The 1. Packaging Valley Remote Makeathon from June 25-26, 2020, held at five decentralized locations, was a complete success. The organizers Packaging Valley Germany e.V. (PV), Packaging Excellence Center Region Stuttgart (PEC), Wirtschaftsförderung Region Stuttgart and ITQ GmbH welcomed 80 students from the universities of Aalen and Kempten. Thanks to the responsible professors Peter Eichinger, Bernhard Hoefig and Dirk Jacob the event could take place this way. They managed to convince their students of the project, even though the presence at the universities was idle and the exams were coming up soon. For the students, the 1. Packaging Valley Makeathon was definitely the highlight of this semester, which was characterized by online lectures.
To abide by the current security guidelines the Makeathon was held in five locations: Sulzbach Laufen (Rommelag), Waiblingen (Syntegon), Kempten (Kempten University of Applied Sciences) and two groups in Schwaebisch Hall (Optima / hfcon in the Optima Digital Innovation Center and KIT/Dassault Systèmes).
The range of challenge topics included human-robot collaboration, online commissioning, the digital machine logbook, sustainable shopping of the future from the consumer’s perspective, right through to efficient processes for product development in packaging machine construction.
Impressions of the 1. Packaging Valley Remote Makeathon
A MAKEATHON lives not only from the participants and the challenges, but above all from the technology selection made available. In addition to the location partners mentioned, various technology partners were involved, who made their software and hardware available to the participants free of charge. We thank the companies Wago, Actimage GmbH, H&F Solutions, Dassault Systèmes and IDS Imaging Development Systems GmbH.
Packaging Valley Managing Director Martin Buchwitz’s conclusion: “If you consider that it was the first time that we were organizing such an event and that we had only started organizing it five weeks ago, then you can justifiably speak of a full success. The combination of the participating players, consisting of Packaging Valley members, technology partners and universities, has more than proven itself. It is amazing what great results have been achieved in such a creative atmosphere in such a short time – I am thrilled!”