For a few hours, the World Trade Center de Barcelona gathered more than 500 young people with the same underlying question: what can be done today to make the future more sustainable? The scene was part of the Dream BIG — imaginPlanet Challenge, an event organized by Imagin, the neobank promoted by CaixaBank, which brought together university and vocational training students from all over Catalonia in an intensive hackathon format. Four hours; teams of three people, more than a hundred ideas, and a clear objective.
The pace was that of any creative process compressed to the limit: ideate, structure, land, and defend. Each team presented a two-minute pitch to a jury made up of professionals from the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Enough to see what is behind an idea when it is given shape.
From within, the feeling was clear. "It was lived with brutal energy. From the first moment there was a very clear feeling of excitement, creativity, and desire to build," explains Teresa Buxeda, manager of imaginPlanet Challenge. "More than a hackathon, it was a demonstration of collective talent," she adds. Among all the proposals, one ended up standing out. It was BIOTOPIA, the project promoted by three young people —Yiyan, Eric, and Yuren— which received the final recognition with a proposal that connects technology and nature from an unusual point: transforming marine waste into structures capable of regenerating ecosystems.
The idea starts from a simple logic, although its development is not so simple. Through 3D printing and artificial intelligence, the team proposes designing biotopes —structures that replicate natural habitats— using materials recovered from the sea itself. These pieces adapt to each specific environment and, once reintroduced, act as support for biodiversity, facilitating the recovery of degraded ecosystems.
The idea does not arise from theory, but from experience. "It all started with a trip to the Galapagos Islands. Seeing that marine ecosystem led us to ask a question that we could no longer ignore: why can't something like this also regenerate in other parts of the world?" the team explains. Here is also the key nuance of the project. "We don't clean the ocean, we rebuild it," they summarize.
What was seen during the day points to something that is gaining weight: more and more business projects are born in educational environments, in spaces where the pressure of the market does not yet exist, but there is a more open view of problems. The organization also agrees with this change of focus. "Today many young people undertake with a mindset much more connected to purpose. It is no longer just about setting up a company, but about building something relevant," says Buxeda.
The imaginPlanet Challenge functions precisely as that first impulse. It not only poses a challenge, but also accompanies the process. From prior training —with tools based on methodologies such as Design Doing— to the possibility of converting an idea into a real project. It is no coincidence that the program has already exceeded 10,000 participants in its five previous editions, nor that some of the projects born in this context have ended up consolidating as active companies. Cases such as Ecodeliver, Atom H2 or MYCO point in the same direction: young entrepreneurship is no longer a preliminary phase, but the beginning of a real journey.
The recognition of BIOTOPIA now implies a next step. The team will directly access the program's final in Madrid and will opt for an immersion experience in Silicon Valley, where they will be able to develop their project in contact with one of the most consolidated innovation ecosystems in the world. For them, the journey does not end here. "The hackathon was the starting point, not the destination," they explain.
But the value of the day is also in what happens before, in that moment when an idea is still only a possibility, but begins to take shape. Once again, Barcelona appears as a natural setting for this type of dynamics: a city where innovation coexists with education, and where young talent finds spaces to activate itself.