Covalex Hackathon: All Together for safer future

Once the first training session was completed, which along with the previous simulation exercise is considered to form the necessary knowledge base, the Hackathon began. Sixty students from the University of A Coruña participated in this activity, of whom 40 are enrolled in the Master's program in Occupational Risk Prevention and 20 in the Master's program in Industrial Engineering.

In the exercise, the participants were organized into multidisciplinary working groups of six people each. Each group worked on one of the proposed challenges, focusing on key aspects of emergency response from different perspectives (command post, operations, municipal management, etc.).

The aim of the hackathon was to foster innovation and creativity in emergency response, promoting interdisciplinary collaboration among students from different fields of knowledge. Through this event, the participants developed innovative solutions and prototyped practical tools that can be used in emergency situations managed by Civil Protection.

The hackathon aims not only to generate innovative ideas but also to promote teamwork, critical thinking, and problem-solving. The working dynamics will adopt the Design Thinking methodology to address the challenges posed in emergency management. Design Thinking is a human-centered approach used to solve complex problems and find innovative solutions. This methodology is based on creativity and iterative thinking, focusing on understanding user needs, ideating solutions, prototyping, and testing ideas to arrive at an effective and viable solution.

During the workshop, participants worked in multidisciplinary teams to apply the principles of Design Thinking to solving emergency management challenges. Collaboration, creativity, and experimentation were encouraged to develop innovative and practical solutions. Through an iterative design process, the teams prototyped ideas, received feedback from experts in emergency planning, management, and intervention, and refined their solutions to create a positive impact on emergency management.

Diagnóstic Phase

In this stage, each group had to choose one of the proposed challenges. The challenges were centered around two themes: attention to people and engineering solutions for rescue processes.

CHALLENGES OF CARING FOR PEOPLE:

• Effective communication applications: Seek solutions that allow effective communication between the affected people and the rescue teams.
• Aid coordination platforms: Establish systems that facilitate the efficient distribution of resources (water, food, medicines).
• Temporary shelter solutions: Propose the design and rapid deployment of temporary shelters that are safe, comfortable and easy to install in the affected area. 
• Community education and awareness: Design the contents of educational programs and actions to be carried out for the residents of that area. (establish emergency kits they should have, conduct evacuation drills and training in flood prevention measures, ...). 

CHALLENGES OF ENGINEERING SOLUTIONS FOR RESCUE PROCESSES

• Drones for search and rescue: Establish the protocols of action of these teams over the affected area (flight plan, possibility of communication with those affected, providing basic first aid and carrying essential supplies, obtaining real-time data on the evolution of the disaster ...). 
• Disaster monitoring and prediction systems: Propose in the area the installation of sensors that together with advanced systems (AI, big data, ...) can predict these events to perform the evacuation before the disaster and monitor in real time the evolution of the same once they have occurred (water level continues to rise, ....) so that rescue teams can have real-time information of the affected area helping them to give a better response.
• Use of data tools in emergencies, such as those offered by EUMCP, to improve management.
• Resilient infrastructure: Propose infrastructure in the area (walkways, structures, efficient evacuation zones, shelters, means of shore evacuation, ....) that are resilient to natural disasters and can facilitate evacuation and relief access.

Each group will select one of these topics. Afterwards, an analysis of the selected challenge will be made, focusing on understanding the problem they faced and the elements that composed it. The stage was briefly explained and what they had to do, allowing the teams to work individually.

Solution Phase

In the Solution stage, participants focused on conceptualizing possible solutions that would address the challenges, without developing them. The objective of this phase was to obtain as many ideas and solutions as possible without focusing on their feasibility.

Action Phase

In the Action stage, the most viable idea that best solved the proposed challenge was selected, detailing this final solution and preparing the presentation for the evaluation before the tribunal.