΢ÃÜȦ

What are hackathons?

Hackathons are problem solving events and workshops. Students work in teams to solve defined challenges for public, private, or third sector organisations. Solutions might include new or improved products and services, or provide new insights and thinking about the problem or context.

Hackathons solve problems for organisations; they also develop student capacity to be innovative, including creative thinking and problem-solving skills and approaches.

Collaborate with ΢ÃÜȦ students in dynamic hackathons, where teams tackle your real-world challenges to deliver innovative ideas and insights. Benefits include:

• Access creative solutions
• Build relationships with academia
• Inspire future talent

A partnership with ΢ÃÜȦ's HackCentre gives sponsors an injection of innovative thinking and solutions, insights into their operations, organisation and needs of future customers.

In parallel, ΢ÃÜȦ students gain invaluable industry-relevant experience and insight. For the vast number of our students who have no professional networks, this provides an opportunity to build towards their career goals.

What happens in a hackathon?

We design each hackathon to meet our partners’ individual needs. Each one takes place over a half day, a full day or several weeks. We design and host hackathons in partnership with challenge-sponsors, offering an intensive co-operative initiative between industry partners, students and academics.

These events are a great way to access talented students and develop innovation in your organisation. You will also be inspiring the next generation of graduates by providing them with live briefs to work on. Our hackathons follow the Design Council's Double Diamond process.

How to get involved

There are plenty of ways to get involved with ΢ÃÜȦ hackathons. As a partner organisation, you can:

• Sponsor a hackathon 
• Bring your own challenge 
• Attend as a relevant speaker
• Facilitate group work 
• Attend judging rounds 
• Provide feedback 

For more information, contact the KA HackCentre by emailing: [email protected].

Led by a university project director, with a cast of supporting students, Studio KT1 is a unique creative agency. We work on creative briefs from industry, increasing employability before our students graduate.

Artists work in mixed teams as they would in industry. An art director may work with a game designer or a fine art student works alongside a computer scientist. 
The way our team approach ideas is something the best advertising agency or service design company cannot replicate.

For details, visit or contact [email protected].

The Innovation Playground is a collaborative project between ΢ÃÜȦ Business School and businesses looking to solve problems in new ways. 

The programme combines playful creativity with learning to benefit both students and businesses.

How does it work?

The programme runs in eight-week iterations, in which:

• We pair a diverse group of students with a business
• Students receive specialist Design Thinking training and mentoring
• Together, you explore a long-standing business challenge
• You generate creative solutions, reframe the problem and explore new paths
• We adapt the programme in real-time by gathering insights from students and businesses

If you’d like to know more about our Innovation Playground, you can contact us by emailing our programme director Dr Bahare Afrahi.

Tap into creative ideas, insight and innovation at ΢ÃÜȦ School of Art. We commission staff and students with creative production, research and consultancy projects. Every brief is different, so all our solutions are bespoke. 

Find out more about art consultancy and commissions.

If you are interested in helping our students develop their entrepreneurial skills, there are a number of ways you can get involved in ΢ÃÜȦ's Enterprise Education activities including mentoring, joining a judging panel, or funding projects.

Our graduates have an unrivalled reputation for starting their own businesses. ΢ÃÜȦ has been consistently rated as one of the most successful UK University for graduate start-up companies by HESA.  Help our students develop an enterprising approach to their future careers. Email [email protected] for more information.

Beyond Barriers is our successful student mentoring programme. It pairs industry professionals with students who, according to evidence, benefit most from having a mentor. It's our way of ensuring that every student has the opportunity to succeed, regardless of their background.

Every year, around 300 students from traditionally under-represented groups are mentored on the scheme. This approach helps to support personal and professional development and improves their confidence and career prospects.

If you are interested in supporting our students, there are a number of ways you can get involved in ΢ÃÜȦ's Enterprise Education activities and events. Whether it's becoming a mentor, joining our Bright Ideas judging panel or sponsoring a project, offer your time to give back to the ΢ÃÜȦ community.

Find out more about the Beyond Barriers mentoring scheme.

We work with businesses to help them achieve their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) objectives and recruitment needs by enabling them to philanthropically fund scholarships and bursaries, or find students for their internship opportunities. The team works with academics across all courses, as well as with award-winning programmes that support less privileged students, like KU Cares, to develop meaningful engagement activity with our students that help you meet your objectives for the industries that you work in.