Do you want stay updated with the latest from BGI?
Subscribe to our newsletter.
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
urban mobility
Applications Open:
10 September 2025
Applications close:
23 October 2025
Location
Online + Final Pitch in Lisboa
Date
30 October - 7 November 2025
Language
Portuguese
Price
Free
Turning Data into Smarter Mobility Solutions
The Urban Mobility Data Hackathon is a collaborative competition where students, professionals, and innovators can use data to design solutions for real urban mobility challenges presented by leading players in Portugal’s mobility ecosystem.
Co-funded by EIT Urban Mobility and organized by BGI and Transportes Metropolitanos de Lisboa (TML), this event will bring the urban mobility community together to unlock innovation through data.
Why Join?
• Prizes and Opportunities
Competing teams will have the chance to win a prize of up to 500€. In addition, winning teams will receive support for their application to the EIT Jumpstarter Program and benefit from 8 hours of advisory support to further develop their idea in collaboration with TML.
• Problem-Solving with Impact
Tackle real-world challenges with a leading public transport operator.Dive into real datasets, uncover the key problems, and design actionable, data-driven solutions that shape the future of urban mobility and smarter cities.Gain access to real datasets from Portuguese mobility operators. Analyze them, identify challenges, and design actionable, data-driven solutions that could shape the future of cities.
• Networking and Visibility
Connect with peers, mentors, municipalities, companies, and Europe’s leading mobility innovation network. Get noticed by industry players and potential future employers.
• Personal and Professional Growth
Step beyond theory into practice. Enrich your CV, gain hands-on experience, and open new career paths in data, urban mobility, and innovation.
• Shape the future of Urban Mobility
Stand the chance to develop projects with leading mobility operators and municipalities in Portugal
What Makes It Unique?
You will tackle real urban mobility challenges with real data from a leading Portuguese transport operator. You will collaborate with experts, pitch to a jury, and connect directly with the organizations driving change in urban mobility.
Challenges
Challenge 1
Commercial Speed
The commercial speed of buses is a crucial factor for route planning, service frequency, and the quality of urban mobility. This challenge proposes the creation of a data analytics tool that allows:
• Calculating speed by segment, hour, and type of day.
• Identifying routes and trips with the largest deviations from the planned schedule.
• Visualizing speed patterns throughout the day or by zone, highlighting critical locations and times.
In addition, a network optimization model could be developed with the aim of reducing delays and improving the efficiency of public transport.
Challenge 2
Origin-Destination Matrices
Understanding passenger mobility flows is essential for route planning and for adjusting transport supply, contributing to more sustainable urban mobility. Currently, the main difficulty for Carris Metropolitana lies in the absence of data regarding passengers’ exit stops.
This challenge proposes the development of a data analytics tool that allows:
• Visualizing and quantifying origin-destination flows.
• Calculating the overall OD matrix and segmenting it by hour and type of day.
• Estimating median travel times for each OD pair.
• Determining distances traveled.
• Measuring demand through the number of validations and distinct passengers.
Challenge 3
Open Challenge
Sustainable urban mobility is one of the greatest challenges faced by contemporary cities. The collection and analysis of data on the behavior of users of different transport modes (pedestrians, cyclists, and vehicles) opens new opportunities to:
• Optimize public transport systems.
• Encourage the use of more sustainable modes of transport like public transport.
• Reduce urban congestion.
This challenge proposes the development of an innovative, citizen-centered solution that improves quality of life in cities. The solution should be scalable, allowing its application in other cities with similar problems and datasets. Data from a single mode of transport or a combination of multiple data sources may be used, enabling an integrated view of urban mobility.
Who should apply?
You can apply as a team (3–4 people) or individually. We will help you connect with others!
• Students / young innovators
• Programmers
• Data scientists
• Urban planners, and changemakers with skills in data analysis, big data, and data science
Program timeline & structure
Challenge Presentation Session
30 October 2025 (Online)
• Kick-off event with program overview and rules.
• Challenge owners present their real-world problems and datasets.
• Team matchmaking for individual applicants.
• Teams confirm their final roster and challenge.Datasets and resources are shared.
• Teams book a mentoring slot for the working week.
Self-Paced Working Period
31 October to 6 November 2025
• Teams analyze the datasets and design their solution.
• They can schedule at least one mentoring session with the challenge owner for feedback.
Submission
6 November 2025 (by 18:00)
• Teams should submitSlide deck (maximum 10 slides, PDF).
• Technical note (1–2 pages with solution description, methodology, and next steps).
• Repository or folder with code/analysis (if applicable).
• Demo (if applicable).
Final Pitch Event
7 November (Lisbon)
A high-profile, in-person event where the teams will showcase their data-driven solutions developed to tackle the challenges proposed by the challenge owners. Participants will present their innovations during a 5-7 minute pitch followed by the announcement of the winning teams.
After the Hackathon
• Opportunities to further develop solutions with Transportes Metropolitanos de Lisboa.
• 8h of Advisory on how to develop your solution further.
• Support to apply to the EIT Jumpstarter Program with you innovative solution.
Partners
