Sustainable IT Action NL: Old Phones, New Cloud

Welcome to a new Sustainable IT Action NL meetup.
This time, we are doing a hands-on hackathon.

You do not need any prior knowledge of Kubernetes, Android infrastructure, Linux administration or distributed systems. The only thing you need is a laptop, access to a Generative AI coding assistant or CLI, and the willingness to experiment.

The idea is simple: use AI as your technical copilot, work together in a team, and see how far you can get in one evening.

In 2.5 hours, we will work in small groups to turn old Android smartphones into a lightweight Kubernetes cluster, deploy workloads on it, and learn what is possible when we extend the useful life of existing hardware.

The phones used during the evening can afterwards be donated to the TU Delft Sustainable Systems Lab, which is researching how old smartphones can be reused as computing infrastructure.

The event is hosted by HighTech Innovators in Den Bosch.
Dinner is included before the hackathon starts.

Why this meetup?

A large part of the environmental impact of IT happens before hardware is even switched on.

Mining, manufacturing, transport and assembly all contribute to embodied carbon. Extending the lifetime of existing devices can therefore be an important part of more sustainable IT.

The TU Delft Sustainable Systems Lab is researching whether old smartphones can be reused as distributed computing infrastructure instead of becoming electronic waste.

For this research, the team is collecting thousands of Android phones.
During this meetup, we will explore the same idea ourselves.

Can hardware that is considered obsolete still become useful cloud infrastructure?
What are we going to build?

Participants will work in small groups.
Each group will receive or bring several Android phones and try to turn them into a small Kubernetes cluster.
The goal is not to arrive with the technical knowledge already in your head.
The goal is to use AI to help you figure it out.

You can ask your AI coding assistant to explain commands, suggest an architecture, generate scripts, troubleshoot errors and help your team move forward.

During the evening we will:

prepare Android phones as compute nodes
create a lightweight Kubernetes cluster
use Generative AI tools to guide setup and troubleshooting
experiment with networking, containers and resource constraints
deploy a small workload, such as a simple game server
compare what worked, what failed and what we learned
discuss hardware reuse, embodied carbon and circular IT

Expect some things to break. That is part of the exercise.

What should you bring?

Please bring your laptop.
We also encourage everyone to bring one or more old Android smartphones.

The phone does not need to be in perfect condition. A weak battery, damaged screen or unreliable charging port may still be fine, as long as the device can switch on.

Please remove personal data and preferably perform a factory reset before bringing a phone you want to donate.
If possible, also bring the charging cable.

Most importantly, bring access to a Generative AI coding tool, for example:

Claude Code
Codex CLI
Gemini CLI
GitHub Copilot
OpenCode
another AI coding assistant you already use

No old Android phone? No problem.
We will work in teams, so you can participate using phones brought by other participants.

Time schedule

18:00 - 18:30
Dinner and networking

18:30 - 18:45
Kick-off and introduction to embodied carbon, hardware reuse and the TU Delft research

18:45 - 19:00
Team formation and challenge briefing

19:00 - 21:00
Android Kubernetes hackathon

21:00 - 21:20
Team demos and lessons learned

21:20 - 21:30
Closing and phone donation

Do I need technical experience?

No specific experience with the technologies used in the hackathon is required.
You do not need to know Kubernetes.
You do not need to know how to turn an Android phone into a compute node.
You do not need to know how to build a cluster.

That is exactly what we will try to figure out during the evening.
The main skill we expect is being able to work with a Generative AI assistant and use it as a tool for learning and problem-solving.

More experienced developers and Kubernetes users are also very welcome, but this is not an expert-only event.

Why old smartphones?

Smartphones contain processors, memory, storage and networking capabilities.
They are also replaced relatively quickly.

That creates an interesting question:
When does a device really become useless?

This meetup explores whether old smartphones can have a second life as computing infrastructure.

By combining reused hardware, open-source software, Generative AI and teamwork, we want to make topics such as embodied carbon and circular IT practical and tangible.

Dinner is included.
Please update your RSVP if you can no longer attend, so we can avoid unnecessary food waste.

Important
Please bring your laptop.
Bring one or more old Android phones if you have them.
Please factory reset phones before donating them.
Bring charging cables where possible.
Bring access to a Generative AI coding assistant.
No Kubernetes knowledge is required.
Public transport and shared transport are encouraged.
Community pitches