AET Hackathon

AET Hackathon: Sustainable tourism challenges and strategies in Italy

We are proud to announce the launch of the very first AET Hackathon event in May 2025. This is an opportunity to bring your creative mind into a unique, collaborative environment and win the ultimate prize of free attendance to the European Transport Conference and showcase your winning solution. ETC brings a unique opportunity to connect with professionals in the transport field from all over Europe.

This webpage details all the information about our event. Questions? Please contact our Hackathon Team.

WHAT

The Mobility Hackathon is a competition, taking place in person, promoting innovation, collaboration, multi-disciplinarity, across Europe. It promotes a tactical approach, around contemporary issues facing cities and related to mobility behaviours.

WHERE

The Mobility Hackathon will take place every year in a different European city, stimulating global approaches but local applications. The upcoming 2025 event will take place in the beautiful city of Padua, Italy!

WHEN

The event starts on Friday , May 16th  2025, at 10:30 a.m. –  closes on May 17th 2025 at 5:00 p.m.

ABOUT

Italy’s rich cultural and natural heritage attracts millions of visitors each year, bringing economic opportunities but also straining local communities, infrastructure, and the environment. From historic city centers overwhelmed by mass tourism to fragile ecosystems under pressure, the challenge of overtourism calls for innovative and sustainable solutions.

This hackathon invites professionals and researchers from diverse fields - including urban planning, engineering, architecture, and social sciences - to explore new ways of analyzing and managing tourism flows. Through data-driven approaches, policy frameworks, and spatial strategies, participants will develop interdisciplinary solutions to balance visitor demand with local well-being, economic resilience, and environmental sustainability.

Join us in shaping the future of tourism in Italy!

WHO

Participation is open to all fields, including architects, engineers, planners, geographers, sociologists, marketing analysts, GIS experts, big data analysts and tech experts. We look forward to receiving participants with diverse backgrounds and levels of experience, as diverse teams are good at generating creative ideas. Varied perspectives enhance the solutions developed.

Participants will be organized into teams, up to 5 people, with at least one non-AET member in each team.

Participants may join the competition individually or as part of a pre-formed team.

HOW

Registration

Registration must include a short bio.

Event Details

●        Each participant is expected to bring their own laptop/device. Internet access will be provided.

●        The hackathon will focus on addressing a transportation challenge specific to the region where the event is organised.

Schedule and Format

●        The scope and rules of the challenge will be explained during a 15-minute briefing, followed by a Q&A session to address any questions.

●        A specific introductory session will be held to introduce the topic;

●        Teams will have 32 hours to work on the challenge!

●        On Saturday afternoon, each team will select 1–2 representatives to present their proposals to a panel of judges, who will evaluate and select the winner.

Deliverables

●        The output should include a slide/whiteboard presentation and a 2-page summary of the proposal.

●        While a detailed technical solution is not mandatory, providing sufficient explanation will enhance your submission.

Judging Criteria
Proposals will be evaluated based on following criteria.

WHY

Prizes and Recognition

●        Winning team will receive free 3-day attendance to the conference for all team members.

●        The winning proposal may be considered by local authorities for implementation.

●        Winners will be featured in several social media posts.

NEXT STEPS

Be aware of the following deadlines. We will update more information on this website by 15th of April