From May 9-11, the international hackathon SUSTAINABLE CROSSBORDER SOLUTIONS took place on the Zittau campus of the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences. 20 young and young-at-heart people (primarily from our three-country region) tinkered, programmed and developed concepts, prototypes and mock-ups - in short: practice-oriented solutions for challenges faced by companies, universities, associations and local authorities! Approaches that are in almost all cases transferable to various locations in our three-country region.

Among the participants were mathematics students from the University of Wroclaw, Czech pupils with a specialist focus on cyber security, young women and men from the Czech Republic, Poland and Germany from fields of study such as design, automation, ecology and environmental protection and economic analysis. The diversity of disciplines and origins, as well as the colorful mix of soft skills and interests, resulted in some outstanding and definitely exciting and interesting practical solutions.

8 case studies were presented by Stadtentwicklungsgesellschaft Zittau, the L&T project partners Arnio and GEDES e.V. PerspektiveArbeit Lausitz, the German-Polish company Pundmann, as well as community-oriented associations from the region and the university project "Jugend bewegt Region" were presented on Friday, the first day of 48h-Tüftelarbeit - 6 examples were selected from 8 teams. Inspired by "prototyping" and "design thinking" workshops in the morning, the young hackers were highly motivated to tackle topics such as agri-PV solutions for e-tractors, photovoltaic use in the old town of Zittau, blue-green infrastructure with aspects of flood protection and raising awareness of biodiversity along the Mandau, energy-efficient RAG chatbot solutions for universities and companies in the three-country region, a 100% solar-powered cargo bike and a website platform solution for participation and exchange opportunities for young people in the context of structural change.

The presentation of a programming solution for an educational app for a river course in our three-country region with a flood warning system received special recognition at the award ceremony on Sunday afternoon in Celsiuz. Further awards were given for a photovoltaic roof integration for old town buildings in Zittau that is suitable for listed buildings and a smart agricultural tool that is intended to implement the dimensioning and forecasting of PV use for electromobility in agriculture.

The 20 hackathon participants were supported by (technical and methodological) mentors, language mediators and the competent young coaches of the makerspace geistesblitz (Löbau lebt). Representatives from the University of Wroclaw, Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences, Digital Upper Lusatia and companies from the region were invited to serve on the jury. The hackathon was also accompanied by a representative of the regional agency ARR from Liberec . We would like to thank ALL supporters, participants and other contributors once again for their commitment and for making these three productive days possible, in which mutual appreciation, fair play, diversity and joy made a significant contribution. In addition, the project partner KARR facilitated the good contacts with Polish students and supported the success of the event with a wide range of help with administrative hurdles.