MEMEX in #EUvsVirus Hackathon

From 24 to 26 April, the European Commission, led by the European Innovation Council and in close collaboration with the EU member states, hosted a pan-European hackathon. The objective was to connect civil society, innovators, partners and investors across Europe in order to develop innovative solutions for coronavirus-related challenges.

There were 6 challenge domains, from health to business continuity and social cohesion. The last category (“other”) allowed participants to be creative and propose solutions in any other field, including culture. 

The purpose of the hackathon is to turn the best European ideas into actual solutions. That is why it is designed in a very special way: to reach out to the whole EU to collect the best ideas & to provide follow up to the winners of the different categories.

MEMEX team took part in this hackathon as a problem solver : our virtual tours mobile app creates immersive stories using AI, linking people to heritage and museums even if they cannot physically reach these places because of the COVID-19 lockdown. The app has the aim to improve social cohesion and to foster cultural activities in cases of further lockdowns. It represents a chance for cultural institutions to open up their collections and to attract virtually any person that cannot, for any reason, physically access our invaluable cultural heritage.

The project was submitted at the end of this hackathon, on Sunday 26th. Read the proposal here.