The seventh edition of VDS, held in late October at the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia, stood out as a catalyst for innovative culture, extending its impact to the university sector and fostering the development of young talent through The Challenge.
This initiative, organized by Startup Valencia in collaboration with the City of Arts and Sciences, the Ministry of Innovation, Industry, Tourism and Trade, Valencia Innovation Capital, and VDS, aims to help university students develop their skills through four challenges presented by HP, Elewit, Naturgy, and Mapfre.
This year’s hackathon saw remarkable participation, with 208 registrations (101 women and 107 men) from 26 different universities, including 12 international institutions, six national universities, and eight from the Valencia region.
Additionally, 46% of participants were students from international universities, showcasing a diverse range of profiles representing over 19 fields of study. From these applications, 70 participants were selected and organized into 12 teams.
Throughout The Challenge, teams were mentored by experts from leading companies such as HP, Mapfre, Elewit, Naturgy, BStartup Banco Sabadell, Marina de Empresas, Banco Santander, Fundación ValenciaPort, and CDTM.
The finalists’ proposals were celebrated during the VDS closing ceremony on October 24, held on the main stage of the event. The winning solutions gained visibility at an international event, VDS2024, and the top team received a €5,000 cash prize to support their development, thanks to HP’s sponsorship.
Finalist projects
The winning team, Spaksafe, took on Naturgy’s challenge and presented an innovative solution for detecting and responding to fires in photovoltaic plants. Their system integrates multiple information sources to provide early and optimized alerts, leveraging an AI-powered filter to streamline notifications, reduce response times, and minimize damage in the photovoltaic sector.
Team Elektra, addressing Elewit’s challenge, developed AI software capable of predicting and adjusting the capacity of electric conductors in real time to optimize grid efficiency based on weather conditions. This system is integrated into a control panel (Elektra Dashboard) that enables companies to monitor and manage information for more efficient resource allocation. The team, with expertise in computer science, industrial engineering, and business, plans to continually improve the AI model and expand its reach across Europe.
For Mapfre’s challenge, team Oezz proposed an enhancement to the company’s app, allowing users to quickly and easily update their insurance policies. Optical character recognition (OCR) technology enables data extraction from documents, streamlining and improving the efficiency of management processes.
Finally, Hache, responding to HP’s challenge, developed a voice assistant integrated into the HP Smart app. This assistant uses augmented reality and artificial intelligence to diagnose and resolve printer issues in a simple and visually intuitive way.
