The winning team created Lighthouse, a platform that uses Microsoft Azure AI to guide students through career planning by identifying their strengths, interests and skills gaps, before generating personalised recommendations and development opportunities.
The hackathon took place at Loughborough campus on 11 May and brought together students from universities across the Midlands. Organised by Microsoft in partnership with the Digital Technologies Network, the event challenged participants to develop innovative AI-powered solutions within a single day.
Loughborough’s team consisted of second-year Computer Science and AI student Heechan Yang, alongside Charlot Eberlein (Computer Science), Antrea Antonia Mavrommati (Product Design Engineering), Hanaa Babrakar (Commercial Management & Quantity Surveying) and Lena Krämer (Robotics).
The idea for Lighthouse emerged after the team discussed common challenges faced by students. Rather than immediately turning to AI to generate concepts, they focused on identifying a genuine problem affecting their peers.
Heechan explained: “We noticed that too many students leave career planning until their final year, when the pressure suddenly builds. We wanted to create something that encourages students to think about their future much earlier and gives them practical guidance on how to get there.”
Built in just five hours during the hackathon, Lighthouse conducts an interactive interview with users before generating tailored opportunities, comparing potential career pathways and recommending relevant modules, courses and work experience opportunities to help students achieve their goals.
Following an initial round of presentations, the Lighthouse team was selected to progress to the final stage, where they pitched in front of all participants and judges before being announced as the overall winners.
Since their victory, the team have been invited to present Lighthouse at Microsoft's offices later this summer and are now working to further develop and refine the platform ahead of the pitch.
Heechan said this was the fourth hackathon he’s taken part in. The first three didn't go the way he’d hoped with no wins. He said: “If there's one thing I'd want another student to take from this, it's that the first three times not working out didn't mean I was bad at this, it meant I hadn't won yet.
“The only way to guarantee you don't win is to stop showing up. If you've been rejected from something you wanted, or it feels like the wins always go to other people, keep going. The breakthrough is closer than it feels.”