Over the first weekend of September, we formed a team of 4 amazing FIPDes people Mathieu, Elena, Fernando and me that we currently study the second-year track at Lund University and we participated in the Greater CPH FoodHack 2018 that took part in Copenhagen, Denmark organised by DTU Skylab & Krinova Incubator Park.
The aim of the FoodHack #2 at DTU Skylab is that you can develop a concept and make prototypes.

While being there we had the opportunity to meet people that are in the same wavelength with our passion and curiosity to innovate with a sustainable approach. We met innovators, entrepreneurs, food lovers, students and the list keep growing but the most remarkable thing about those people is that they had this “craziness” to make the world a better place through their passion to improve with whatever occupied them.

This is what happened through out the weekend. We had to select between 4 different challenges:
• Challenge #1: Can you prototype, a high-quality affordable nutrition for children and mothers based on cereals and camel whey? FIPDes member: Mathieu

• Challenge #2: Can you prototype, an affordable and easy-to-make nutrition snack for developing countries? FIPDes member: Elena, category winner

• Challenge #3: Can you prototype, a thermo box and system for transporting goods from small food producers to bigger customers like restaurants? FIPDes member: Fernando

• Challenge #4: Can you prototype, a plier that can open the crabs and/or turn the invasive and abundant shore crabs into a gastronomic resource? FIPDes member: Kyriaki , FoodHack #2 Winner

Then after the instructions we had to work in the project that we selected over the weekend and we had to come up with the most feasible way of tackling the issues. All the teams worked super hard and the people were amazingly motivated, that is admirable! Brainstorming, interactive debates, opinions back and forth, laugh, food-breaks, kitchen trials, laser cutting experience, mentor guidance, more food, sleep and then the final day were all the companies and the judges came along to hear us.

The overall winner, the crab team, where I took part, managed to turn those invasive and abundant angry shore crabs into a gastronomic resource. By FoodHacking this challenge we brought multiple applications of sustainable products with impact in the marine environment.

Sometimes it is not only the prize that matters; it’s the relationships that you built in, the silly moments when you are brainstorming or even upon creating the final presentation, the laugh and the a-ha moments when you understand and connect the scientific knowledge with real life scenarios and many many more…

This experience is unique and you need to live it at least once in your life.

Many, many thanks to my FIPDes group that we seized the moment and we got out of our comfort zone to challenge ourselves.

Article by Kyriaki Chanioti - FIPDes Cohort 7