New opening: ESA’s space data used at Junction
The activities of Slush, Aalto University and ESA encourage entrepreneurship and innovation, and are just the kind of practical work to promote Finland’s economic growth that the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment wants to encourage. Bringing together the experts, businesses and technology promotes the Finnish Government’s key projects on entrepreneurship and growth in a most practical way. The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment wishes good luck to those who participate in Junction and looks forward to hearing about the winners, the successful future entrepreneurs and business ideas.
This year, one of Slush’s partners is the European Space Agency ESA. This is the first time ESA participates in Junction Hackathon, a side event of Slush. It aims at highlighting the many possibilities to use the space infrastructure, space technology and space data, and the new innovative products and services they make possible.
Between 25 and 27 November 2016, ESA makes an information system that uses data received from remote sensing satellites available to the participants of Junction. In addition, the participants have an opportunity to use Arctic data provided by the Finnish Meteorological Institute.
The two best teams that make innovative use of the space data provided by ESA will be granted ESA’s Arctic Space award (2 x €50,000) at Junction. The awarded money can be used at the ESA BIC space incubator, which is a business incubator that provides support for further development of the service or product and for building business operations. The winners will be announced by 16.00 on Sunday, 27 November.
Slush will be organised between 30 November and 1 December 2016 at the exhibition and convention centre Messukeskus in Helsinki. At ESA’s stand at Slush, visitors can familiarise themselves with how space technology and data can be made use of in different fields. ESA will also attract start-up companies to the event.
What Junction?
Junction Hackathon is a 48-hour hackathon organised by Aalto University, in which 1,200 participants from across the world build new solutions by combining the latest technologies. Junction also aims to generate new technological innovations and promote the creation of new growth companies in Finland. The objectives are:
- to build an international hub of the culture of experimentation in the field of technology to Finland,
- to meet the recruitment needs of Finnish growth companies,
- to enable new innovations by bringing together different industries, the latest technologies and technology experts.
Our aim is to build a Finnish hub of the culture of experimentation, in which young technology experts
work on new innovations in different industries under the leadership of experienced operators.
The estimated number of projects is about 350 this year. Collaboration partners that have participated include companies such as Finnair, UPM, Supercell and Kesko. The joint impact of Junction can be divided into two main themes.
The number of technology experts available in the markets cannot currently meet the increasing recruitment needs of today’s growth enterprises. Junction brings a large number of skilled experts from dozens of different countries to Finland, and serves as a meeting place for Finnish technology operators and young technology experts from Finland and abroad.
Many new innovations originate from technological experimentations. The event provides the participants an important opportunity to work on and experiment with new technologies in an innovative environment that is rich in ideas and in which the resources of the experts and established technology companies meet.
Further Information:
Tuija Ypyä, Special Adviser, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, [email protected] or tel. +358 29 506 2115
Jesse Phaler, Head of Industrial Management Office, ESA, [email protected] or tel. +33 677 531 799
Pauli Stigell, Senior Adviser, Tekes, [email protected] or tel. +358 50 5577 856
Anna Brchisky, Communications, Junction, [email protected] or +358 41 545 8841
More information at https://hackjunction.com/ and http://www.slush.org/