Serious Games for Education Hackathon 2023
Careers & Employability, University of Liverpool
We are Careers and Employability at the University of Liverpool!
On 6th and 7th June the Serious Games for Education Hackathon took place for students at the University of Liverpool.
A joint venture between Careers & Employability, University of Liverpool and Georg Meyer from the Virtual Engineering Centre (VEC) the aim was to provide an experience for students to meet with industry leaders from the immersive sector in a collaborative experience.
Students worked in cross-departmental teams to develop novel immersive learning experiences. The hackathon being a great way to practice planning, collaboration, design and prototyping skills and then ‘pitch’ the proposed project to potential stakeholders. For the industrial and academic attendees, the hackathon was an opportunity to build connections and explore what types of experiences students want to see in the future.
A massive thank you to Ben McWilliams and Megan Hill from Draw & Code, Joe Chapman and Eddie Aspden from PixelMax and Keith Myers from AVimmerse for sharing their knowledge, experience and time with our students during the event.
During the two days, Lib Golding introduced innovation and entrepreneurial thinking/ working concepts, around divergent thinking, idea generation and how to pitch. We could see some students were nervous about pitching but each group took to the challenge well, even with 3 minutes to provide key concepts around ideas! All groups managed to create impressive prototypes of their proposed systems by the end of the second day.
The panel of judges had a very tough decision picking the winner, there were so many good ideas. Two winners were chosen, ‘EEE the Game’ developed ideas around gamifying key EEE concepts in the curriculum, while ‘Fluencify’ created a VR/AR language learning experience. Wining teams included student representation across faculties. Winners received vouchers and certificates. All students who attended the 2 day hackathon will receive HEAR.
As well as having fun, students gained valuable stories and examples they can use in applications and interviews when applying for internships, placements and graduate roles. They also can use participation in this event as a way of promoting their skills on their social media posts.
Thank you for everyone who helped with this event including Liz Sheffield for judging on the panel and presenting the certificates, members of C&E including Lib Golding, Paulina Kulakowska. Jennifer Callaghan, Jane Marsh, Jason Steers and Richard Finch and the VEC student helpers who provided the opportunity for attendees to have a VR experience over the two days.
Career Consultant at University of Liverpool