Europe's defence challenge energises young techies at hackathon

By Toby Sterling

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A weekend hackathon in Amsterdam aimed at finding fast-and-cheap battlefield solutions for Ukraine drew more than 100 young programmers and engineers, with many saying Europe's rearmament plans were prompting them to consider careers in defence.

European countries are boosting military spending after U.S. President Donald Trump signalled the United States may no longer guarantee their security as it has since World War Two.

That has led some young people who would previously have focused on financial software or artificial intelligence to consider jobs in military technology.

"I've been interested in defence a long time, even before the Russian invasion (of Ukraine)," said 24-year-old Swede Emil Knutsson. "And I can for sure feel that in my generation there has been a change in how young people think about it."

The Amsterdam hackathon - the name for a conference where attendees break into small groups and try to build something new in a single weekend - was organised by privately-owned European Defense Tech Hub (EDTH) in partnership with Ukraine's state-backed defence technology accelerator Brave1.

While Knutsson's project was affordable "squad radar" systems to help Ukrainian soldiers fight Russia's invasion, many teams focused on building drones, or technology to detect or disable them. Some attendees were seeking help or funding for a startup idea, others simply to network and support Ukraine. 

Benjamin Wolba at German-based EDTH, which held its first event last June and plans half a dozen more across Europe this year, said interest had snowballed following the Munich Security Conference in February. Trump's upending of U.S. policy on Ukraine, adopting a more conciliatory stance towards Russia, was another factor, he added.

"The West not being super-sure about U.S. support anymore, and seeing that we need to rearm Europe – that is certainly creating urgency for people to come," Wolba said.

Andreas Michaelides, whose multinational team tested a system using seismic waves to detect movements in enemy territory, said defence innovation was no longer confined to big-budget companies.

"Every single one of us can get into this," he said, citing software advances and the advent of drone warfare.  

Among the hackathon's judges was Bram Oostvogel of NUNC Capital, which said last week it will invest 20 million euros ($22 million) in early-stage ventures using Ukraine as a proving ground for ideas that could in time fill Europe's security gaps.

He said European venture capital and private equity investors and banks were all now taking defence seriously.

"It's important that you first take care of your primary needs - security, safety - and not 'likes' or kudos on Facebook," Oostvogel said.  

($1 = 0.9244 euros)

(Editing by Catherine Evans)