We went to the European Defense Tech Hackathon in Warsaw for the first time, bringing together a strong community from Poland and beyond, ready to build and contribute.

Over 200 builders, engineers, and domain experts spent 72 hours working hands-on to prototype solutions to real defense and security challenges. The hackathon brought together dedicated teams, experienced mentors, and committed partners.

Kickoff Day: Hands-On, All In

We kicked things off with a powerful keynote from Maciej Wolny, who gave us a look inside the values driving
Helsing, Europe’s advanced defense AI company.

The event ran under the patronage of the Polish Ministry of National Defence, and we were glad to hear from Mikołaj Raczyński, Chief Investment Officer at Polski Fundusz Rozwoju S.A. (PFR), whose support made our hackathon possible.

We also prepared workshops throughout the day to equip participants with the needed knowledge and guidance :

• FPV drone assembly by DroneAid Collective – Building FPV drones by DroneAid Collective
• Starting up for success with Karl Rosander from Nordic Air Defence
• How building a defense tech startup is and isn’t like other startups — with Deborah Fairlamb from Green Flag Ventures
• Efficient AI/ML training and inference on Amazon Web Services (AWS) by Igor Ivaniuk, Max Ivashchenko, and Oleksii Ivanchenko
• Cutting-edge FPV tactics workshop by Tymur Zyma 🇺🇦

We’re prototyping a future where Europe builds faster, collaborates deeper, and defends smarter.

Hackathon Winners

1st Place – Phage X: Treating antibiotic-resistant infections and mitigating biological threats by Joanna Wiecek, Marcin Mider, Alican Kapusuz, Samuel Livingstone, Bartosz Kosewski, and Tania Dymytrashchuk

→ Proof that defense tech is also a cutting-edge biotech

2nd Place – Modular ISR Backend for Multi-Sensor Fusion by Annemarie Schimkat, Aaron Kubiesa, Jonas Szalanczi

→ Tackling the “COMMON DATA, COMMON PICTURE” challenge by Project Q

3rd Place – Low-Cost Phased Array GPS Module by Vytautas Mikalainis, Nojus Kybartas, Piotr Gryko, Mathieu Moalic

→ A scalable, cost-effective GPS solution for secure comms and satellite protection, addressing a challenge by PFR

Every project tackled real-world defense challenges, counter-drone tactics, situational awareness, and battlefield resilience, using hardware and software.

We don’t have prize money at our hackathons, and that’s on purpose because we want to encourage our teams to focus on building real solutions rather than chasing prize money.

Still, we want to honor the teams that have made the most progress during the hackathon and have the best chance of continuing toward deployment. Our evaluation criteria included:

• Are you solving a real problem?
• How effective will the solutions be?
• How original and innovative is your solution?
• How mass-manufacturable will it be?
• How much progress and drive have you demonstrated during the hackathon?

Thanks to our jury, Davin Michaelis, Tom Karwowski, Karl Rosander, Leonard Wessendorff, and Michał Żołnierowicz for lending their time and expertise to review the hackathon submissions!