Five climate projects take the stage at COP31 KREATE Hackathon awards

The COP31 KREATE Climate Technologies Hackathon held its awards ceremony at the Koç Pavilion on 9 November 2026. Organised by Koç Holding with the Koç University Entrepreneurship and Innovation Center (KUGİM), the programme brought five finalist teams to COP31 to present projects addressing beekeeping, solar power, water quality and climate risks.

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Five finalists from a programme attracting 262 students

The hackathon formed part of Koç Holding’s role as COP31 Global Business Partner. It brought together high-school and university students from across Türkiye to develop technology-based responses to climate and sustainability challenges. Its problem areas were drawn from issues faced by Koç Group companies, with water management, energy efficiency and sustainable agriculture among the priorities.

According to the organisers, 262 students from 38 universities and 31 high schools applied, and 92 teams took part in the competition process. Following an online briefing on 29 September, the teams developed projects addressing the selected challenges.

After an initial assessment, 17 teams pitched at KUGİM on 27 October. The jury selected three finalists, joined by two teams chosen through the Virtual Hackathon. The five teams presented their work on the opening day of the 31st United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties. An awards ceremony recognised the projects.

Projects span beekeeping, water and climate risks

The finalists worked on renewable energy, water management, sustainable agriculture, disaster management and climate-resilient living environments. The organisers described the projects as follows:

• Bloomex: Students from four high schools developed a mobile application intended to help beekeepers track flower maps and plan hive movements. The project aims to support pollination and food security.
• Helios: A team of students from different universities created a free, open-source advisory tool to help assess the solar-energy potential of rooftops.
• Purifai: Students from Koç University and Ankara University designed a solution for monitoring groundwater quality and treatment processes through an AI-supported platform.
• Erenova: Students from Eren Science and Technology High School developed an AI-supported early-warning system intended to anticipate heatwaves and risks involving insect populations weeks in advance.
• Nimbus: Students from Fırat University and Istanbul Medipol University worked on a decision-support system for cloud-seeding applications, with the aim of contributing to wildfire prevention.

These descriptions set out the projects’ aims and areas of development. The release did not provide finalist rankings, prize amounts or field-performance results for the proposed solutions.

Ali Y. Koç highlights the importance of people

Koç Holding Deputy Chair Ali Y. Koç and CEO Levent Çakıroğlu attended the ceremony. Congratulating the students, Ali Y. Koç recalled founder Vehbi Koç’s emphasis on people as the most important form of capital, saying the principle applied to countries as well as companies.

About Koç University

Founded in 1993, Koç University offers 22 undergraduate, 44 master’s and 30 doctoral programmes, according to the institutional information supplied with the release. It has more than 9,000 students, 65 percent of whom receive scholarships. More than 20,000 students have graduated from its undergraduate and master’s programmes.

Source: Koç Holding · Press release dated 9 November 2026