Why the Eclipse SDV Hackathon 2026 was different

15 years ago, I would have loved to attend an automotive hackathon. Today, I’m helping organise one. And this year’s edition showed me just how far we’ve come.
Back in 2011, when I was studying at university, hackathons were hardly a thing in the European automotive and embedded software world. At least from my perspective, opportunities were extremely limited. I remember coming across events in Berlin and the Netherlands, but nothing that really connected my interests in embedded systems, automotive software, and hands-on experimentation.
Imagine being a student who loves programming, electronics, and cars, but has no real opportunity to combine all three together with people from the industry.
Fast forward 15 years.
From 6–8 October, 2026, we brought together 57 developers, students, automotive professionals, and open source enthusiasts at Zeppelin University in Friedrichshafen, Germany, for Eclipse SDV Hackathon Chapter Four, hosted by the ZF Group.
Ten teams. Three days. Plenty of code, debugging, coffee, and probably a few moments of questioning our life choices.
But this year something was different.
Actually, two things.
Almost three out of four participants were professionals. And for the first time, teams could bring their own challenges through our new Freestyle Track.
Both developments deserve a closer look.
Group photo from Friedrichshafen https://flic.kr/p/2sEQFc8
When we started preparing Chapter Four, I certainly didn’t expect this ratio.
Out of 57 participants onsite, 42 were professionals and 15 were students.
And these weren’t just people dropping by to observe. Developers and engineers from companies across the automotive ecosystem spent three days coding, experimenting, and collaborating.
We had participants from organisations including Mercedes-Benz Tech Innovation, Cummins, FEV.io, RT-RK, ZF, Schaeffler, TRATON, Capgemini, Allison Transmission, AUMOVIO, and SiliconAuto.
For me, this is an interesting signal.
Hackathons have traditionally been associated with students, universities, and young developers trying out new technologies. And I still believe they are fantastic opportunities for students to get in touch with real engineering challenges.
But seeing this many experienced automotive developers joining voluntarily tells me something else:
There is a real appetite for getting hands-on with open source software outside the boundaries of everyday development projects. For industry professionals, hackathons offer a unique playground where they can test new ideas and explore possibilities without the usual constraints.
No lengthy alignment meetings. No endless PowerPoint discussions. No waiting for the next project milestone.
Just developers, technology, and a problem worth solving.
Of course, having so many professionals in the room also changes the dynamics. People bring years of experience with embedded development, diagnostics, middleware, architectures, and production systems.
But I particularly enjoyed seeing students and professionals working side by side. Experience matters, but so does curiosity, and sometimes the person asking the most useful question is the one who hasn’t spent 15 years working on the same problem.
For previous editions, we largely provided the challenges and asked teams to come up with creative solutions.
This year, we tried something different.
Alongside our Innovation Track, we introduced the Freestyle Track.
The idea was pretty simple: Instead of having to follow one of our predefined challenges, teams could bring their own ideas, tackle problems they had already identified, and build something useful for the Eclipse SDV community.
Four out of ten teams chose Freestyle.
That’s 40% of all teams deciding to work on something they were personally interested in bringing forward.
What excited me most wasn’t just the number.
It was the direction those teams took.
Instead of building isolated prototypes that might disappear into a GitHub repository after the event, teams worked toward direct contributions to existing Eclipse SDV projects.
Pull requests. Feature proposals. Improvements to existing software.
Not just using open source. Contributing back to it.
For me, this might be the most important development of Chapter Four.
A hackathon is great when it generates exciting ideas. But it becomes even more valuable when those ideas have a chance to live beyond the closing ceremony.
And this is exactly how I would like to see our SDV Hackathons evolve.
With the Innovation and Freestyle Tracks running independently, we had two competitions and two different ways for teams to demonstrate their skills.
First place went to Bare Metal Mafia, a team consisting entirely of students.
Yes, you read that correctly.