of the challenge and the composition of the teams. Ten teams were formed, five of which threw themselves into Padmos’ challenge for a sustainable ship. That topic was clearly closest to how the participating students perceived things,’ he said.

During the two-day hackathon itself, each team set to work on a chosen question. Each team was assigned a teacher as supervisor, and one or two professionals from the field. They then spent a day and a half – and part of the night – working intensively on a solution to the chosen challenge.

‘The students came from several Dutch fisheries schools and a nautical college. After the first round, six teams went through, of which three eventually made it to the finals,’ Geert Hoekstra said.

‘This is a totally different way of working from what is normal in fisheries education. That was also the aim: to introduce a different way of thinking, making the results also interesting for innovative entrepreneurs and scientists.’

Geert Hoekstra presenting the hackathon finals

New optimism

For the students, mostly from fishing families, this was a way to look more optimistically towards the future.

‘Because of the current situation in fisheries, many young people see their future as bleak. There is a lot of worry and sadness. We noted this clearly at the beginning of the hackathon. By engaging with their profession in a different way and thinking out of the box during the hackathon, the mood became very different. Something really happens during such a hackathon and that affects the participants. They needed that, it allowed them to focus on the future again. Afterwards, several young people said they would continue, even tough their families had opted for decommissioning. I have a lot of respect for that,’ Geert Hoekstra said, adding that there is still a future perspective for fisheries.

‘When so much comes out of two days of the hackathon, there’s definitely a future. The participating companies also see that. There is definitely interest in the ideas generated during the hackathon.’

There will be a follow-up to to this, with the various ideas pulled together into a master plan – which the jury also suggested.

‘There were strong points in all the elaborations of the challenges, which together can still strengthen each other. Rabobank also sees this and wants to support it as well, with knowledge and financing, together with Flynth and ship designer Conoship International. So who knows where this will lead?’

He also hopes that teachers will be inspired by the hackathon to such an extent that they will start using this form of work in their classes.

‘After all, the connection with practice is essential within fisheries education,’ he said, commenting that education should involve more of a mix of students and those working in the profession.

‘Developments are happening so fast, you can no longer look at innovation in the traditional way. Problem-solving thinking is needed and you have to learn and practise that. I think fisheries students are capable of much more than is often imagined.’