The Data and Design Hackathon is an event focused on connecting industry leaders with students from multidisciplinary backgrounds for example, social sciences, engineering, medicine, arts and humanities. The students work together over the course of a week to solve a real world problem, using their unique skill sets to pitch their findings and solutions to be shown at the end of the week.
Hackathons are typically tech based events, generally excluding those outside of the data and computer science fields, but event co-organiser Dr Suvodeep Mazumdar Senior Lecturer in Data Analytics in the School of Information, Journalism and Communication and his colleagues aim to redefine the Hackathon into a more accessible and inclusive learning event for those from other disciplines.
The week-long project taking place in Faculty of Social Sciences The Wave involved students from Science, Technology Engineering and Maths (STEM) and non-STEM backgrounds, from Undergraduate level, all the way to PHD students. Dr Mazumdar sees the event as not only an opportunity for learning but for all types of students to demonstrate their skills to employers.
Dr Mazumdar said: Weve got a lot of different students here from different disciplinary backgrounds and skill sets. When our industry leaders come in, they present a problem from their field to the students, who may not be from that specific field. Having the student step outside of their comfort zone and think outside of the box as an interdisciplinary team is a really valuable experience which were offering the students.
Other than the experience and contacts the students can gain from Hackathon, the end result of the weeks projects are judged by industry experts, with prizes as commendation. One of the industry leaders, Dr. Ziqi Zhang, senior data scientist at Accessible Intelligence (a company developing machine learning models for non-profit fundraising, supporter engagement and supporter retention) says that he is mainly looking for innovation and creativity within student work:
We would be looking for something that surprises us really, and whether students are able to clearly articulate how their project presentation met all of our requirements. Putting students together like this really enhances their teamwork skills and simulates a working environment.
Financial management student and hackathon participant, Ahmed Alyafeai says that he feels Hackathon is keeping him up to date in a rapidly changing job market: it's really given me an insight into professionals and their use of AI, it's really taken off in the past year so this experience will give me a good learning experience for the jobs that i am interested in.
The Hackathon has given me team working and role assignment knowledge. We looked at everyones strengths and weaknesses and saw where we would like to improve, as well as where we were each going to excel. Hackathon has been very useful for this.
The Hackathon concluded with prize ceremony, with the following awards:
- First Prize and South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority Award - South Yorkshire Flow (Britiparni Biswas, Taha Khan, Abbey Baumguertel, Rajita Ghosh, Roshni Parekh)
- Second Prize - Eco-Go (Nur Farhazni Najwa Binti Farhan, Asti Dhiya Anzaria, Tom Miller, Irene konadu, Brandon Rawson)
- Third Prize - Trackside North (Nada Katamish, Richard Beaumont, Soki Kimura, Oluwatobiloba Olasogba, Abuduwaili Mijiti)
- Most creative solution towards a sustainable future - EcoLogic (Janhavi Pawar, Muhamad Irfan Bin Muhd Ramiza, Silu Yu, Jie Cai, Shixiong Xu)
- Ethical Innovation Award - Rubiks Cube (Shristi Adhikari, Areez Muhammed, Kulisara Kittivibul, Seadon Rodrigues, Aparna Swaminathan)
- South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority Award Joint Runners Up - Sheffield Sims 5 (Bianca Sevidal, Poppy Dobson, Aaron Poh Shi Da, Sumit Mishra, Sanchaya Sathishkumar Deepa) and Eco-Go (Nur Farhazni Najwa Binti Farhan, Asti Dhiya Anzaria, Tom Miller, Irene konadu, Brandon Rawson)
- Best Data Driven Policy Project (Sheffield Technology Parks Award) - Sheffield Sims 5 (Bianca Sevidal, Poppy Dobson, Aaron Poh Shi Da, Sumit Mishra, Sanchaya Sathishkumar Deepa)
- Best Poster - Big Bird (Askar Kazhybay, Ahmed Abdullah Y Al Yafeai, Jane Podmoloda, Varvara Kurianova, Veronika Redziuk, Laylo Mirdjalilova)
- Best Presentation - Team 404 Probation Not Found (Nitkamon Iamprasertkun, Keivalin Saringkareekul, Aziq Azlan, Muhammad Faiz)