The Pulse Hackathon 2026 is a high‑intensity, deep‑tech innovation challenge focused on underwater optical communications, jointly organised by monodon by Navantia and the QOPHI photonics laboratory of the Universidade de Vigo.
The event will take place in Vigo on July 8th – 10th 2026. Teams of both institutions conceived the hackathon content to revolve around real industrial and research challenges linked to the use of photonics for secure, high‑capacity data transmission in the submarine environment.
Alvaro Aguirre, from Qophi Lab Universidade de Vigo, strength the importance for participants to work in selected, multidisciplinary teams during 28 continuous hours, addressing problems that reflect the extreme physical, environmental, and operational constraints of underwater scenarios. The expected outputs go beyond conceptual ideas: “teams are encouraged to propose technically grounded solutions, models, architectures, algorithms, or system designs that could realistically be transferred to naval, subsea, or blue‑tech applications”.
«This hackathon seeks to bridge academic knowledge, industrial applicability and new learning opportunities for students interested in photonics and deeptech», explains Iago Gonzalez Open Innovation manager from monodon by Navantia.Mentoring plays a key role in shaping content: teams are expected to interact closely with experts from industry and research, refine assumptions, and justify design choices. This will help next generation of photonic leaders building solutions through competing collaboration.
Ultimately, the hackathon content expects to contribute to talent development in photonics and blue‑tech, while generating innovative ideas with potential impact on future naval, subsea communication, and dual‑use technologies, reinforcing Vigo’s role as a hub for advanced maritime innovation
