Five women beat the rest of NTNU’s AI talent when Founders Hub held Norway’s first physical AI hackathon in Trondheim. Four of them now plan to keep building together.
On Thursday 5 November, 50 hand-picked students stood on the top floor of Digs in Trondheim with four hours on the clock. The task was to build something that actually works, hardware and software both, and then convince the jury that someone would pay for it.
It is the first time a Norwegian hackathon has combined the two. The teams were given hardware kits from the Danish company Atech and AI tools from Anthropic, and had to make artificial intelligence work out in the physical world, not only on a screen. That is what physical AI means.
A clear win
As at most hackathons, most of those who applied and turned up were men. The winners were five women, and it was not close.
Robot Sense, five NTNU students of whom several are part of Women in AI, built a device that collects data for training models in tactile sensing for robots. Tactile sensing means that a robot can feel what it is holding, not just see it. The device does not measure touch directly. It uses sound: it records echoes and reports how different materials in a room reflect them. The jury pointed to the technical level and to the fact that the project goes after a real problem in robotics.
The prize was 15,000 kroner, access to the Founders Hub network and the chance of a seat in the hub. After the cheque was handed over, four of them decided to continue together. They are now mapping the market for tactile sensing, with the aim of starting something in physical AI.
“None of us had been to a hackathon before, but when the chance came up we just had to go for it. We started Women in AI to get more women into tech, so we have to sign up ourselves too. The response we got made us want more, and it showed that thinking ambitiously pays off. When we can build something that works in four hours with AI tools and hardware, it is fun to think about what we could do with a hundred times the time and resources.”
“There are far too few female founders in tech. Everyone talks about how important diversity is, and everyone is going to use AI, so everyone has to take part in building it too. A homogeneous group cannot build a product for everyone. We want to be role models, and we hope more people see that signing up for a hackathon is not that scary.”
“They have what it takes”
“These are fourth- and fifth-year students with skills in robotics and AI. They went straight for the hardest problem and got it working in four hours. It was extremely impressive. Norway has more than enough talent like this. The problem is that far too many of them go straight into a safe job. We believe everyone on this team has what it takes to build the next generation of Norwegian startups, and we will follow up all five. These are exactly the people we exist for.”
Jon Kåre Stene, partner at Skyfall Ventures, opened the evening and stayed until the last pitch.
“There was something in that room. Fifty students who just get going and make things work in a few hours. The room for young founders has never been bigger than it is now. With AI, a small team can build things that took a whole company a few years ago. But someone has to bring them together and show them it can be done. That is why initiatives like Founders Hub matter, and why we need more events like this.”
The hackathon was a pilot, held together with DNB and the hub’s other partners. The aim is to get more of NTNU’s strongest students to build companies instead of going straight into an ordinary job after their studies. The hub will do more of this from here on.
Robot Sense: Lone Mæland, Andrea Gladhaug, Elvin Günes Kader, Ida Tomine Berg and Kristine Skinlo. Quotes translated from Norwegian.
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