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SMART GREEN ISLAND MAKEATHON 2025: Shaping a Sustain­able Future

what was this
event about?

The SMART GREEN ISLAND MAKEATHON cele­brated its 8th year, bringing together 500 students, spon­sors, and inno­va­tors to tackle sustain­ability chal­lenges on the island of Gran Canaria, Spain. Orga­nized by our member ITQ GmbH, the event once again fostered young talent, crit­ical thinking, and hands-on collab­o­ra­tion.

The name says it all — Makeathon — meaning MAKing and HACKing! And we, the Open Industry 4.0 Alliance, were proud to be part of it, intro­ducing young talents to real chal­lenges of the industry — the Digital Product Pass­port (DPP) and how to measure energy consump­tion to shape a smarter, greener future.

A huge thank you goes to Dr. Rainer Stetter, whose vision to empower young talents back in 2016 has turned into a Gran Canaria tradi­tion, with an increasing number of partic­i­pants each year.

Throughout the event, it was all about collab­o­rating, proto­typing, and hands-on inno­va­tion.

Day 1: Kicking off with Energy & Inspi­ra­tion

The atmos­phere was elec­tric — it truly felt like a melting pot of young talent and industry experts eager to work together towards a smarter, greener world.

The offi­cial agenda began in the audi­to­rium, where we learned about the various chal­lenges presented to the students and how the island of GRAN CANARIA serves as a perfect real-world lab for sustain­able tech­nolo­gies, striving for energy inde­pen­dence and moving away from fossil fuels.

Following the speeches, the industry chal­lenges were unveiled, giving students the chance to choose the projects they would dedi­cate them­selves to over the next four days.

SMART GREEN ISLAND MAKEATHON By Numbers
A buzzing crowd of

partic­i­pants

Chris­tian and I joined, when we arrived at the INFECAR fair center.
From

univer­si­ties

and voca­tional schools across Europe.  
Along with

spon­soring compa­nies

Our members value the wide range of events, ensuring oppor­tu­ni­ties for all to connect and collab­o­rate.

our role at makeathon

Our mission? Intro­ducing the next gener­a­tion to the Digital Product Pass­port because you can never start too early! And how did we imple­ment that? By adding a new layer to Murrelektronik’s chal­lenge:

  • Shred­ding,
  • melting, and
  • forming plastic into new compo­nents — a hands-on sustain­ability exper­i­ment.

And that’s where we came into play: we tracked the energy consump­tion of the machines involved and measured the envi­ron­mental impact — taking it to the next level by creating a digital twin..

early start

Orig­i­nally, we had planned to start our Digital Product Pass­port work­shop on the second day, after the first machines were config­ured and running. But the students’ enthu­siasm got us going right away! Some were already familiar with DPP, while others discov­ered it for the first time — but that didn’t slow them down.

Within just a few hours, a moti­vated team of students from Germany, Austria, and Switzer­land had:

  • Installed an MQTT broker and connected Shelly plugs for real-time data collec­tion.
  • Set up Telegraf and Rasp­berry Pi for energy moni­toring.
  • Searched for Docker Compose files to stream­line work­flows.
  • Coor­di­nated with the shred­ding and melting teams to align processes.

WOW! Their drive, their ques­tions, ideas, and problem-solving skills were truly inspiring!

We wrapped up the first day with a stand-up meeting and short presen­ta­tions on every team’s progress.

It was an incred­ible expe­ri­ence — and one we’re proud to have been part of!

read about DAY 2