Are you interested in medicine, social advocacy, health technology, or healthcare engineering? Come join a multi-disciplinary team of your peers to create real-world solutions for some of the world's most pressing health challenges.
What's a Health Hackathon?
A hackathon is a form of challenge-based learning where teams work to solve problems through rapidly prototyping, refining and pitching solutions. Hackathons were first used in the tech world but are now being used across all disciplines and sectors- you don't need any coding knowledge for this event!
In partnership with the UCL Institute for Healthcare Engineering and Lymphodema United, this hackathon will focus on designing a solution—physical, digital, or social—that improves the everyday wellbeing of people living with lymphoedema. Lymphoedema is a chronic and often debilitating lifelong disease that can have a detrimental effect on both physical and mental wellbeing. You can read more about lymphoedema here.
You'll work in mini groups to present prototypes, ideas, and solutions to support and raise awareness about lymphoedema. Plus, your recommendations aren't just a thought exercise. Youll get the chance to pitch in front of charity leaders, health tech industry professionals, and lived experience experts who can take your ideas to the next level!
By booking a ticket via this page, you are expressing interest to this event. We will ask you to confirm your space closer to the time. If the event becomes oversubscribed, we will email all ticket holders asking them to confirm their space.
Skills you can expect to flex
- Rapidly digesting information: ready to dive into the world of healthcare innovation?
- Teamwork: how good a team player are you really?
- Leadership: where are you in your leader journey?
- Communication: do you listen well or are you all talk?
- Sharing power: are you prepared to value knowledge from other sectors?
- Problem-solving: can you identify issues, make an analysis, and generate solutions?
- Reporting & presenting: how good are you at pulling together info to present in a short time?
Location
Location is to be determined but will take place at the UCL Bloomsbury campus and UCL BaseKX (103c Camley St, London N1C 4PF). The event will be a mixture of in-person and virtual/self directed working time.
Outline of the week
Day 1 | Monday @ UCL BaseKX 103c Camley St, London N1C 4PF |
| 10:00 | Check-in and register, refreshments |
| 10:20 | Welcome talk from lived experience expert |
| 10:40 | Icebreaker and introduction to challenge |
| 11:45 | Break |
| 12:00 | Groupwork 1: Rapid prototyping exercise |
| 12:30 | Networking lunch |
| 13:30 | Living Library activity with lymphedema community |
| 14:30 | Event End |
Day 2 | Tuesday @ Virtual and on campus |
| Group work space available IOE W2.08; W3.05 / W3.04 Note: W3.05 available until 13,00 and W3.04 until 17.00 | |
| 10:00 - 11:30 | Virtual Q&A Panel with Industry Experts |
| Free time | Groupwork: Refining your ideas and prototyping |
Day 3 | Wednesday @ Virtual and on campus |
| Group work space available: IOE W2.08; and W3.05 | |
| Free time | Groupwork: Refining Prototypes and crafting pitches |
| Throughout the day | Office hours with UCL researcher specialising in Lymphoedema |
Day 4 | Thursday @ Location TBD |
| Group work space available: IOE W2.08 ; W3.04 | |
| Free time | Groupwork: Crafting pitches |
| 18.00 - 19.30 | Pitching practice: with UCL Enterprise Alumni |
Day 5 | Friday @ UCL BaseKX 103c Camley St, London N1C 4PF |
| 11:30 | Check-in and register, refreshments |
| 11:40 | Welcome address |
| 12:30 | Student group pitches |
| 12:50 | Break and Judging deliberation |
| 13:10 | Winner announced, group photographs taken |
| 13:30 | Event end |
So why should I do this?
- Learn about and help raise awareness about lymphodema a chronic and often debilitating lifelong disease.
- Flex your skills in a real world scenario, this hack will challenge you to take your learning from the classroom and apply it to a pressing real world problem. Think of it like a workout for your brain
- Meet medical, industry, and third sector experts: Over networking lunches and workshops, you'll learn from and collaborate with sector leaders.
- Start your year off by supercharging your CV, this experience is 100% be something you can reflect about and include in job applications and interviews!
- Afterwards, you'll know 49 other people interested in working like this. That's a whole professional network waiting to happen.
FAQs
- What if I don't know anything about lymphoedema?
That's the whole point of the hackathon- we want to bring together young people who care about health and improving peoples lives so that we can both raise awareness and create real solutions for those living with lymphoedema. If you're an expert, you're welcome too, but we are expecting most people to be completely new to the topic.
- Do I have to be a medical student to join?
Absolutely not! The best solutions come from an interdisciplinary approach. We will place you in a diverse group with students from all different programmes so you can share your perspective and learn from others. We all have our strengths but more than anything this hackathon is a place to learn as well as create!
- What if feel a bit shy?
We know it is easy to say 'don't worry about it'. We have given this a lot of thought though, to make sure students can rock up at one of our events and feel instantly like they belong. We started by making sure you meet your Hacking team ahead of time, providing you with refreshments along the way - great conversations start over great coffee, right, making sure you design your own name badge, and finally, making sure each of our event check-ins is run by a one of our lovely Student Event Hosts. Our lead Event Host, will welcome you warmly to our space and help you work out how you want to get started.