Last week, E&I staff members Barbara Mehner and Shtefi Mladenovska attended the final conference of the STREAM project at CERN in Geneva, to present their preliminary research results and exchange with 15 other early-stage-researchers from the Marie Skłodowska-Curie training network.

They also had the opportunity to participate in a Humanitarian Hackathon, trying to develop tech-based solutions for various social challenges. The students worked in three separate groups, trying to resolve pollution in urban areas, boosting the well-being of employees worldwide, as well as creating a positive attitude among people who shall host environmental migrants in the future.

As part of the winning team, Barbara and Shtefi developed a prototype of a VR/AR supported travel van, which will target mostly the youth population across high schools, cinemas and festivals, providing them with the opportunity to experience far-away destinations affected by natural hazards through a VR simulation. This solution shall ultimately inform the users of the underlying causes forcing environmental refugees to leave their homes in the first place.

All teams were awarded with the exclusive opportunity to proceed developing their solutions as part of the Fraunhofer Incubation Program for Sustainable Entrepreneurship.