TheBeHappyFish was an international challenge, hackathon like event, in the framework of European Engineering Learning Innovation and Science Alliance (EELISA), within the activity entitled Sustainable Food Production (SFP). TheBeHappyFish challenge has been designed by Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) and coordinated with ITU (Turkish Technical University), and ZHAW (Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften) in a hybrid format. It allowed participants to join either in person, online, or through a combination of both, providing the opportunity to develop cutting-edge solutions using artificial intelligence, computer vision, and satellite data analysis, while fostering collaboration and knowledge exchange.

In this graduate-postgraduate challenge, 31 Students of 8 nationalities proposed innovative ideas towards the improvement of the fish welfare under fish farming:
a) Develop AI-powered Tools for Fish Counting, Disease Recognition, and Behavior Analysis;
b) water quality monitoring Through Satellite Observation;
c) Designing Sustainable Systems; and
d) Free Contribution Ideas.

Participants were grouped into teams of 3 to 5 members, whenever they did not have a self-defined team. A webinar was held 15th days in advance of the challenge itself (15th January), which consisted of a series of expert contributions, with recordings later made available on YouTube. The BeHappyFish event (30-31 January) was structured into two different phases: Day 1, ideation, development, and complementary expert talks; and Day 2, Refinement, final presentations, networking, and awards ceremony. Most participants rated the event positively, appreciating the opportunity to collaborate on real-world challenges. Some students expected more focus on AI and coding, while others appreciated the broader discussions on sustainability and aquaculture. A few participants found that they learned mainly through their own efforts rather than from structured event content, which is in fact a main objective of the activity. Students highlighted various learnings tips, including aquaculture industry insights, sustainability practices, and AI applications. The support from mentors and organizers received mostly positive ratings, however few students felt that expert talks could have been more aligned with the technical challenges. Some students suggested that the mentoring process could be more structured, with clearer guidance on project development and problem-solving. Many participants expressed interest in joining again but suggested improvements, such as more interactive sessions between researchers and students, better datasets, and a clearer focus on coding and AI. TheBeHappyFish may be repeated with another university partner as the host institution: ITU or ZHAW.

Keywords: Hackathon, gamification, EEES, Interuniversity activity.