STEM Hackathon
Witness the next wave of STEM leaders tackling today’s industry challenges head-on.
Inspiring students love for STEM
Our goal is to inspire a love for STEM subjects and encourage students to consider future careers in STEM. Partner with us and create STEM Hackathons programs for students age 14 to 21 to explore their creativity, problem-solving skills and teamwork to solve real-world STEM challenges.
Get involved with us:
Corporation
Collaborate for a brighter future for students in STEM industry.
Education Institution
Partner with us to attract future talent whistle build your brand credibility.
Corporations
Partner with us..
Through Hackathons, your company can elevate its brand image and attract future talent. With our expertise and your organisations resources, we aim to ignite future leaders passion for STEM subjects, and inspiring them to explore future career in the field.
Inspire future innovators
Your organisation's involvement will showcase the applications of STEM concepts and introduce them to real-world challenges.
Community impact
Your organisation's involvement will showcase the applications of STEM concepts and introduce them to real-world challenges.
Networking opportunities
Connect with talented students, identifying potential future leaders and contributors to STEM.
How to get involved?
Your corporation can play a pivotal role in shaping the future of STEM education. Contributions made will directly support our school hackathon programs, ensuring that these transformative experiences remain accessible to all students free of charge. Apart from that, here are other ways your organization can get involved and make a difference:
Provide mentorship
Two representatives serve as mentors for the participants will play a crucial role in guiding and supporting students throughout the hackathon process.
Judges
Appoint a judge from your organization for the final presentations. Their valuable feedback and insights will contribute to the development of participants' projects.
Problem statements
Collaborate with BeScience to finalize real-world STEM problem statements and ensure that the challenges presented provide a relevant & impactful experience.
Creating impact..
BeScience hackaton events offer corporations a unique opportunity to engage with the community and make a tangible impact on the future workforce. By supporting our programs, corporations can:
Talent pipeline
Access a pool of talented and motivated students who have participated in our hands-on STEM events, providing a potential pipeline for future recruitment
Brand credibility
Enhance brand reputation by demonstrate CSR by investing in educational initiatives that promote diversity, inclusion, and skill development
Innovation catalyst
Inspire creativity and innovation among employees by participating in hackathons and fostering a culture of continuous learning in your organization
Workforce diversity
Contribute to building a diverse and inclusive workforce by supporting STEM initiatives that reach students from various backgrounds and demographics
Impact created
Problem Statement:
Participants were invited to solve an EV Charging Network Challenge; optimise an electric vehicle (EV) charging network, so it remains robust to demographic changes and meets customer demand.
Winners: 1st Prize – £2,000
2nd Prize – £1,700
3rd Prize – £1,500
No. of submissions:3,900
Duration: 1 month
Level: National
Schools
Collaborate with us..
Together we organise free STEM hackathons in schools, designed for students to explore their creativity, problem-solving skills and teamwork to solve real-world STEM challenges. Our purpose is to inspire a love for STEM subjects and encourage students to consider future careers in STEM.
Inspire Future Innovators
Encourage students to apply STEM concepts and introduce them to real-world challenges.
Curriculum Alignment
Seamlessly align hackathons with academic curricula, enhancing educational value.
Community Impact
Provides students with hands-on learning of STEM concepts outside the traditional classroom setting.
Hands-on Learning
Providing equal oportunity for students of various backgrounds access to quality STEM education.
How to get involved?
Any educational institution is welcome to participate in the BeScience Hackathon program, which is free of charge thanks to our partnerships with company corporate sponsorships.
Here’s how your school can get involved:
Logistics
We would greatly appreciate being provided with a hall for the event, a break room for the BeScience Team and necessary tech equipment.
Team Pre-Allocation
Pre-allocate students into teams before the Hackathon starts, allowing them to dive into problem-solving from the get-go.
Photography permission
To capture memorable moments, we request students complete photography permission forms in advance. Will respect the privacy preferences of all students.
Creating impact..
Through BeScience Hackathon, we aim to empower students with essential skills, industry connections, and career exploration opportunities. Together we can partner up in shaping the future of STEM education
Skill Development
Students develop critical thinking, teamwork, creativity, effective communication & problem-solving skills.
Career Exploration
Expose and inspire students to potential pursue education and career paths within the STEM field
Industry Connection
Connect with industry experts, offering students insights into real-world applications.
Impact created
Hackathon theme: Carbon emission solutions
Problem Statement:
Innovative and novel solution for reducing carbon emissions generated by data usage.
Outcome:
A team from York, UK designed an infrastructure ‘Offsetting Data-centre Carbon Impact Through Algal Sequestration’ proposed to utilise waste heat from data-centres to stimulate the growth of Chlorella algae and sequester the equivalent emissions of the equipment into a valuable product in a circular economy.
The team won a trip to London for ‘Young Professionals Summit’ & £2,000 prize money
Case Studies
Leicester Sustainability Hackathon 2024-2025
The Leicester Hackathon series successfully engaged students with hands-on projects addressing air, soil, and water pollution, promoting skills such as communication, leadership, research, and critical thinking while planting seeds for future STEM careers.
Industry type:
Oil & Gas
Education Level:
Secondary school students
Theme
Sustainability and Environmental Chemistry Challenges (Air Pollution, Soil Pollution, Water Pollution)
Problem-statement:
Secondary school students often lack practical and engaging opportunities to explore real-world environmental challenges through science. There is a need to inspire interest in chemistry and STEM subjects by connecting them to pressing sustainability problems.
Impact Created:
schools across Leicestershire participated
secondary school students took part
volunteers supported each Hackathon event
of participants reported better understanding of where to find resources for sustainability and STEM learning
of participants were inspired to consider a future career in STEM related fields
Case studies
Industry type:
Oil & Gas
Level:
National – open to public above 18 years old
Theme
Digitising staff management in an oil and gas conglomerate
Problem-statement:
The number of applicants per vacancy can be overwhelming for recruiters nowadays. Participants are invited to design an AI-driven Recruitment System.
number of
submission
hackaton
duration
prize
money
500+
number of submission
16 days
hackathon duration
£1,650
prize money
“The Hackathon mentors were helpful when it came to resolving issues that may jeopardize the planning of the solution if left unchecked. They helped ensure that our team is still on track in solving the problem statement that we chose.”
Industry type:
Education sector
Level:
Open to the public above 18 years old
Theme
Encouraging reading among school students
Problem-statement:
Creating an app that gamifies reading among school students
700+
number of submission
16days
hackathon duration
£40k
prize money
“We feel incredibly honoured that our solution was chosen as the winning Hackathon solution. The journey to get here has been arduous and we are grateful to our family, team, and ecosystem partners, without whom we would not be where we are today.”
— Hackathon winner
Sustainability
Level:
Worldwide
Theme
Sustainable and Affordable Energy
Problem-statement:
Participants were invited to solve an EV Charging Network Challenge. The task was to optimise an electric vehicle (EV) charging network, so it remains robust to demographic changes and meets customer demand
3.9k
number of submission
1month
hackathon duration
£5.2k
prize money
3.9k
number of
submission
1month
hackaton
duration
£5.2k
prize
money
Industry type:
Young professionals
Level:
Worldwide
Theme:
Environment
Problem-statement:
We challenged teams with a minimum of three participants aged 18 – 35 to come up with an innovative and novel solution for reducing carbon emissions generated by data usage.
20
no. of submission
24 hours
hackathon duration
£2k
prize money &
trip to London
One winning team, from Australia, won with their software focused entry, The Green Bytes app, plans to reduce carbon emissions by raising awareness on an individual scale, by suggesting more eco-friendly data usage habits to users. The other winning team, from York, United Kingdom, are the infrastructure winners, their submission ‘Offsetting Data-centre Carbon Impact Through Algal Sequestration’ proposed to utilise waste heat from data-centres to stimulate the growth of Chlorella algae and sequester the equivalent emissions of the equipment into a valuable product in a circular economy.
Industry type:
Sixty form
Level:
College
Theme:
Solving the problem of e-waste
9 teams
participated
7 days
hackathon duration
5
winners
One winning team, from Australia, won with their software focused entry, The Green Bytes app, plans to reduce carbon emissions by raising awareness on an individual scale, by suggesting more eco-friendly data usage habits to users. The other winning team, from York, United Kingdom, are the infrastructure winners, their submission ‘Offsetting Data-centre Carbon Impact Through Algal Sequestration’ proposed to utilise waste heat from data-centres to stimulate the growth of Chlorella algae and sequester the equivalent emissions of the equipment into a valuable product in a circular economy.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a BeScience STEM Hackathon?
A great crowd-sourcing approach to bring together student teams with the common goal of quickly solving real-industry problems. This also give students the opportunity to apply STEM knowledge to real-industry projects with the guidance of STEM industry mentors.
What is a problem statement?
A concise description of the problem that needs to be solved. This is typically finalised in the pre-Hackathon Problem Statement Workshop with our BeScience STEM Hackathon Partner.
What is a problem statement Workshop?
Led by BeScience, this pre-planned workshop invites our STEM Hackathon Partner to identify and refine real-industry problems into the desired number of problem statements for students to problem-solve. A Problem Statement Design Framework
What does BeScience manage?
BeScience STEM Hackathons will be 1 day (approximatly 6 hours) and typically held physically in a spacious setting such as a school hall.
How can I be a BeScience STEM Hackathon Partner?
For information on being a BeScience STEM Hackathon Partner, kindly book a call with us and our dedicated team will be more than happy to answer all your questions regarding the BeScience STEM Hackathon.
What are the partnership opportunities for the BeScience STEM Hackathon?
We offer various BeScience STEM Hackathon Partnership Packages to suit your needs. For information on being a BeScience STEM Hackathon Partner, kindly book a call with us and our dedicated team will be more than happy to answer all your questions regarding the STEM Hackathon.
How can I be a BeScience STEM Hackathon Mentor?
We thank you for your kind interest. For more information, you can email us at programs@bescience.org.uk, and our dedicated team will be more than happy to answer all your questions regarding the STEM Hackathon.
Who can I ask for more information about this programme?
We thank you for your kind interest. For more information, you can email us at programs@bescience.org.uk, and our dedicated team will be more than happy to answer all your questions regarding the STEM Hackathon.
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Companies Involved
Grants Won From
