UM6P's I&E Lab organizes the first edition of the hackathon "AgriChallenge" in partnership with the IAV

December 18 and 19, 2021 saw the organization of the first edition of the hackathon "AgriChallenge", within the startup campus "Startgate" in Benguerir. This hackathon was hosted by Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) in partnership with the Hassan II Agronomic and Veterinary Institute (IAV), with the aim of finding innovative solutions to the challenges faced by the Moroccan agricultural sector.

Throughout the AgriChallenge hackathon, participants had the opportunity to attend a series of workshops led by renowned speakers. Participating teams also benefited from numerous mentoring sessions designed to help them structure their projects and refine their presentations.

This first edition of the AgriChallenge hackathon received the participation of 8 teams, made up of students from various Moroccan universities:

● HySol: A solution aiming to help Moroccan agricultural cooperatives, to overcome problems related to energy consumption, using solar energy as an alternative.

● Agreen: An automated solution, using Deep Learning for the diagnosis of plant diseases. Agreen's model aims to predict, locate and recognize any indication of disease that may affect agricultural production.

● Green Mind: A solution allowing farmers to monitor their animals using a movement sensor and a calorie burn calculator, integrating a GPS capable of geolocating each animal in the barn.

● Pestpredict: A mobile application with voice assistance in "Darija" that triggers an alert when pests approach.

● Grow Agro: A solution to improve traditional irrigation systems using artificial intelligence and IoT technologies.

● Phoenicia: A platform to facilitate communication between cooperatives and their customers, to streamline marketing and improve the customer experience.

● AgriCool: A solution to improve farmers' yields, using smart drones that can monitor fields and generate commands automatically.

● SpiderFarmer: An initiative to build a spider robot that can sample soil more quickly and efficiently than traditional methods, while pinpointing the position of samples in a defined field.

The teams of the different projects were evaluated by a jury of experts, based on their final presentations.

The first prize of this hackathon was awarded to HySol. The 2nd and 3rd prizes were won by Agreen and Green Minds.