Rwanda Space Agency

Highlights from an incredible Day 1 of the iSTAR Hackathon! Our teams hit the ground running with workshops led by experts on: 🔸 Leveraging Wekeo for space and climate applications 🔸 Exploring design thinking and rapid prototyping 🔸 Crafting business models and storytelling for impactful pitches Teams collaborated, refined their ideas, and developed solutions that blend innovation with purpose. ✨ Today, the excitement builds as teams present their amazing ideas. Who will take home the top prizes? 🏅 Stay tuned for the big reveal! Thank you to our incredible partners – Expertise France, Rwanda Space Agency, Agence Française de Développement, Thales, and Thales Alenia Space for your invaluable support in the iSTAR Hackathon. #iSTARHackathon #SpaceAndClimate #InnovationUnleashed

Looking back at the iSTAR Hackathon 2024: Space innovation for climate action 🌍🚀 On November 25-26, 2024, Thales Alenia Space proudly participated in the iSTAR Hackathon in Kigali. The event brought together 40 participants in 11 teams to tackle critical challenges such as air quality monitoring, weather forecasting, flood preparedness, carbon sequestration, and urban resilience through innovative solutions. Our experts led a hands-on workshop showcasing the WEkEO platform, empowering participants with access to Copernicus data and tools like JupyterHub for advanced data analysis. In addition, we provided high-performance technical infrastructure and on-site support to help teams bring their ideas to life. After two days of ideation, mentorship, and collaboration, teams pitched their solutions to a panel of judges from the Rwanda Space Agency, Expertise France, Agence Française de Développement and Thales Alenia Space. Winning teams were awarded extended access to WEkEO, a solution offered by Thales Alenia Space, to further develop their impactful projects. Kudos to all participants and winners Minetech rwanda, Sentrier and Kulima for their creativity and commitment. Thales Pascal Lazaridis #Innovation #SpaceTech #ClimateSolutions