Hack Mining! a Techathon presented by RWTH & VDMA

Attend Germany's original raw materials techathon in Aachen from Fri. - Sun. 23.-25. June 2023, solve exciting Industrial IoT+Engineering challenges, and awaken your entrepreneurial talent. Whether you study engineering, computing, natural sciences, business or philosophy - anyone is welcome. Attendance is free!

Register now!

Schedule.

We provide free lunch, dinner and drinks throughout the duration of the techathon to all attendees.
We do not provide free accommodation. The Hack Mining!-techathon addmitance starts at 16:00.

Location: Bergbaugebäude RWTH, AMT Institute
Directions: Link Google Maps

If you have any organisational questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch with Marius.

Friday, 23. Jun. 2023

16:00 - 16:30 Start & Admittance
16:30 - 17:00 Welcome & Introduction
17:00 - 18:00 Challenge pitches
18:00 - 18:30 Picking teams & challenges
18:30 - 19:30 Professional Pitch Coaching
19:30 - Open End Hacking

Saturday, 24. Jun. 2023

All day hacking.

Sunday, 25. Jun. 2023

until 12:00 Hacking
12:30 - 13:30 Presenting results
13:30 - 14:00 Jury picks winners
14:00 - 14:30 Award ceremony

Techathon Prizes.

Every attendee receives an event-related T-Shirt and attendee badge.

Register.

When? 23. Jun. - 25. Jun. 2023. Start: Friday, 23. Jun. @ 16:00
Where? Bergbaugebäude RWTH, AMT Institute. Wuellnerstrasse 2, 52056 Aachen
Who? Anybody
Fees? No fees, entirely free. Lunch, Dinner and Drinks will be provided for free
What to bring? Laptop + Peripherals & Machergeist. WiFi + additional hardware will be provided
Registration Deadline? 21. June 2023, 23:59:59
Prizes? 👆

Register your attendance at our three-day techathon using the form below. Your registration will be confirmed by us. If you have any questions prior to the techathon, please get in touch with Marius.

Register here!

Register for Hack Mining! @ Wuellnerstrasse 2, 52056 Aachen -- 23. Jun. to 25. Jun. 2023.
Get your free Hack Mining! T-Shirt. Your size
We do not use your contact info beyond sending reminders or notifications for this event.

The Challenges.

Particle Size Distribution via Image Processing

Köppern GmbH 🔗
Coding Analytics Image Processing
Whether sand, peas, coins or iron ore: in many areas of our lives, the quality is determined by the particle size distribution (PGV). The PGV is classically determined by sieving but can also be determined with high precision using pneumatic or special electronic methods. The determination of a PGV is therefore not possible ad hoc, but always requires a time-consuming effort. During this challenge, the PGV of random sample measurements on different materials is to be estimated using optical methods (images). These can be used to monitor, control or regulate production plants. You will be given the necessary hardware and material samples.

Early warning in geomonitoring - stethoscope and crystal orb

DMT 🔗
coding Condition Monitoring Machine Learning
In the field of geomonitoring, time series of measurement data are digitally collected from a wide variety of objects (e.g., bridges) and used for analysis to evaluate the object-specific structural integrity. For a software-supported, automatic evaluation, simple mechanisms such as the monitoring of predefined, absolute threshold values (warning and alarm thresholds) are currently used. This approach currently does not provide an analysis of the measured value progression and thus no automated early warning of abnormalities in the set of measured values and no possibility of estimating the future progression. In this Geomonitoring Challenge, algorithms are to be developed to automatically detect trends and anomalies from known time series of measurement data and to predict a future course of measurement values. The current monitoring methods are limited to predefined absolute threshold values, which do not allow for an analysis of the measured value course and thus no automated early warning. The analysis could be performed using analytical, statistical methods and/or neural networks.. The reference data could be used to train a neural network or to analyse history patterns. The expected result is a script that reads in monitoring data and outputs a predicted measurement history for the next 2 weeks. Time series parameters can be calculated to detect critical changes in the measured value course and to enable an extended view of the course.

RSSI to distance estimation - Real application development

Becker Mining Systems AG 🔗
Coding Sensors Electronics
One of the big challenges in mining is the prevention of accidents and specifically collision avoidance between personnell and mining machinery. Microcontroller-based tags produced by Becker Mining GmbH monitor the proximity of miners and machinery by measuring the signal strength (RSSI) of UHF signals. With ongoing development, the requirements for the tag’s capabilities have changed and newer versions of the tags offer more functionality. However, a large number of tags has already been deployed to mines and their radio signal can therefore not be changed. The goal of this challenge is to enhance the tag‘s capabilities by extracting more information from the given signal and to enable compatibility between older and newer hardware. You will be given the necessary hard-and software to tackle this exciting task and make the resource extraction of the future safer. For this challenge, basic coding skills and a hands-on attitude are recommended.

Data-Transmission for Rotating Steel Body

Andritz 🔗
Problem Solving Mechanical Engineering Concept
For improved ease of maintenance and process monitoring of decanter centrifuges, measurement data should be collected from the rotating system and transmitted to an evaluation unit outside the rotor. Possible signals are wearing progress, oil quality or forces. Within this challenge, a concept for the transmission of information from the rotating steel body to a receiving unit on the static frame of the machine is to be developed. Sensor values need to be transmitted from inside the centrifuge through the solid steel frame to the receiving unit. Additional aspects such as energy supply for the sensors through energy harvesting need to be considered. This mechanical engineering challenge requires a systematic approach and creative problem-solving skills.

Wear-resistant material for 3D printed components

Andritz 🔗
Construction Mechanical Engineering CAD
To reduce the wear of elements for accelerating the separation process in centrifuges, the so-called gentle feeder, a wear-resistant material for 3D printed components is to be found. Previously used materials such as ceramics lead to cracking and fracture of the component due to their brittleness. The use of materials, manufacturing processes and geometries that have sufficient toughness and high wear resistance should bring an improvement. 3D printing technology offers the possibility of producing a streamlined geometry from a hard material. One possible solution is to make the geometry thicker in wear zones than in the support structure. The result should achieve a longer service life and cost efficiency. For this challenge, the gentle feeder is to be redesigned using CAD and/or FEM-simulation software. The designed part can be printed using one of several available 3D printers.

Note: Pick your teammates at the event or attend as a team - each team member has to register using the form on this website. If you decide to lone-wolf the event, that is fine with us as well.

Your Challengers.

Today, the Köppern Group is a modern, high-tech German group of companies at the forefront of roller press technology for various processes related to the fertilizer, cement, minerals and metalworking industries. We are dedicated to maintaining and extending our position as one of the world’s leading specialists in the manufacture and supply of machinery and plants for the processes of briquetting, compaction and comminution. Our key objective is to maximize our customers’ satisfaction by providing them with the greatest possible benefits from our products and services. And now we would like to invite you to browse through our web presentation. Please contact us should you be interested in receiving further information or a call from one of our local representatives.
Becker Mining Systems AG - Natural resources are limited and their extraction challenging. Our 1,500 employees worldwide support our customers in their transformation to climate-friendly resource extraction that increases customer productivity and production reliability while reducing their environmental footprint. Our high-quality, consistently reliable yet easy-to-integrate products secure satisfaction and loyalty in the mining industry worldwide.
DMT provides engineering services and consulting, globally and with 280 years of experience. With 13 engineering and consulting companies at 30 locations around the globe, we focus on the markets of plant engineering & process technology, infrastructure & construction, energy, and mining. Excellence and innovation in everything we do – that is our claim as an independent global engineering services and consulting company. Sustainable value creation for our clients is the goal. Knowledge, digitisation and globalisation are the keys to this. The group's headquarters (DMT GmbH & Co. KG) is located in Essen, Germany. We lead the engineering division of TÜV NORD GROUP, have numerous state-approved experts and accredited testing laboratories, and employ more than 100 recognised experts in this area alone. We are involved in more than 40 innovation projects, the majority at international level, and work on the digitisation of existing and new business models, services and products for ourselves and our customers. Furthermore, we act in partnership, in a spirit of trust, solution-oriented, sustainable and ethical – without exception and for the benefit of our customers. This is what we call engineering performance, and this is our attitude and our commitment to the good of a future that we all work to develop positively at all times.
Today's globally active technology Group ANDRITZ developed from a small iron foundry founded in 1852 by Hungarian entrepreneur Josef Körösi in the Graz suburb of Andritz. With its approximately 1,200 highly qualified employees, ANDRITZ in Graz supplies all business areas with technologies and services. In close coordination with customers, new technologies are advanced and continuously developed in our R&D facilities and pilot plants. In the local workshop, components for approximately 90 different products for the Hydro, Pulp & Paper, Separation, and Metals business areas are manufactured on a production area of 95,000 m2. In addition, repairs, conversions and assemblies are carried out on site. ANDRITZ trains young skilled workers in its in-house apprentice workshop. ANDRITZ contributes significantly to local economic value creation and is of utmost importance for the local business location by creating or securing regional jobs within the company itself and indirectly through its cooperation with countless local suppliers. The company is strongly networked with research institutions and is a member of industrial and environmental clusters. For example, ANDRITZ recently joined the Green Tech Cluster, thus strengthening Styria as a hotspot for innovative energy and environmental technology. ANDRITZ wants to push digital initiatives and cooperation with young companies in the cluster.

Your Organizers.

The Institute for Advanced Mining Technologies of RWTH Aachen University develops technologies for the automation and digitalization of mining machines and processes to enable safe, efficient and responsible raw material extraction. An important core area of the institute is the development of sensor technologies and corresponding algorithms for the generation, acquisition and processing of data and information along the entire data-information-value-chain. The challenging environmental conditions in mines place particularly high demands on people, machines, sensors and algorithms and require robust, connected and intelligent systems and solutions.
The VDMA represents over 3,200 mainly small and medium size member companies in the engineering industry, making it one of the largest and most important industrial associations in Europe. With an export quota amounting to 96 per cent, mining technology is one of the most export-oriented branches of the German engineering industry. VDMA Mining represents well-known, mainly medium-sized companies from the sectors open cast mining/materials handling, underground mining, mining processing technology and consulting, research and development. 145 companies merged in VDMA Mining representing more than 90 per cent of the entire trade volume.