13.05.2019 | With a good portion of creativity and know-how to an innovative solution

Smart people work for Axpo

Unusual scenes took place at the site of the Linth-Limmern pumped storage power plant. Until the early hours of the morning, 13 ETH students worked together with our Axpo specialists on new forecasting tools as part of the 2nd Hackathon.

The participating teams consisted of two students and one Axpo specialist each. Their task was to develop an algorithm within three days with which the forecast for the timely production of a wind turbine could be improved. The teams thus worked on a solution to minimize the potentially high costs involved in trading wind energy. If there is an imbalance between the forecasted and actually produced energy, high compensation payments have to be made.

We have captured the atmosphere during these exciting days for you:

Win-Win situation

This year's Hackathon can also be described as a complete success. Together with our international Axpo specialists, the students were able to work on real problems at eye level and develop innovative solutions. Their feedback was very positive throughout this year as well. They would recommend their Hackathon fellow students and got to know Axpo as an international and innovative employer.

Through this cooperation, our Axpo colleagues have received new input from the current university environment. In addition, a promising forecasting tool has been developed that can be used to better forecast the production of a wind farm. A great experience for all participants.

What is a hackathon?

A hackathon is a collaborative software and hardware development event. The aim of a hackathon is to jointly produce useful, creative or entertaining software products or, more generally, to find solutions to given problems within the duration of this event. Participants in software hackathons usually come from different areas of the software or hardware industry and often work on their projects in cross-functional teams. Hackathons always have a specific topic or are technology related.

Did you know, for example, that Skype or Twitter are results of a hackathon? 

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