Creative Hack: UAL cross-college collaboration for social and environmental good.

UAL’s Creative Hack took place online and at High Holborn over 2-days at the start of the Spring break. This year had the theme ‘Collaborate to Create > Create to Make Change’.

Opened by President and Vice-Chancellor James Purnell, the creative hackathon gave participants the opportunity to come together to learn, innovate, create and present their ideas. Their aim was to address the Capital’s challenges and make London a better place to live, work and visit.

The event was initiated by LCF Graduates Futures in 2021. This year Careers and Employability led the event which was organised by teams and staff at each of the UAL colleges that support student and graduate enterprise.

200 students and recent graduates applied to take part. Over 50 students attended online and in-person, forming 8 mixed college teams. They worked on the following themes: Technology and Digital; Environment and Sustainability; or Social Justice and Equality. The teams worked together over the 2 days before pitching their ideas to a panel of industry and entrepreneurial expert judges. This year's judges included; Jacqui J. Free Sze, Rudo Nondo, Kaela Katz and Steve Taylor.

Three teams won prizes from the £2,500 prize pool. Our first prize winning team won £1,500 and included students from Camberwell College of Arts, London College of Fashion, Central Saint Martins and London College of Communication. The team proposed a brilliant idea for an app that directs you and allows you to plan walking routes through green spaces in London. App users can log their routes and contribute to the community, helping others discover new green spaces and spend more time in nature.

Participants were supported through the two days with talks, coaches and mentors and a host of resources in their hacking space.

"The Creative Hack really gave us the opportunity to utilize all of our skillsets working together in a challenging environment. With only two days to brainstorm, research and complete our social enterprise business model with people we had only just met really challenged us to realize a potential business model and something that might hold value in the future. We’re excited to take the project further and are still working on the idea as a team." – Creative Hack participant

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