In 2019 I had the opportunity to represent the University of Leeds as one of 5 students across all Design and Engineering faculties at the University (both Undergraduate and Postgraduate) as part of the first ever B-Innovative Burberry Hackathon based at their London headquarters.
The Hackathon was focused around sustainability and "Design for the Future". This was a really exciting day where we were split into groups with students from many different Universities across the UK. The students were also from various backgrounds such as Art, Fashion, Engineering and Product Design (such as myself) at Bachelors, Masters and PHD level . This gave a really interesting dynamic where we were able to create unique perspectives and build many outside-the-box ideas.
The day involved a huge amount of teamwork, as well as rapid prototyping, ideas generation and, required strong presenting skills. It was a really hands on experience that required us to work to short deadlines and make pieces that represented our ideas, allowing us to explain them to others effectively, in a very small timeframe.
Our group decided to go for a more metaphorical approach, creating a theoretical dystopian universe that the "Future Design" may need to cater for, which we later used our technical knowledge to support. Taking this perspective really stood out against the other groups who had taken a more literal interpretation of the brief, and resulted in my team achieving 2nd place.
See more about the day on the Burberry Website here
*Due to signing the NDA I am unable to attach any photos or information about our designs during the event however I am aware that there may be footage from the day uploaded online at some point in the future, which I will link to this site when possible*
