SpaceHACK highlights student solutions to environmental challenges, digital divide

By Adrianna Nine

About 250 students from around the world convened online and at Arizona State University on March 22 for the ASU Interplanetary Initiative’s second annual SpaceHACK for Sustainability — one day to “hack” together solutions to recent ocean warming trends, the complexities of water usage in Arizona, and the impact of telecommunications infrastructure on urban and rural communities.

This year’s SpaceHACK involved students from a wide range of educational institutions, including ASU, the Georgia Institute of Technology, CY Cergy Paris Université, the University of Toronto, and Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral (ESPOL) in Ecuador.

During the event — held at Hayden Library on the Tempe campus for those in person — students had the opportunity to form small in-person or virtual teams, then select one of three research tracks to participate in. When the clock started, the teams were free to investigate and develop solutions to their chosen track.

Students were encouraged to bring their unique skill sets to the table, regardless of their major or technical expertise. At their disposal were caches of Earth observation (EO) satellite data, government resources and other publicly available information. The Interplanetary Initiative also provided students with training videos focused on beginner coding skills, inclusive policymaking, reading satellite spectral bands and more.

The track "Ocean Heating and Coastal Biomes," developed in partnership with ESPOL's i3 Lab, asked students to harness satellite data to investigate the causes of severe algal bloom events, otherwise known as "red tide."

"Uncovering Invisibility," created alongside the University of Toronto, sought to magnify the seemingly invisible impacts of modern telecommunications infrastructure on urban sprawl, economic well-being and other community-centered concerns.

The third track, "Agriculture and Water in the Desert," focused on mitigating water scarcity here in Arizona while accounting for the consequences of retiring centuries-old agricultural land to accommodate recent population growth. As with last year's SpaceHACK, each research track was in service of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a set of 17 objectives aimed at improving global health and education, reducing inequality and stimulating economic growth. 

"'Uncovering Invisibility' emerged from a broader project, 'Outer Space and the City: Cohabitation Strategies with Interplanetary Infrastructures,' which was supported by grants from the Canadian government," said Marie-Pier Boucher, assistant professor of media studies at the University of Toronto.

"At the intersection of four of the U.N.'s Sustainable Development Goals — urban life, infrastructure, education and well-being — the objective of 'Uncovering Invisibility' is to develop protocols of application that make satellite data operational and meaningful for urban communities and the lay public. This year's SpaceHACK exemplified the challenges of working amidst the networked character of cities and infrastructures and called for the invention of connection pathways between and across datasets."

EO satellite data is used for nearly half of the 169 targets and 230 indicators associated with SDG progress. 

"Space technologies, especially Earth observation satellites, play a crucial, yet often overlooked, role in advancing humanity's global objectives, as encapsulated by the United Nation SDGs," said SpaceHACK for Sustainability organizer and Interplanetary Initiative Assistant Teaching Professor Eric Stribling.

"Our team has devoted considerable effort to designing hackathon tracks alongside local communities that address urgent challenges. We aim to not only make significant progress on these pressing issues, but also to cultivate a deeper appreciation and skill among students and researchers in utilizing satellite data."

The next day, on March 23, teams were required to submit presentations summarizing their work. While students took a few hours to rest and recharge, a panel of experts judged the teams' presentations based on such criteria as clarity, technical proficiency and potential for real-world application.

Among this year's judges were Ann Kapusta, former NASA operations lead and space mission consultant; Alice Jarry-Girard, Concordia University design and computation arts professor; and Manuel Alberto Helguero Alcivar, ESPOL humanities and social sciences professor.

Taking first place within the ocean track were ASU undergraduate students Chris Langenderfer, Emily Hayes, Evan Powell and Ben Phelps, as well as ASU graduate student Carson Metzler. Leveraging their education across five different disciplines, the team identified untreated wastewater as a strong contributor to toxic algae blooms, which is likely due to dissolved nitrogen and phosphorus causing nutrients and microorganisms to accumulate.

While a handful of aid agencies are working to implement water treatment strategies aimed at reducing nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations, the team found that these measures might not be sufficient. Their recommendation? To replant nutrient-absorbing mangroves, convert wastewater sludge into fertilizer, and increase wastewater treatment capacities along the South American coast. 

Langenderfer formed his SpaceHACK team ahead of time, leveraging his own education and his peers' diverse experiences to create an interdisciplinary approach.

"After winning the Ecuador track and receiving encouragement from the hosts, I decided to continue my research as my honors thesis," he said. "I now have connections with professors in Ecuador and believe this experience has propelled me toward a great opportunity.”

The telecommunications impact track winners were CY Cergy graduate students Zipeng Ma, Hugo Lóio, Florian Gaullier and Wissal Mokeddem. Their research revealed a positive correlation between urban growth, the prevalence of telecommunications infrastructure and nighttime light intensity. Together, these variables might have a long-term impact on biodiversity and land quality. Using their mathematical, computer science and business expertise, the team proposed a balanced approach to urban and telecommunication development that takes environmental degradation into account.

"We were already on the plane home when we discovered we had won," Lóio said. "My team and I are left with very fond memories of our amazing experience at ASU."

Two strong projects tied for first place in the Arizona water track. One team — composed of ASU undergraduate students Abhinav Sharma, Anushka Singh and Caleb Christensen, Georgia Tech master's student Yazan Abulaimoun, and ASU graduate student Praveenaa Kulandhaivel — investigated the benefits of shifting traditional agriculture to vertical farming. Using cropland data, soil moisture data, economic analysis and more, they devised a sustainability assessment to pinpoint key crops and areas for vertical farm migration. They then created a composite suitability index that could aid policymakers in prioritizing crucial agricultural projects. 

The other team — which included ASU undergraduate students Sai Grover, Raje Patil, Khushi Pandey and Roan Fernandes — identified a strong overlap between groundwater wells and areas used to grow alfalfa, a water-intensive crop. Using revenue and water consumption data, they recommend a wide array of policies aimed at reducing agricultural strain on Arizona's water supply. Their suggestions included increased use of hydroponics and hydropanels, tax credits to incentivize the growth of drought-friendly crops, and pressure-regulating valves to manage extraction rates in agricultural well systems.

SpaceHACK for Sustainability first took place in March 2023 as a seed-funded pilot project under the Interplanetary Initiative. Building off of the success of SpaceHACK's first iteration, the Interplanetary Initiative was able to secure collaborations with ESPOL and the University of Toronto’s “Outer Space and the Moon” research group for this year's event, enabling a wider range of perspectives and enhanced student involvement.

"There is a need for more intermediaries to bridge the gap between community issues and informative space technologies," Stribling said. "Our collaboration with international partner universities not only enriches the hackathon with new ideas but ensures that the solutions developed are grounded in local realities and, so, more likely to be effective and sustainable."

SpaceHACK's partnerships with international institutions illustrate the program's suitability for a wide range of educational organizations. Not only can universities adapt the SpaceHACK for Sustainability blueprint to complement their own research goals and resources, but startups, nonprofits and other community partners can engage with future SpaceHACK events to contribute to timely research.

Organizations interested in becoming involved with forthcoming SpaceHACK events are encouraged to subscribe to the Interplanetary Initiative's newsletter to stay up to date on future partnership opportunities. Those interested in adopting the SpaceHACK model for their own organizations can reach out to organizer Eric Stribling.