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Idea

Algal blooms are becoming more frequent and more damaging. They choke ecosystems, poison drinking water, and cost coastal communities millions every year. Companies that collect and remove algae from the water are part of the solution, but right now they operate without much visibility: they don't know exactly where the blooms are, and they have no way of knowing where they'll drift by tomorrow morning.

AlgaRoute fixes that. We combine satellite imagery from Sentinel-2 with ocean current and wind data to give harvesting operators a live map of algae concentrations and a 24 to 72 hour drift forecast. The platform then generates optimised routing suggestions so vessels can cover the highest-density areas first, with the least distance travelled.

The goal is straightforward: less fuel burned, fewer hours wasted, and more algae removed per trip. Better logistics for the operators, cleaner water for everyone else.

EU Technologies - Our solution is built on two Copernicus data sources.

Sentinel-2 multispectral imagery is the core of our detection layer. We use bands B4, and B5 to estimate chlorophyll-a concentration at 10 metre resolution. This gives us a precise, up-to-date picture of where blooms are and how dense they are. The 5-day revisit cycle makes near-real-time monitoring viable without any additional sensor costs.

For forecasting, we pull ocean surface current data from the Copernicus Marine Service. We feed this into a drift model that tracks bloom patches forward in time, producing probabilistic position estimates for the next one to three days.

Space data is what makes all of this possible. Without Sentinel-2, operators are guessing. Without CMEMS, any map of today's blooms is already outdated by the time a vessel sets out. Together, these datasets turn reactive collection runs into planned, efficient operations.

Challenge
We are addressing Challenge 2: Water Quality Monitoring, with a focus on the detection and management of harmful algal blooms in coastal and inland water bodies.

Algal blooms are a direct symptom of water quality degradation. They consume dissolved oxygen, kill fish, and in severe cases contaminate drinking water intakes. Managing them quickly and efficiently is a real water resource problem.

AlgaRoute contributes in three ways. First, early detection: our Sentinel-2 pipeline flags emerging blooms before they reach hazardous concentrations, giving operators and authorities time to respond. Second, targeted removal: by routing vessels to the densest patches first, we maximise the biomass removed per trip and reduce the overall nutrient load in the water. Third, long-term monitoring: each processed satellite scene adds to a growing archive, letting water managers track bloom patterns over time and connect them to upstream causes like agricultural runoff or temperature changes.

The core idea is to close the gap between observing a problem from space and doing something about it on the water.

Team

We are four first-year Computer Science.

Tamas (business and pitch) leads market research, business model, and the pitch narrative, translating the technical solution into a clear value proposition for operators and judges.

Rares (frontend developer) builds the operator-facing dashboard and map interface, making bloom detections and routing suggestions easy to read and act on in the field.

Luca (data and pipeline) handles Sentinel-2 ingestion, preprocessing, and the data pipeline from raw satellite imagery to processed bloom detection output.

Octavian (backend developer) builds the server-side logic, API layer, and drift forecasting integration, connecting satellite data processing with the routing engine.