HACK-4-SAGES, led by ETH Zürich in collaboration with Warsaw University of Technology and Gdańsk University of Technology, wrapped up from March 9–13, 2026, as a hybrid event under the ENHANCE Alliance. Supported by ENHANCE and co-funded by the European Union, it was delivered through the ENHANCE Innovative Learning Campus, promoting flexible, interdisciplinary, and student-centered learning opportunities across Europe. Hosted primarily by Warsaw University of Technology's Faculty of Automotive and Construction Machinery Engineering, with sites at Gdańsk University of Technology and ETH Zürich, the event drew 194 applicants from 25 countries across five continents; 60 teams competed in categories like Origins of Life, Life Detection & Biosignatures, and Exoplanet Habitability, with 18 on-site in Warsaw.
Top projects won trips to ETH Zürich for the Origins Federation Conference:
"Observer Bias in Life Detection" (AGH University of Krakow),
"ExoStress Twin: Interactive 2D-EBM Digital Twin for TRAPPIST-1e Habitability Analysis" (Politechnika Lubelska),
"A Digital Twin Framework for the Emergence of Life in Hydrothermal Systems" (Universidade do Porto).
Warsaw University of Technology students earned distinctions for "A Simulator of Interstellar Lithopanspermia: Microbe-Carrying Ejecta Digital Twin", "Modelling the Effects of Archean Earth Radiation on the Formation of RNA Secondary Structures," and "Habitat Tipping Points."
Mentors from ESA, NASA, and global academia guided participants tackling real challenges in life's origins and exoplanet viability.
