Press Release  | 

A room set in a spaceship is the winner of the second edition of Hack the Hospital


  • 'Hack The Hospital', the international hackathon driven by Mobile World Capital Barcelona, was created with the aim of adapting hospital rooms to make them more accessible and comfortable for children.

  • This project has been supported by the Hospital Sant Joan de Déu in Barcelona, Hospital NHS in London and Hospital SickKids in Toronto.

  • The initiative has involved more than 40 teams and almost 300 national and international participants who have been mentored and a professional active in the world of health for each group.


Room2explore team is the winner of the international hackathon promoted by Mobile World Capital Barcelona, with the collaboration of Hospital Sant Joan de Déu in Barcelona, Hospital NHS in London, Hospital SickKids in Toronto and the organizational support of Garage Stories.

"Hack The Hospital" was created with the aim of adapting hospital rooms to make them more enjoyable, accessible and comfortable for children. It is an initiative by MWCapital which highlights the importance of putting technology and digitalization at the service of citizens and improving the quality of life.

The "Room2explore" team proposes recreation of a stage for the patient to live in hospital in various engulfing narratives, thanks to technology. Depending on the proposal the patient likes most, the room will be recreated with the theme chosen, as a spacecraft would be.

He's designed a room that simulates a spaceship. The project focuses on patients suffering from leukemia and need isolation for a few days. The goal is that the stay in the hospital is like a space trip. For this reason, in addition to the environment, the project provides for patients to be dressed in pajamas that recreate an astronaut’s dress, and for health professionals to be dressed in the same way. The room will have a smart panel that recreates daylight hours, and allows adjusting the room's lighting according to the patient's state. For example, darkening the station if the child needs to rest in hours of sunlight.

In addition, patients will never be alone in the room, because 'Room2explore’ has foreseen the presence of ,Aibo’, a robotic dog created from Artificial Intelligence that will control life signs and the patient’s state of health, and will also be able to hold conversations and resolve doubts about being in the hospital. Always with language adapted to the age of patients.

The winners of the international hackathon, Shelly Anne Li of Toronto, Pete White of London and Martí Engli, Núria Adell and Alba De Los Santos of Barcelona, have presented the project to MWC Barcelona 2023, and have stated their intention to search for partners and technology providers to make the prototype a reality over the next year, maintaining collaboration with the three hospitals to offer the experience and test it with their patients.

The semi-finals of the second edition of "Hack The Hospital" were held on the weekend of 18 and 19 February in facilities ceded by MWCapital and the participating hospitals in London and Toronto, and the final, where "Room2explore" won with its aerospace proposal, took place virtually on 21 February. In total, there have been more than 40 teams and around 300 participants involved, who have received mentoring from active health professionals, architecture, design, entrepreneurship and advertising and marketing in order to train in the various stages of acceleration of an entrepreneurial project.