"Mind Diving Varna" - Hackathon 2025
On July 5–6, 2025, the Regional Agency for Entrepreneurship and Innovations – Varna (RAPIV), AWARE 7, Gelsenkirchen, Germany, DOBA Business School, Maribor, Slovenia and Institute for Work and Technology, Gelsenkirchen, Germany are organizing the Mind Mining Varna – Hackathon 2025.
The event aims to bring together young people with an entrepreneurial spirit and diverse skills and interests (technical, creative, business, and social) who will work in teams to tackle specific challenges set by our mentors, coming from different sectors, companies and countries.
- Challenge #1. Happiness for Life! Design a solution related to happy living
- Challenge #2. What’s Really the Best Water? Create an innovative solution that helps people understand, compare, or make better choices about the water they drink.
- Challenge#3. IT Security Gamification: Let’s play! Develop an IT security game that entertainingly teaches important lessons.
On July 6 in the afternoon, the teams will present their pitches to a jury, and the best teams will receive awards: 1000 BGN and 500 BGN.
The deadline for applications (individual or team) is July 1, 2025.
Selected participants will be notified by July 2, 2025 via email and phone.
Participation in Mind Diving Varna – Hackathon 2025 is free of charge!
Secure your spot now! Register here: https://forms.gle/cwtK3hpDp2YQVQMq7
How does the Hackathon work?
- Interdisciplinary teams – Teams are formed and challenges are chosen based on the optimal combination of experience and skills. If you apply as a team, you can work together. Each team should have 2–8 participants.
- Challenge solving – The challenges can be approached from different perspectives by participants with experience and interest in engineering, economics, medicine, marketing, and more.
- Industry connection – The challenges reflect real needs and problems faced by companies, giving participants the chance to interact with experts and validate their solutions.
- Universities – We aim to engage active universities and young, talented innovators.
This challenge is a great opportunity to connect young talent with companies.
This event is for you if:
- you are a student, PhD candidate, or young professional with an entrepreneurial spirit who wants to apply your knowledge to solve regional challenges;
- you want to gain new skills as a startup founder or entrepreneur and receive expert support to develop your business idea;
- you have expertise or professional experience and want to join a team to work on innovative solutions and help tackle real business challenges;
- you have a working level of English – while working in Bulgarian is possible, the pitches will be conducted in English since we will have an international jury.
Why participate:
- To develop your entrepreneurial skills (idea implementation, identifying customer needs);
- To be part of a team of experts and professionals working on solving challenges;
- To gain experience and confidence in presenting your business idea to clients and investors;
- To receive expert support and contribute your ideas and skills toward more sustainable business solutions;
- To become part of the Ecosys4you community.
Meet our mentors:
M.A. Benjamin Krüger/AWARE 7
Benjamin Krüger is an IT security consultant and awareness trainer at AWARE7 GmbH in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. Before joining AWARE7 GmbH, he was a senior project manager at the Institute for Internet Security. There, he developed an e-learning platform for IT security for the state of North Rhine-Westphalia in addition to several media projects for teaching digital skills.
Assoc. Prof. Galina Momcheva/BioMed - Varna Foundation/Institute of Mathematics and Informatics, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
Researcher in the field of computer science with interests: algorithmic design, computer vision, data analysis, neural networks, computational topology and interdisciplinary research.
Assoc. Prof. Momcheva has over 30 years of experience in teaching informatics and computer science to students, undergraduates and teachers. Member of international expert groups, STEAM trainings and Startup initiatives.
Chair of the BioMed-Varna Foundation
Dilyan Popov/Smart Varna Foundation/Altscale Ltd./ Bulgarian Angels Club – Varna Chapter
Dilyan Popov has more than 30 years of experience as an entrepreneur, investor and consultant in Europe and the USA. He has worked in and co-funded several startups in the areas of finance (derivatives, investments, insurance, commercial and residential lending, FOREX), international transactions and ICT (Information and Communication Technologies), as well as in the areas of outsourcing, customer relationship management, private, public and hybrid cloud, Infrastructure as a Service, Software as a Service, Internet of Things, Telecom integration, call centers and Internet marketing. Currently involved in ICT and business development consulting. In addition, he supports the development of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Varna and Bulgaria.
„Mind Mining Ruhr“ - Hackathon 2024
On September 21st 2024, the Wissenschaftspark in Gelsenkirchen hosted our "Mind Mining Ruhr" 24 hackathon! In the heart of the Ruhr area, a region with a proud history of mining and innovation, we were digging for new ideas.
The five teams were confronted with five challenges provided by local companies. From coding, design, and marketing to sustainability, innovative solutions were developed within 24 hours. The solutions were presented at the RuhrSTARTUPWEEK-Opening Party with your Mind Mining Pitches in the Heilig-Kreuz-Kirche, Gelsenkirchen on Monday, September 23rd.
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