Challenge – Team Smart Passage – Ocean Re-Creation Challenge

Challenge – Smart Passage

At the beginning of the hackathon, the team consisted of only one person, project manager Steffen. But after the first three days, Steffen received active support from the Danish students Mursal, Thomas, Christian and Andrei from Roskilde University. Thus, the interdisciplinary team “Save your spot” was ultimately represented by five participants from the fields of Computer Science and Programming as well as Business Economics and Development. Concentrated power and a perfect prerequisite for solving the challenge – Smart Passage.

The goal of the maritime challenge was to develop a smart, digital payment system for the import of pleasure boats into the passage of the Kiel Canal. An outdated payment system is the reason for long waiting times for recreational boats to enter the NOK. The long engine times in turn release unnecessary CO2 emissions and consume diesel fuel.

How can such a problem be solved? Who is affected? And what related challenges can be identified? Together, the team addressed these very questions.

Teammitglied Smart Passage pitched das Konzept

In the first days, the team intensively dealt with the problem of the challenge around the Kiel Canal. Talks were sought with sailors, a representative of the shipping union and the canal itself. It turned out that sailors have to cope with an old-fashioned and manual payment system. In addition, unregulated access leads to a rush to enter the NOK. Commercial vessels always have priority over pleasure craft, resulting in minor accidents and large amounts of CO2 emissions.

A first approach from the team to this problem: a digital booking system that will help organize communication and number assignment between locks and pleasure boats to prevent congestion in front of the canal and improve traffic.

But the team identified another problem: the time-consuming manual search for guest spaces in ports. The research showed that the average search time takes about 30 minutes, generating 5,145 kg of CO2.

Driven by these figures, a digital booking app was designed to help users find a parking space for their ship in port and rent it in advance, instead of spending a long time traveling from bay to bay searching manually.

We are not the only ones who are enthusiastic about the “save your spot” idea. Philipp Mühlenhardt, owner of the Sporthafen Kiel, is also convinced of the concept and has already invited the team to continue working on the app and test it in the marina.

Super exciting concept for Kiel, but also interesting for other marinas on the North Sea and Baltic Sea.