On November 1, student teams will gather at TalTech Sports Hall for the final event of Estonia's first drone hackathon, “Fly or Die,” to present drone solutions developed over two weeks. The final day offers visitors a unique opportunity to witness indoor drone flights and explore the latest developments in drone and autonomous navigation technology.
Prototypes and Flight Demonstrations
During the final event, teams will present solutions in the fields of autonomous navigation, sensor integration, object detection, safety, and hardware innovation. Presentations before the jury, partners, and audience will culminate in drone flight demonstrations inside the sports hall.
Partner organizations participating in the hackathon proposed a total of 17 challenges, of which 11 were undertaken by 12 teams. Just over 60 participants registered for the TalTech drone hackathon, which began on October 18.
“This is a rare opportunity to see drone technology development in real time and experience how students and specialists create future solutions together with industry partners,” said Jüri Bogatkin, junior researcher at the Embedded Artificial Intelligence Research Laboratory (SARD-AI) and chief organizer of the drone hackathon.
He noted that drone development is currently one of the fastest-growing fields, with active participation from both public- and private-sector organizations. “For a creative engineer or student, taking part in a hackathon is simply a great opportunity to collaborate with like-minded people and be part of the powerful synergy that quickly leads to results,” Bogatkin added.
The organizing lab — Embedded Artificial Intelligence Research Laboratory (SARD-AI) — develops defense-related drone technologies in two international projects: the Estonian Research Council–funded IMPRESS-U and the NATO SPS project, in cooperation with Kyiv Polytechnic Institute and the University of Rochester in the USA.
According to lab head Mairo Leier, these projects focus on object detection in challenging conditions such as night, fog, or smoke, using various sensors ranging from night vision and thermal cameras to radars. “An important topic is also drone swarm technologies, where multiple drones — from a few to hundreds — work autonomously together, share tasks among themselves, and make real-time decisions without requiring a single operator to control all drones separately,” noted Leier.
He added that organizing the hackathon adds another layer to these projects and brings together students, researchers, universities, and industry — providing a platform for solving real drone technology challenges.
Open to All Drone Enthusiasts
The final event at TalTech Sports Hall is open to all interested visitors on November 1 from 4:00 PM onwards. On the final day, the best solutions will receive monetary prizes for purchasing drone components, Droon.ee drone kits, and ProDroneParts gift cards. Additionally, science parks Tehnopol and Tartu Science Park will offer the best teams five hours of mentoring, while the winning team will receive additional mentor hours at the Estonian Aviation Academy and access to a flight simulator.
The drone hackathon is organized by the TalTech School of Information Technologies and the Embedded Artificial Intelligence Research Laboratory (SARD-AI), in cooperation with the TalTech Centre for Defence and Security Technologies and the Estonian Research Council. The event is supported by partners: KrattWorks, Droon.ee, Defence League Cyber Unit, Estonian Academy of Security Sciences, Estonian Aviation Academy, Robotex, ProDroneParts.eu, Tehnopol, Sparkup Tartu Science Park, Babayte OÜ, Metrosert, and AlphaGis.