German
Hack the Paradise! June 12 and 13, 2026
Help us shape your digital city
As a successful hub for innovation, our goal is to use digital technologies to gradually shape the city of Jena in a forward-looking and sustainable way.
To do this, we’re tapping into the collective wisdom of our city: Together with stakeholders from business, academia, and civil society, we want to develop innovative solutions to specific challenges. That’s why we cordially invite developers, creatives, visionaries, students, data experts, designers, and engaged citizens to “Hack the Paradise!”—the hackathon dedicated to shaping our digital city of the future.
Together, we’ll explore new approaches to make Jena an even more livable, efficient, and sustainable place.
Hackathons—a portmanteau of “hacking” (a playful term for programming) and “marathon”—originated in software development and are collaborative development and design competitions. In interdisciplinary teams, innovative solutions to specific problems and challenges are developed in a short period of time.
As part of the Smart Cities Jena pilot project, this year’s hackathon will once again focus on various concrete issues from everyday urban life—ranging from smart infrastructure to digital solutions for government, business, and civil society. Together with our partners, this leads to practical and forward-looking approaches that are subsequently refined and—where possible—put into practice.
Click here to register!
Schedule
On Friday, June 12, 2026, the Smart City Forum at JEDI—the Jena Digital Innovation Hub—will kick off at 5:00 p.m. with a focus on sharing knowledge and getting to know one another. In addition to an introduction to the topic of smart cities, the hackathon challenge organizers will present their challenges. Immediately afterward, teams will be formed during a casual networking session.
On Saturday, June 13, 2026, starting at 10:00 a.m., we’ll come together in interdisciplinary teams at the JEDI to tackle the challenges of “Hack the Paradise!” The goal will be to develop initial solutions for the respective tasks within nine hours. Experienced mentors will be on hand to support us with methodology, subject matter, and technical implementation.
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Friday, June 12, 2026
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Saturday, June 13, 2023 |
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| JEDI - Jena Digital Innovation Hub Engelplatz 8, 07743 Jena |
JEDI - Jena Digital Innovation Hub Engelplatz 8, 07743 Jena |
| 5:00 p.m. Welcome address by (Benjamin Koppe, Mayor and Department Head) |
9:00 a.m. Check-in, including a light breakfast |
| 5:20 p.m. Keynote Watts Up (Daniel Rodenburger, Stadtwerke Jena) |
10:00 a.m. Kick-off |
| 5:40 p.m. Keynote No Time to Waste (Wolfgang Hillesheim, Kommunalservice Jena) |
10:15 a.m. Team introductions |
| 6:00 p.m. Keynote Talk To Me (Domenique Dölz, Smart City) |
10:45 a.m. Start of the challenges |
| 6:20 p.m. Keynote DimTheLight (Wolfgang Hillesheim, Jena Municipal Services) |
1:00 p.m. Lunch and discussion |
| 6:40 p.m. Keynote 5 (T.B.A.) |
1:30 p.m. Continuation of the challenges |
| 7:00 p.m. Team formation for the hackathon & “ ” networking, including a get-together |
7:00 p.m. Pitches & jury evaluation |
| 8:00 PM Brainstorming & Open Coding | 8:00 p.m. Get-together & open coding |
Challenges and Mentors
DimTheLight – Smart Street Lighting via LoRaWAN
How can street lighting be controlled in a more flexible, smarter, and more sustainable way? The Jena Municipal Services Department wants to be able to dynamically dim streetlights in the future—for example, near construction sites, during events, or in traffic-calmed areas. So far, adjusting the lighting profiles has only been possible manually. We are therefore looking for a creative IoT solution that intelligently expands existing infrastructure rather than replacing it at great expense.
Your Challenge
Your task is to develop a prototype for a LoRaWAN-NFC adapter that can remotely control streetlights. The goal is a working demo where lighting profiles can be adjusted wirelessly and controlled via a simple dashboard. Hardware tinkerers, makers, and IoT enthusiasts—this is the perfect opportunity for you!
#SmartCity #IoT #LoRaWAN
No Time to Waste – Smart Routes for Jena’s Garbage Trucks
How do you navigate a garbage truck safely and efficiently through narrow streets, dead-end streets, and neighborhoods cluttered with parked cars? So far, route planning at Kommunalservice Jena has relied primarily on drivers’ experience. Yet valuable geodata on street widths, intersections, and traffic rules already exists—it just hasn’t been integrated into the routing process yet.
Your Challenge
Your task is to develop a prototype that integrates municipal GIS data with OpenStreetMap and the Valhalla routing service. The goal is to create realistic navigation specifically for garbage trucks that identifies problematic streets and takes vehicle-specific requirements—such as width, length, and turning radius—into account. We’re looking for creative approaches to data-driven mobility and smart urban logistics!
#SmartMobility #GIS #Routing
TalkToMe – The Talking Hub Avatar
How can people interact intuitively with digital systems? Develop a voice-controlled avatar prototype for the Jena Digital Innovation Hub that guides, informs, and interacts with visitors using natural language.
Your Challenge
Develop an interactive, voice-controlled avatar that responds to users, conveys information, and creates an immersive experience. The focus is on natural language interaction, real-time feedback, and an innovative and intuitive user experience for use as a digital exhibit at the Hub.
#AIAvatar #VoiceInteraction #SmartExperience
WattsUp – Smart Forecasts for Hydropower
How can renewable energy be reliably forecasted, even though it depends on weather and environmental factors? Stadtwerke Jena faces the challenge of generating the most accurate possible quarter-hourly generation forecasts for the following day for its hydropower plants. These forecasts are crucial for ensuring grid stability and fairly distributing costs within the energy system.
Your Challenge
Your task is to develop a machine learning approach that forecasts electricity generation from hydropower plants as accurately as possible. Use data, identify patterns, and develop intelligent models that take environmental factors into account and deliver robust predictions. We’re looking for creative AI solutions for the energy supply of the future!
#MachineLearning #EnergyTech #SmartGrid
Challenge Organizers
Daniel Rodenburger
#EnergyIndustry #RenewableEnergy #MachineLearning
Quantitative Analyst in Energy Procurement
Stadtwerke Energie Jena-Pößneck GmbH
Daphne Auer
#EnergyIndustry #RenewableEnergy #MachineLearning
IT Requirements and Project Manager
Stadtwerke Energie Jena-Pößneck GmbH
Yuxuan Xie
#EnergyIndustry #RenewableEnergy #MachineLearning
Quantitative Analyst in Energy Sales
Stadtwerke Energie Jena-Pößneck GmbH
Alina Gohde
#EnergyIndustry #RenewableEnergy #MachineLearning
Project Developer, Renewable Energy and Generation
Stadtwerke Energie Jena-Pößneck GmbH
Thomas Holy
#EnergyIndustry #RenewableEnergy #MachineLearning
Specialist in Machine Learning for Energy Procurement
Stadtwerke Energie Jena-Pößneck GmbH
Domenique Dölz
Subproject Manager, Smart City Jena
#Innovation #SmartCity #TransformationDesign
Wolfgang Hillesheim
Traffic Control at KSJ
#Traffic #LoRaWAN #IoT
Mentors
Martin Liebeskind
#Agility #Programming #Team
Martin Horatschek
#programming #software-architecture #agile
Marcel Koch
Ernst Abbe University of Applied Sciences Jena / ZAKI
#DataScience #MachineLearning #Programming
Frank Nussbaum
#human #AI #magic
Johannes Häuser
#SoftwareEngineering #AI #Automation
FAQ
You don't need any special skills or hackathon experience to participate in Hack the paradise! Just bring your laptop, some time, and a willingness to work together in interdisciplinary teams on ideas and concepts.
You can’t get by without any programming knowledge at all, unless you want to build nothing but sensors. For most challenges, you—or at least someone on your team—should have some programming experience. Just as important as programming skills are subject matter expertise related to the specific challenges, conceptual know-how, presentation skills, creativity, and an affinity for design. Experience has shown that the best ideas come from interdisciplinary teams!
We want to provide a safe and comfortable environment and a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of the following:
- Gender, gender identity, and gender expression
- Age
- Sexual orientation
- Disability
- Physical appearance
- Nationality
- Religion
- Political views
- Previous hackathon participation or lack thereof
- IT experience or lack thereof
- Preferred programming language or tech stack
We do not tolerate harassment of hackathon participants in any form. Sexual language and images are not appropriate at any hackathon venue; this includes the following:
- Hacks
- Talks, presentations, check-ins, workshops, or demos
- all parties associated with the hackathon
- Social media
- all other online media
Harassment includes offensive verbal remarks, intimidation, stalking, following, photographing, or audio/video recording without consent, persistent interruption of conversations, and unwelcome sexual attention.
Hackathon participants who violate these rules will be asked to cease harassing behavior immediately and may be excluded from the hackathon at the discretion of the hackathon organizers.
Please contact the organizing team if participants are behaving inappropriately in any of the ways listed above.
Let’s work together to create a fair environment for everyone!
Through innovations developed and implemented collaboratively, we aim to improve quality of life, communication, connectivity, and collaboration in the city.
To this end, existing networks in the city—spanning business, academia, government, and civil society—are being mobilized and encouraged to help shape urban life.
As part of the process of developing a data policy, we are establishing a shared understanding and established practices for handling data, with a particular focus on the protection of personal data and the transparency of public data.
The capacity for cooperation, collaborative work, and the joint acquisition of third-party funding is enhanced through networking and collaboration. The Smart City project (Jena Digital Werkstadt) is creating a networking and collaboration platform through which the city of Jena implements, shares, and further develops digital solutions with partners.
We want to move selected project ideas forward. This is always done in close coordination with the jury, the challenge organizers, and the hackathon project teams. In the process, we explore implementation options, discuss potential costs, and connect with institutions that could be involved. As the organizers, we reserve the right to release funding for the implementation of project ideas following Hack the paradise! Any code reused for this purpose will be made available as open source under a strong copyleft license, as this is a prerequisite for the use of funding in the Smart City project.
