The ITQ GmbH is organizing this year’s Innovation Festival on Gran Canaria from March 1st to 4th, 2023 with the aim of training future engineers to become innovative and creative specialists and bringing them into direct contact with companies.
At the 6th SMART GREEN ISLAND MAKEATHON, a total of 300 young students, and representatives from universities as well as international companies from various industries will meet to work together on innovative and sustainable project ideas. The aim of the four-day Make-Marathon is to get young people excited about digital progress, to enable them to work on sustainable ideas and to design the first prototypes. The Young Talents gain important experience in project management and improve their soft skills. A special highlight this year is the hybrid participation from Bogota, Colombia. Smart Farming systems are already being set up there. Together with a team from the Universidad de los Andes, these systems are to be simulated on Gran Canaria and controlled via an IoT platform in Bogota.
In this way, the first prototypes are created within just four days, which advance the idea of a Smart Green Island – a climate-neutral island Gran Canaria – with the topics of sustainable technologies as well as environmental and climate protection. The MAKEATHON also offers a new recruiting platform for all participants from 15 nations to network and get to know industry-leading companies.
“The topics of sustainability and digitization are still very popular in companies. In addition, the serious shortage of skilled workers shows that we must break new ground in recruiting. The demand and interest in our innovation festival was enormous this year. With our sponsors and partners, we are pursuing the goal of promoting sustainable innovations and preparing the younger generation for the digital future in the best possible way,” says Dr. Rainer Stetter, Managing Director, of ITQ GmbH.
The 6th SMART GREEN ISLAND MAKEATHON is financially supported by national and international sponsors. Special thanks go to:
Platinum-Sponsors: B&R Industrial Automation, Murrelektronik, igus, Beckhoff Automation.
Gold-Sponsors: Cabildo de Gran Canaria, Spegc, Fundacion Sergio Alonso, Vishay, Lorenz, MathWorks.
Silver-Sponsors: TRUMPF, OPTIMA, AGCO/Fendt, Honda R&D Europe, MVTec, Gruppo ASA, Packaging Valley.
