Aalto Defence Hackathon — Crisis Communication & Resource Network
A real-time communication and resource-sharing platform bridging the gap between civilians and government agencies during national crises, developed for the Aalto Defence Hackathon.
Background
In critical situations, traditional communication channels can easily become bottlenecked or entirely severed, leaving a dangerous information gap between state actors and citizens on the ground.
As my first-ever hackathon, our team took on a real-world defence challenge issued by 61N at the Aalto Defence Hackathon 2025. Out of a highly competitive field of talent, our solution secured 3rd place.
How It Works
The platform functions as a dual-sided ecosystem designed to operate under high-stress, low-bandwidth conditions.
Civilian Interface
A lightweight mobile-first application allowing citizens to instantly report local infrastructure damage, request urgent resources (medical supplies, water, shelter), and mark themselves as safe. It utilizes mesh networking concepts to queue and transmit data packets even when cellular networks are unstable.
Government & Operations Command Center
A centralized dashboard for authorities providing live aggregate data visualization. Incident reports from civilians are geolocated and mapped in real time, allowing command centers to efficiently triage emergency services and allocate resources dynamically to areas with the highest critical need.
Challenges
The biggest hurdle was designing a system that balances absolute security with high accessibility. Because the application handles civil defense logistics, protecting user data and preventing spoofed or malicious crisis reports was essential.
Additionally, building a functional, dual-sided prototype under the intense 48-hour time constraint of a hackathon required strict scoping and rapid technical pivot decisions.
What I Learned
This event was an eye-opening dive into the defence industry and modern national resilience strategies. Collaborating intensely with talented peers under a tight deadline taught me how to quickly strip away feature creep and focus entirely on core utility. Standing on the podium at the end was an incredible validation of our team's hustle, engineering choices, and presentation.