Főcím

From December 11th to 12th, 2024, the E³UDRES² One World Hackathon united students, entrepreneurs, teachers and mentors across Europe in a vibrant exchange of ideas and solutions. Under the overarching theme of "One World," participants worked together to address pressing global challenges. The event, held simultaneously in Portugal, the Netherlands, and Hungary, demonstrated the transformative power of collaboration in solving real-world problems.

 

In Hungary, MATE hosted the hub on Buda Campus under the theme "One World - One Protein - One Soil," focusing on food sustainability and soil health. This hub brought together students from St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences, Politehnica University Timisoara, and the Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences to collaboratively tackle challenges related to sustainable agriculture, the nutritional value of proteins, and their environmental impact, permitting participants to explore innovative solutions to these pressing issues, contributing to the development of more sustainable food systems.

At the opening ceremony of the event held on Buda Campus, Dr. István Szabó, Vice Rector for Education and International Affairs, welcomed the participants. He pointed out that one of the university's priority goals is to further expand its already proud international presence, to which the Hackathon, which is being held simultaneously at three different universities (in the Netherlands, Portugal and MATE), is a major contribution. Addressing the students, he urged all those present to be creative and innovative in their thinking, which is the main objective of the project set up by E³UDRES² ​​​​​​European University Alliance.

After the opening ceremony, which was attended by Dr. Zsuzsanna Tarr, Head of Center for International Education, Dr. László Friedrich, Director of the Institute of Food Science and Technology and Dr. Zsombor Boromisza, Deputy Director General and Strategic Director of the Buda Campus, the participants explored the issues of protein consumption in a round table discussion and then in groups from different perspectives.

Underlining the importance of the event, Dr. Zoltán Kovács, Head of Research Strategy, said that MATE is part of a consortium of nine universities and is cooperating with other European partner institutions in the fields of research and education in the second round of the European University Association's call for proposals. On the latter, he noted that "we are working on a number of innovative methods that could be very useful for the education of the next generation. Among these is one of our most important projects, the Hackathon itself." He added that a particularly interesting aspect of the 36-hour brainstorming session was the presence of food industry partners, in addition to students and lecturers, to explore the topic of healthy eating from as many angles as possible. "Six groups will work together on six different topics, defining a real-life challenge," he added.

The main theme of the challenges was protein consumption and how best to dispel misconceptions about it. "We wanted to work with students on a challenge that I think could be exciting at a European level. This is protein, because we have many, many misconceptions about protein," said Adrienn Vargáné Dr. Tóth, research associate at the Department of of Livestock Product and Food Preservation (MATE ÉTTI). She said that this is a topic that concerns everyone, as all humans consume some form and amount of protein. He also pointed out that this is why it is an important issue to address the often misleading habits and patterns that are often spread in the media and to encourage people to eat healthily.

Around 40 students in 6 groups took part in the professional programmes, including not only food engineering students, but also students studying in completely different disciplines, such as communication media, engineering or agriculture. "We all bring our own knowledge, our own creativity, and that will help us to really hack together in an innovative way and come up with a great idea at the end of this hacking," she underlined.

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