In a bold step toward democratizing environmental sensing and empowering citizen-led innovation, Fab Lab Barcelona, Seeed Studio, Meshtastic, Hackster, and the University of Glasgow have joined forces to co-host an exciting hackathon focused on creating the next-generation Smart Citizen Kit at FAB25 — the annual global gathering of the Fablab network.
Rooted in the principles of open-source hardware, citizen science, and collaborative design, the hackathon aims to bring together an international cohort of developers, designers, and environmental advocates to co-create the next-gen of the Smart Citizen Kit — accessible, modular, and intelligent, enabling anyone, anywhere to monitor and understand their urban environment.
The current Smart Citizen Kit, designed by Fab Lab Barcelona, is manufactured and brought to market by Seeed Studio via its Fusion co-create program. This collaboration and go-to-market model is a win-win as the Fab Lab Barcelona team can focus on R&D while employing Seeed Studio’s manufacturing capability and global distribution channel.
Enabling the mechanisms to share knowledge between local and global networks is fundamental in the Fab City Fullstack. By leveraging Hackster’s prominent online community for hardware and software engineers of over 2.4M members across the world, the project aims to create a collection of different local deployment builds and references to incubate new communities and adoptions.
A Global Collaboration for Local Impact
Over the course of an intensive week during FAB25, interdisciplinary teams from Fab Lab Barcelona, the University of Glasgow, Seeed Studio, Meshtastic, and Hackster will work hands-on with Smart Citizen’s hardware kit and open data platform. Participants will prototype new sensing and communication modules and create new enclosure reference designs — all aimed at enhancing environmental literacy and enabling real-time, actionable insights for different communities around the world.
“What we are trying to do with this event is truly a collaborative development of a new and innovative kit,” said Óscar González, Smart Citizen Project Lead at Fab Lab Barcelona. “And we’re doing it while contributing to another open source project. We want to leave a legacy that anyone can reuse.”
Prototyping the Future of Citizen Sensing
The new Smart Citizen Kit, which will be co-developed and then tested during FAB25, builds upon the legacy of previous versions of the kit, including
- Noise and air quality detection
- Custom dashboards and mobile-first interfaces for real-time data visualization
- Integrations with Smart Citizen’s open API for long-term data aggregation
The latest iteration will emphasize LoRa capability, leveraging the popular Meshtastic protocol. Check out Meshtastic’s Platform Hub here for existing community projects on Hackster.
Open Innovation, Open Future
This collaborative effort demonstrates a shared commitment to open innovation as a pathway to drive product innovation and deployment in communities. By making tools accessible and inviting co-creation, the event seeks to catalyze a new era of citizen-driven sustainability and distributed design.
“Open-source kits like Smart Citizen lower the barrier for grassroots actions” said Jinger Zeng, Community Manager at Hackster and alumni of IaaC’s Master’s in Distributed Design and Innovation, “an open and participatory design approach for hardware development changes how we think hardware designs are produced. Such enablement can shift how we make direct impact on climate action innovations. Hackster’s new Applied Innovation Lab program will be working with world’s leading impact-driven and civic-driven hardware projects.
What’s next?
Tapping into the rich ecosystem of both the Fab Lab Network and Hackster’s global community, open contributions will continue to iterate through online channels, with Hackster hosting ongoing challenges and Seeed providing manufacturing support coupled with marketing and sales for scalable designs.
“A silver lining of real world data democracy“, Eric Pan, CEO & Co-Founder of Seeed Studio commented on this inspiring approach of global open innovation.
The outcomes of the hackathon will inform the next release of the Smart Citizen Kit, with many of the prototypes and ideas developed during the event being published under open licenses. The collaboration marks a milestone in the journey toward global environmental empowerment with open source technology, and the partners invite everyone to get involved.
Learn more about the project from Hackster Café
Get Involved via Hackster Challenge
Check out Hackster’s Challenge page here, which calls for the new kit’s design specification and feature request, this a pathway for any developers in the world to contribute. We are awarding the best solution to Maker Faire Shenzhen for a showcase this fall.
Want to come join the hackathon in Czechia in person at Fab25 and work directly alongside the core team? Check out the FAB25 event on Hackster News here and get an exclusive Hackster member discount on the conference ticket!