Der 4. CASSINI Hackathon – Space for the Financial World N3XTCODER Header image
Data scientists, financial services enthusiasts, crypto lovers, software developers, UX/UI designers, digital product professionals, and everybody who loves data and our planet: Find the most innovative applications of space data for a sustainable financial services sector!

Finance & Space Data: It’s a match! The financial services industry as a facilitator of global economic activity is among the most important industries to create a more sustainable future. Satellite data, on the other hand, is key to understanding global environmental and social conditions. As such, the use of satellite data in financial decision making can play a key role in aligning the sector with social and environmental concerns and creating new and innovative products. Let’s use this potential!

How can we use EU space data to develop a sustainable future for finance, insurance, and investments?

Join the German chapter in Frankfurt, the financial capital of Europe. Be part of this EU-initiated mega hackathon, meet inspiring people, develop meaningful solutions, and win great prizes, out of a €10,000 prize pool. On-site at at TechQuartier or remote: Get your ideas to the next level!

Picture of telescope in space.

Experts & Jury

To help your team navigate the intricacies of satellite data and the financial services space we have a great group of industry experts that will support you.

Andreas Siebert
Andreas Siebert
expert
Geospatial Risk Advisor at SiRisCon // Former Head of Geospatial Solutions at Munich Re
Dr Magdalena Zieleniewska
Dr Magdalena Zieleniewska
jury
Senior Manager Sustainability Solutions at Visa
Elise van Tilborg
Elise van Tilborg
expert
Founder at IMARA.earth // GIS Lecturer at Wageningen University
Jens Wiechers
Jens Wiechers
jury
Herder of Shiba Inus at Dogecoin Foundation
Joanna Ruiter
Joanna Ruiter
expert
Advisor Satellite Applications at Netherlands Space Office (NSO)
Friedrich Hubel
jury
Co-Founder & COO at ecolytiq
Huy Ngoc Dang
Huy Ngoc Dang
expert
Manager of Hertie School Data Science Lab
Birgit Hass
jury
Head of Marketing & Communications at Traxpay
Sebastian Haase
Sebastian Haase
expert
Digital Experience Designer at Atelier Markgraph
Alexander Kurz
Alexander Kurz
expert
Senior NatCat Modeller at R+V Re
Stefan Schneider
Stefan Schneider
jury
Space Downstream Entrepreneurship Officer at EUSPA
Professor Dr. Gregor Krämer
expert
Dean of the Faculty of Business Administration of Alanus Hochschule
Jennifer Meyer
Jennifer Meyer
expert
Data Analyst & Software Engineer at N3XTCODER
Hannah Dean
Hannah Dean
expert
UX/UI Designer at N3XTCODER
Florian Jaksch
Florian Jaksch
expert
FinTech Specialist

Key Dates & Agenda

Hackathon Weekend

Friday, 4 November (all times CET):

  • 4:00 pm Welcome Desk at TechQuartier opens & Start Support Channel Discord
  • 5:00 pm Weclome by N3XTCODER & TechQuartier, Interview with Experts and Jury members, Team Introduction
  • 6:00 pm CASSINI and the EU Agency for the Space Programme Welcome & Introduction, Theme & Challenges
  • 7:00 - 9:30 pm Team Work Session, Dinner and Networking
  • 9:30 pm End of First Day

Saturday, 5 November (all times CET):

  • 9:00 am Welcome Desk at TechQuartier opens & Start Support Channel Discord
  • 09:30 am Kick-Off Day 2
  • 09:45 am - 12:00 pm Team Working Session
  • 12:00 - 12:30 pm Expert Session #1
  • 12:30 - 01:30 pm Lunch
  • 01:30 - 4:00 pm Team Working Session
  • 04:00 - 4:30 pm Expert Session #2
  • 04:30 - 09:00 pm Team Working Session, and Dinner
  • 9:00 pm End of Second Day

Sunday, 6 November (all times CET):

  • 9:30 am Welcome Desk opens at TechQuartier opens & Start Support Channel Discord
  • 10:00 am Kick-Off Day 3
  • 10:30 am Team Working Session
  • 12:30 - 01:30 pm Lunch
  • 02:30 pm Project Deadline: Upload Results on TAIKAI
  • 02:30 - 03:00 pm Break
  • 03:00 - 4:30 pm Pitch Session
  • 04:30 - 7:00 pm Closing Ceremony, Handing Out Prizes, Networking
  • 7:00 pm End of Hackathon

Startups

You will also have the chance to meet several exciting startups at the hackathon that are shaping the future of sustainable finance. Get inspired by their stories, find out if you can collaborate, and learn how to turn your idea into a business.

Ecolytiq enables banks and financial institutions to offer their customers environmental footprinting as well as personalized impact offsetting and ESG investments.

U Impact’s mission is using data to mobilise capital towards sustainability. 

The firm aims to transform sustainable investment by making it accessible to everyone, while helping improve sustainable investment products through behavioral analytics.

MARA.earth boosts projects working towards a more sustainable, biodiverse, and better-balanced world through geodata and visualization to inspire and report.

Prizes

We lined up powerful partnerships with established industry leaders, and top universities and are currently developing price packages that will make you win! As we move closer to the event, more details and potentially more prizes will be available.

number 1

€4,500 worth in cash, mentoring and product support for the team
  • €1,500 cash
  • €3,000 worth of hands-on product development support from the N3XTCODER team to bring your idea quickly to real users: Strategy planning and expert consultation, UX/UI design support, CTO consulting*
  • Top-notch pitch training to help your team win the overall CASSINI acceleration prize

number 2

€3,000 worth in cash, mentoring and product support for the team
  • €1,000 cash
  • €2,000 worth of hands-on product development support from the N3XTCODER team to bring your idea quickly to real users: Strategy planning and expert consultation, UX/UI design support, CTO consulting

number 3

€1,500 worth in cash, mentoring and product support for the team
  • €500 cash
  • €1,000 worth of hands-on product development support from the N3XTCODER team to bring your idea quickly to real users: Strategy planning and expert consultation, UX/UI design support, CTO consulting

Join the German chapter of the 4th CASSINI Hackathon – simultaneously happening in 10 different locations across Europe! 

CASSINI, the Competitive Space Startups for Innovation Initiative, is the initiator of this series of mega hackathons. It is part of a broad effort to support space entrepreneurship for a digital and sustainable Europe.

N3XTCODER joins a second time as local organiser in Germany to explore the application of space data in different industries.

Picture with two female read people in front of a screen.

Challenges

As a way to offer concrete solutions that address current challenges in the financial industry, the hackathon focuses on three key areas. Work with a large, well-curated selection of Space Data and create new ideas, concepts or applications in the following domains:

Enabling green and sustainable investment
  • Social or environmental impact investing;
  • ESG and SRI focused portfolio development;
  • Sustainable business operations;
  • Carbon offset trading

Innovating financial tools and technologies
  • Traceability for banking and financial institutions
  • Risk modelling and risk assessment
  • Novel and innovative insurance products
  • Financial software or mobile applications
  • Claims and damage assessment
  • Index production

Advancing global market intelligence
  • Commodities trading
  • Stock market intelligence
  • Financial risk reduction

Data & Resources

With a wide range of data including geospatial data from Copernicus, provided by Sobloo, an established data and information access service (DIAS), we have a powerful setup to work with the data and explore new exciting applications efficiently.

At the hackathon, you can use any tool you like. Access to the above mentioned data is provided via Sobloo.

Find out how it works and what you can do with it here.

The hackathon is open to anyone with a passion for finance, entrepreneurship, sustainability and EU space technologies.

Skills such as data analytics, software development, engineering, space tech, design & digital product management are highly appreciated. Remember: diversity makes a winning team!

Registration & Teambuilding

  1. Register for the hackathon on TAIKAI (watch a video)
  • TAIKAI is the centralised application platform of the hackathon. Simply follow the instructions and make sure to select Germany as location
  • Secure your place by registering as soon as possible. Registrations are open until October 27th (5pm CET) – as long as spaces are available
  1. Prepare & learn more about the data and challenges
  • Join your favourite sessions of the "Big Ideas Campaign" (BIC) between October 17th and 20th
  • The BIC is a series of free keynotes, panels and webinars featuring various experts connected to the hackathon's topic
  • You can also familiarize yourself with the data and challenges here
  1. Find a team to work on the challenges (watch a video)
  • Create your own solution idea on TAIKAI if you already have an idea, and find new team members to join you for the Hackathon Weekend
  • Join a project of someone else on TAIKAI, or engage with other participants on Discord if you do not have an idea yet
  1. Hack and innovate around the future of finance
  • On-site at TechQuartier, a top location in Frankfurt
  • Virtually

Track Record

The German chapter of the 4th CASSINI Hackathon is organised by N3XTCODER. The Berlin-based impact tech hub is the first institution to host the local edition of the EU-initiated mega-hackathon for a second time.

N3XTCODER enables impact-driven projects to leverage digital solutions for their continued success. Drawing on a solid track-record of projects and an ever-growing ecosystem of partners, coders, designers, product experts, and entrepreneurs, bringing 21st-century knowledge, skills, and talent to the table.

In 2021, the German winner, Polar Bearings made it to the 2nd place in the pan-European final. The dedicated, international team built a prototype of an AI-powered Arctic navigation app that offers safe and optimised route planning for terrestrial vehicles over icy terrain – in only three days!

For me the 2nd CASSINI Hackathon “Connecting the Arctic”, co-organised by N3XTCODER was a great experience: I found a really motivated and skilled team (Polar Bearings), had a great time, expanded my professional network, and in the end, we won the 2nd prize Europe wide out of more than 70 teams!

Thomas Metcalfe

Data Scientist

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