Critical Infrastructure Shield Hackathon Switzerland
- Date
- 2026-10-23
- Location
- Winterthur, Zürich, Switzerland
- Host
- European Defense Tech Hub
About this event
Critical infrastructure is becoming more connected, more automated, and more exposed at the same time. This hackathon is built for people who want to work on that problem directly: not as an abstract policy debate, but as a practical challenge at the intersection of infrastructure, autonomy, and manufacturing. If you care about how essential systems stay resilient in the real world, this is the room to be in. About the Event The Critical Infrastructure Shield Hackathon Switzerland is an in-person gathering in Winterthur focused on building, testing, and sharpening ideas that help protect the systems societies depend on. The theme brings together several domains that are usually discussed separately: industrial operations, autonomous systems, cyber-physical environments, and modern manufacturing. This is a hackathon, which means the emphasis is on doing. You should expect a hands-on environment where participants form teams, define a concrete problem, and spend focused time developing a solution, prototype, workflow, or framework that addresses a meaningful infrastructure challenge. The format is designed to move quickly from discussion to execution. Because the event sits at the overlap of critical systems and technical innovation, it is likely to attract people who think across layers: software, hardware, operations, security, and deployment. That makes it especially valuable if you are interested in how ideas survive contact with operational reality. What to Expect You can expect a collaborative, high-focus day built around problem-solving. The event begins on Friday, October 23 at 1:00 PM GMT+2 and will bring participants together in person in Winterthur, creating the kind of shared working energy that is hard to replicate remotely. The core experience will likely include time for: meeting other participants and identifying shared interests forming teams around a challenge area or use case scoping a realistic problem worth tackling within the event format building a prototype, technical concept, workflow, or systems approach discussing tradeoffs around resilience, autonomy, industrial constraints, and deployment presenting or sharing what your team developed The most useful hackathons create a balance between speed and depth. Here, that balance matters even more because infrastructure problems are rarely solved by a flashy demo alone. Strong teams will probably focus on questions like: How do you improve resilience without creating unnecessary operational complexity? How do autonomous or semi-autonomous systems behave under failure conditions? What does security look like in manufacturing and industrial environments where uptime matters? Which tools or architectures can actually be adopted in real operational settings? Expect serious conversations, practical experimentation, and a room full of people who are interested in systems that have to work outside the lab. Why Attend If you are already working in infrastructure, manufacturing, industrial systems, or security, this is a chance to step outside your usual workflow and pressure-test your thinking with others. Hackathons compress feedback loops. You can go from idea to critique to iteration in a matter of hours, which is especially useful in fields where implementation details matter. If you are newer to the space, this event offers a fast way to understand how different disciplines connect. Critical infrastructure is not only a software problem or only a policy problem. It involves operations, reliability, safety, constraints, and human decision-making. Being in a room where these concerns are actively negotiated is a strong way to learn. You should attend if you want to: work on problems with real-world stakes meet people thinking seriously about resilience and industrial autonomy test technical ideas in a practical, collaborative setting build connections across engineering, security, and operational domains leave with sharper insight into what robust infrastructure solutions actually require There is also a broader reason this event matters. As infrastructure becomes smarter and more automated, the cost of weak design choices rises. Events like this help create better instincts early: about security, failure modes, deployment realities, and the limits of abstraction. Practical Details This is an in-person event in Winterthur, Switzerland, which means attendance is best suited for people who want direct collaboration, whiteboard discussion, and fast team interaction. The in-person format is a major part of the value: it enables faster trust-building, better technical exchange, and more momentum once teams start working. The event starts on Friday, October 23 at 1:00 PM GMT+2. Because hackathons move quickly, it is worth arriving ready to engage from the beginning with a few ideas, problem areas, or technical interests in mind. You do not need a perfect concept before you arrive, but you will get more from the experience if you already know which part of the infrastructure stack most interests you. A few ways to prepare well: think about a challenge area you care about in infrastructure, autonomy, or manufacturing be ready to explain your skills clearly so teams can form efficiently bring a practical mindset: useful, workable ideas will stand out expect interdisciplinary collaboration rather than solo building If you want a technical event grounded in real systems, real constraints, and real collaboration, this hackathon is a strong place to spend your time.
Who should attend
This is for people who want to work on serious infrastructure challenges with others who care about practical implementation, not just theory. - **You build or secure systems that operate in the real world.** If you work in software, cyber-physical systems, industrial tech, or operations, you will have useful perspective to bring. - **You are interested in critical infrastructure resilience.** That could mean reliability, security, autonomy, safety, failure modes, or how systems recover under pressure. - **You come from manufacturing or industrial environments.** If you understand operational constraints, uptime requirements, plant systems, or deployment realities, your input will matter. - **You like cross-functional problem-solving.** This event is a good fit if you enjoy working with people from different technical and operational backgrounds to shape a solution together. - **You want to prototype ideas instead of only discussing them.** If you prefer making, testing, and iterating, the hackathon format will suit you well. - **You are curious about where autonomy and infrastructure meet.** If you want to explore how automated systems can be made more robust, trustworthy, and deployable, you will find relevant conversations here.