105 students participated in the second "Mobility City Challenge 2022" hackathon

"It is interesting that the winners of the hackathon created a team on the spot, because most of students came to the hackathon with already established teams. The idea of ​​the winning team is a scalable 24/7 kindergarten on the airport territory, initially for employees, but in future for passengers and a wider audience, which received the highest evaluation of the jury," emphasizes the organizer of the hackathon, LU BVEF assoc. prof. Ilona Baumane-Vītoliņa.

Board member of Riga Airport - Artūrs Saveljevs, Board member of Latvian Railway - Vita Balode Andrews and Latvian Business Angel Network board member, entrepreneur and private investor Voldemārs Brēdiķis worked on the hackathon jury and evaluated the ideas of 23 student teams.

The promotion awards were won by team AA220, which consisted of two architecture students Anita Ozoliņa and Arvīds Apelis from RTU, as well as IT student Deniss Kargins. The idea of ​​the team is the efficient use of every square meter of the city of the airport based on UA/UX principles. The other team that received promotion awards is JUPITERS (RTU architects) - for the creation of a festival/event district at the airport, as well as AirBITL (RTU/RBS) - for the idea of ​​virtual reality glasses and an app that introduces Latvian startup companies. Team Bruntor - an idea - a prototype has already been created - a scooter for transporting luggage on the territory of the airport. The jury also praised the Bus22 team - they developed the idea of ​​establishing a sustainable bus line on the route Mārupe - Riga Airport.

"Mobility City Challenge 2022" is an urban hackathon that, for the second year, invited you to look at your city from a different point of view and participate in shaping its future. The working language of the hackathon is English. This year's three challenges for students were developed by Riga Airport: 1) Urban mobility - improve access to the airport using climate neutral/low emission modes of transport, to improve their usability and willingness to use them; 2)  Airport city as destination - design and create services to create value for travelers, customers, tenants, local inhabitants that the new infrastructure will enable and makes the airport city more attractive; 3) Seamless and enjoyable travel & terminal - enhance and ease the journey for connections between the Airport, Rail Baltic and other public transport to make it and pleasant experience.  

As part of the "Mobility City Challenge 2022", students worked on the challenges offered by Riga Airport during the weekend under the guidance of a team of professional trainers from Kimitisik. Participation in the challenge was free.

The team that won the Riga challenge will meet teams from three European cities - Evora (Portugal), Kaunas (Lithuania) and Ljubljana (Slovenia) in the grand final in Barcelona. In the grand finale, the teams will continue to develop their idea and compete for the prize money.

"Mobility City Challenge 2022" is organized by the Faculty of Business, Management and Economics of the University of Latvia, Riga Technical University and Riga Stradins University Business Incubator in cooperation with Riga Airport, Kimitisik B.V. and EIT Urban Mobility.