EuroTeQaThon brings together the best teams from EuroTeQ partner universities participating in the Collider courses, who have been seeking solutions to challenges that contribute to sustainability goals through innovation, entrepreneurship, and co-creation. The unifying theme is "Enhance Connections for Sustainable Futures," aiming to drive positive changes in three key areas: people, nature, and technology, which served as subcategories for the projects. The event was held at Ecole Polytechnique in Paris, where TalTech was represented by three teams who won at the local TalTech Sustainable Futures event. Read more about the local event and the teams representing us. 

In total, 21 teams from 8 partner universities participated in EuroTeQaThon. This means the teams delivered 21 very different pitch presentations, where they conveyed the essence of their ideas/solutions in three minutes. The winners of this year’s event were: 

• Nature Category: FarmElf (TUM): Farm Elf is an innovative service that improves livestock welfare by providing farmers with tools to monitor and estimate feed quality and cow milk production, using data from satellites and drones to calculate the energy content of the field. The app combines this data with predictive models to recommend optimal times for grass cutting, ultimately increasing milk production by 17% and reducing carbon emissions by 12%. 
• Technology category: Revolty (HEC Paris): Revolty offers an affordable and sustainable solar storage solution by repurposing electric vehicle batteries, allowing solar panel owners to store excess energy and achieve a 90% self-consumption rate. This solution not only doubles the savings on electricity bills but also contributes to sustainability by reducing CO2 emissions and avoiding the extraction of new raw materials. 
• People category: Ahead of new (DTU): Ahead of New is a platform designed to guide consumers towards repair options for their electronic devices, using AI to diagnose issues and connect users with local repair shops, making the repair process cost-effective and convenient. The platform includes an environmental impact calculator to show the benefits of repair over replacement, thereby promoting a culture of repair and contributing to SDG 12 for responsible consumption and production. 

Additionally, for the first time, all participants could vote for their favorite project, and the well-deserved winner was the TalTech team UTER (consisting of Liis-Marie Kütt, Berna Sarraf, Ashlyn Elizabeth Finney from the E-Health Master's program), who addressed the issue of postpartum hemorrhage. The UTER team also earned a spot in the follow-up Bootcamp program organized by IESE Business School at the end of July to further develop their project. One team from each partner university will participate in this program. 

The international and multidisciplinary jury included Kristo Reinsalu, the new head of the TalTech Technology Transfer Office, who evaluated projects in the nature category. For him, this was an inspiring experience that provided a clear understanding of EuroTeQ Collider. He highlighted that participating as a jury member at EuroTeQathon offered a good overview of the current level and how student entrepreneurship can be fostered. “Thanks to EuroTeQ, we have had access for several years to the knowledge and experiences of leading universities that cultivate an entrepreneurial mindset. While values and habits cannot be taught, they can be adopted over time, and changes are possible. With this in mind, let us ask ourselves what we can do within TalTech, interdisciplinary across faculties and institutes, in close cooperation with our partners (like Tehnopol), to bring forth the next world-changing student project in the next year or two?” 

In addition to the Collider work package members, Student Council representatives, students, the TalTech delegation included Katrin Arvola (Lecturer and Programme Director of International Business Administration and Management and Marketing) and Ekaterina Demiankova (Lecturer and Early-Stage Researcher) of the Department of Business Administration, who moderated the students' feedback session and supported and guided students in refining their pitch presentations. They also shared experiences with lecturers from other universities’ Collider courses in a joint session. The lecturers pointed out that cooperation with lecturers of Collider courses at other universities was very valuable, providing inspiration for new teaching methods and expanding international cooperation. Katrin Arvola added: "I am sure that such experiences will help prepare students even better for the global business world and innovative solutions." 

You can read more about all the participating projects here.

Next June, EuroTeQaThon will take place at one of the "flagship" universities for challenge-based learning – Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). 

Would like to get involved in EuroTeQ Collider in the next academic year? For more information, contact Ethel Praks (ethel.praks@taltech..ee), Karl-Erik Karu (karl-erik.karu@taltech.ee)