Hacking The City | Design a Circular Future

Tondo, in collaboration with Nodes and with the sponsorship of Fondazione Cariplo, is organizing the second edition of Hacking the City – Design a Circular Future. This is a Hackathon aimed at bachelor’s and master’s degree students, doctoral students and recent graduates from all Italian universities. The event is designed to bring to life and concretize projects that foster the implementation of the Circular Economy in cities in a process of redesigning and redesigning them. The Hackathon will be hybrid with physical locations in Milan, Turin and Vicenza. The event aims to drive change within cities by fostering the emergence of innovative and entrepreneurial activities in 5 selected thematic macro-areas. In order to do so, challenges have been defined in each of these areas through the active involvement of industry partners who are experts in the field. 


Five strategic areas were identified, within which industrial partners defined challenges. Specifically: Humana for the Consumer Goods area, Lavazza for the Food area, NTT Data for the Digital area, a water management company for the Water area, and A2A for the Waste area. To get more information about how to participate and all the prizes, please read the Rule book on the website.


Humana defined the challenge in the Consumer Goods area, asking teams to get involved in working out new ways to repair clothes from a circular perspective; for the Food area, Lavazza was asked to find innovative solutions to implement circular economy principles to packaging and coffee machines; for the Digital area, NTT Data proposes to develop digital solutions focused on shifting to a consumption logic based on product-as-service; for the Water area, a water management company asks to develop solutions to reduce water waste and optimize collection; and finally, A2A challenges teams in the Waste area, asking them to come up with innovative strategies for optimizing and digitizing the waste collection process in cities.


During the two days, in parallel with the youth work sessions, there will be numerous talks by university professors, industry experts, and Tondo members, who will talk about ongoing projects and research in the field of Circular Economy.


Those who want to try to compete can apply, by filling out the form within the website, with their team or individually from May 2 to 31, 2023. For information regarding how to participate and prizes, please see the Rules and Regulations on the website. The Tondo team, organizer of the event, will then handle the screening phase and let you know whether you, your team, and your idea will be able to move on to the next phase and participate in the two-day Hackathon to be held on June 9 and 10, 2023. Participants will have the opportunity to refine their solution together with tutors and mentors, and present it to a panel of experts created specifically for the selected challenge. The winners will then be rewarded by the companies sponsoring the challenge, based on prizes defined in the rules, ranging from internship hypotheses, to discounts and vouchers or guided tours of the companies’ headquarters.


To stay updated, create your team or get more useful information, subscribe to the LinkedIn group or contact us at info@tondo.tech for any question! You can also listen to the webinar introducing the hackathon at this link.

Francesco Castellano

Francesco Castellano holds a Master degree in Business Administration, and he has gathered almost twenty years of experience in research, finance, consulting, and business management. During this time, he was engaged in different types of projects as a consultant at Bain & Company, launched Uber operations in Turin, and worked in the FP&A department at General Electric.Lately, he founded To... Read more

Francesco Castellano holds a Master degree in Business Administration, and he has gathered almost twenty years of experience in research, finance, consulting, and business management. During this time, he was engaged in different types of projects as a consultant at Bain & Company, launched Uber operations in Turin, and worked in the FP&A department at General Electric.

Lately, he founded Tondo, a cluster of organizations focusing on spreading Circular Economy approaches and concepts, and supporting companies in the transition to a clean and circular future. Francesco is also the ideator and coordinator of the Re-think Circular Economy Forum, a format of events organized in many different locations in Italy showcasing the most relevant Circular Economy solutions.

Francesco has been a guest speaker at different universities and events, like Federico II University, Bocconi University, LIUC - Cattaneo University, Pavia University, Padua University, Catholic University, IPE Business School, 24ORE Business School, Campus Party, Torino Stratosferica, Visionary Days.

Francesco is passionate about Circular Economy, Cleantech Innovations, Venture Building and Entrepreneurship.

Condividi