Three days, over 100 participants, three real-world industry challenges and European high-performance infrastructure put to practical use: the ZERO ONE HACK, held from 29 to 31 May, was the largest on-site hackathon to date at AI Factory Austria’s AI:AT. At the AI:AT Coworking Hub in Vienna, teams comprising developers, students, young talents and AI enthusiasts worked on specific use cases from industry, insurance and forecasting.
The hackathon was organised by Lumos and implemented in collaboration with partners from the Austrian and European AI ecosystem. AI Factory Austria AI:AT supported the event as a key partner in its conception, preparation and execution – including by providing the venue, organisational support, the involvement of industry partners, mentors and jury members, as well as access to European high-performance computing infrastructure.
The focus was on the practical application of artificial intelligence: within 36 hours, teams developed functional prototypes, trained and tested models, and presented their results to a jury comprising representatives from industry, technology, research and the start-up ecosystem.
European computing infrastructure in real-world use
A key element of the hackathon was access to the European supercomputer Leonardo in Bologna. Via AI Factory Austria AI:AT, the teams had a total of 25 computing nodes at their disposal, each with four GPUs – meaning 100 GPUs for training, fine-tuning and experiments. In total, more than 800 GPU-hours were utilised during the hackathon. At least 15 teams used more than ten hours of computing time, actively employing the infrastructure for more demanding fine-tuning and model development tasks.
This clearly demonstrated what European AI Factories are designed to achieve: they make powerful European AI infrastructure practically usable for companies, start-ups, talent and research institutions, and lower the barriers to entry for complex AI applications.
“The ZERO ONE HACK has impressively demonstrated that successful AI innovation arises where high-performance infrastructure meets motivated people. Access to computing power and state-of-the-art technologies is an important prerequisite – but what is crucial is the talent that can harness these opportunities and translate them into concrete solutions. Events like this bring together companies, young talent and European AI infrastructure, creating an environment in which skills are built, innovations developed and the specialists of tomorrow trained. Together, we can thus make an important contribution to strengthening the Austrian and European AI ecosystem."
Florian Brunner, Managing Director of 42 Vienna & 42 Wels
“At ZERO ONE HACK, our main focus was on nurturing talent. When young developers and students gain access to Europe’s top-tier infrastructure whilst working on real-world challenges from companies such as Infineon, UNIQA and Sybilion, this creates precisely the opportunities from which genuine innovation grows. Europe has the talent, the infrastructure and the industry. Our task is to bring these three together and create opportunities for the next generation."
Gerhard Karbeutz, CEO of Lumos
“The hackathon, organised in collaboration with Lumos and AI Factory Austria, has impressively demonstrated the innovation potential inherent in regional collaboration between technology companies, partners and talent. At HPE, it is important to us to strengthen local ecosystems and create spaces where new ideas for the practical application of AI and modern IT solutions can emerge. The event highlights the central role of high-performance infrastructure and data platforms as the foundation for digital innovations to enhance Vienna’s digital competitiveness.”
Manfred Traumüller, Managing Director, HPE Austria
“The ZERO ONE HACK demonstrates in a very compact form what the AI Factory Austria AI:AT was set up for: we bring together companies, talent, research and European AI infrastructure, thereby creating a space where real-world challenges give rise to concrete prototypes. What matters is not just access to computing power, but the integration of infrastructure, expertise, application and ecosystem.”
Karl Kugler, Co-Lead, AI Factory Austria AI:AT
Real-world challenges from Infineon, UNIQA and Sybilion
The participating teams worked on three thematic tracks with concrete application relevance. The challenges were set by Infineon Technologies Austria, UNIQA Insurance Group and Sybilion. The focus was therefore on industrial and economic issues that exemplify how artificial intelligence can be used in real-world application contexts.
The challenge set by Infineon Technologies Austria was to gain new perspectives on an existing industrial problem and to test alternative solutions outside the usual corporate perspective. The teams worked without direct access to live company data and developed their own approaches and predictive models within a few days. The winning team’s data-driven approach – based on the principle of ‘data before models’ – was particularly highlighted.
For Infineon Technologies Austria, the hackathon thus provided valuable impetus for further work on the use case and demonstrated how open innovation formats can bring new ideas, methods and talent into industrial AI development.
Talent meets business
The hackathon also had a tangible impact in the talent sector beyond the event itself. A team from 42 Vienna impressed the UNIQA Insurance Group with its solution to the use case centred on targeted and personalised information in the UNIQA online calculator. As UNIQA also aims to attract the best talent, an internship was awarded as part of the hackathon.
This story exemplifies how AI:AT, as an ecosystem platform, brings companies into contact with young AI talent at an early stage and creates concrete career and collaboration opportunities. Hackathons thus become not only innovation formats but also entry points into the Austrian and European AI ecosystem.
AI:AT as an enabler for industrial AI innovation talent
Although the hackathon took place under the Lumos brand, AI Factory Austria AI:AT was a key partner in its preparation and implementation. AI Factory Austria AI:AT provided the physical venue, supported the organisational planning, brought partners together, assisted industry partners with use-case definition, and facilitated access to computing resources on Leonardo in cooperation with CINECA.
In addition, AI:AT brought in mentors, jury members and specialist staff, and helped shape parts of the supporting programme. This meant that almost all the initiative’s core tasks were showcased in a single format: access to infrastructure, industrial application, talent development, ecosystem connectivity and European collaboration.
“High-performance computing becomes relevant when it becomes accessible for concrete applications. At ZERO ONE HACK, teams were able to make immediate use of European infrastructure, train models and test their ideas under realistic conditions. This is precisely the bridge we want to build with AI Factory Austria AI:AT – from Europe’s computing power to practical AI development in business, research and society.”
Markus Stöhr, Co-Lead, AI Factory Austria AI:AT
Strategic dialogue on AI in Europe
Accompanying the hackathon was a high-profile panel discussion on the topic of “AI in Europe – Innovation, Infrastructure and Regulation”. The discussion was moderated by Simeon Harrison from AI Factory Austria AI:AT. The panel featured Peter Tutsch, Founder & CEO of Entrovy Law, Jose Antonio Alatorre, CEO of Main Sequence, and Iveta Lohovska, CTO AI & HPC at Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE).
The discussion brought together perspectives from regulation, technology, infrastructure, entrepreneurship and European innovation policy. It highlighted the role of AI Factory Austria AI:AT as a place where not only AI applications are developed, but also where strategic dialogue on Europe’s technological sovereignty and competitiveness takes place.
From idea to application
The ZERO ONE HACK demonstrated how AI Factory Austria AI:AT acts as an interface between industry, talent and European infrastructure. Within a single format, real-world use cases were addressed, companies were connected with young talent, European HPC resources were utilised, and new impetus for innovation was created.
The positive feedback from the participating partners and the interest in continuing similar formats confirm the added value of this approach: AI becomes effective when infrastructure, expertise, application and community come together.
About AI Factory Austria AI:AT
AIFactoryAustria AI:AT is Austria’s national AI Factory within the framework of the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking. It is jointly led by the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology and Advanced Computing Austria (ACA) and implemented by an Austria-wide consortium.
The partners in the consortium are: TU Wien, University of Vienna, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU), University of Innsbruck, TU Graz, Johannes Kepler University Linz (JKU), the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA), the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW), INiTS – Vienna’s High-Tech Incubator, and EODC – Earth Observation Data Centre for Water Resources Monitoring GmbH.
AI:AT combines AI-optimised high-performance infrastructure with a physical hub and supports organisations from industry, public administration and applied research as a market-neutral, independent access point throughout the AI journey – from the first use case to practical implementation.
Funding Acknowledgement
AI Factory Austria (AI:AT) is co-funded by the European High-Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (JU) under grant agreement No 101253078. The Joint Undertaking is supported by the European Union’s Horizon Europe programme and Austria (BMIMI/FFG).