Hackabury 2025: Hackathon | Games Jam

In May 2025, the University hosted its first Hackathon | Games Jam, Hackabury 2025, bringing together students, alumni, academic staff, and industry leaders for a 24-hour challenge to spark innovation and collaboration. 

The event welcomed 88 students from across the Faculty of Science, Engineering, and Social Sciences, and Creative Arts and Industries, and teams developed 25 unique solutions to real-world business challenges posed by industry sponsors.

Student teams tackled problems under time pressure, and solutions included applications for financial literacy, AI-driven onboarding tools, gamified cybersecurity training, and customer engagement platforms.

Industry partners included Romax Digital, Southeastern, Holiday Extras, Wave Community Bank, Barclays Life Skills, Dovetail Games, Google, Hootsuite, and the British Computing Society. 

Jordan Pettman, Senior Data Analysis Manager at Southeastern, commented: “I was blown away by the creativity, it was amazing to watch ideas come to life. I've been reflecting a lot on how powerful group sessions free from traditional restraints can be in truly driving ideas and creativity.”

Stefanie Kennett, People Executive at Holiday Extras, said: “It was great to see so much passion, collaboration and innovation packed into a short space of time.”

The winning concepts were judged by a panel of industry professionals and alumni.

FixFury, a team of MSc Data Intelligence students, were awarded first place overall for their intelligent tool developed in response to the Holiday Extras brief - aimed at helping customers personalise their travel experiences based on preferences and needs. 

Nazish Riaz, MSc Data Intelligence student at Canterbury Christ Church University, was part of the team awarded first place for their task with Holiday Extras.

“We completed this task within 24 hours, utilising programming languages like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, and embraced the hackathon spirit of collaboration and innovation using Devpost.

“We also provided some development solutions for this add-on using machine learning. The Hackabury Program was an incredible experience where we learned about website integrations and many other valuable skills.”

Hackabury provided a range of student and professional development opportunities and involved one-to-one career advice from industry professionals, industry-led workshops, freelance and employment opportunities and exclusive industry visits.

Oliver Bryant, Alumni Judge and Cyber Threat Intelligence Consultant, commented on the event: “I was impressed with the amazing applications and technology students developed in 24 hours,” he said.

“Students developed UMLs, Diagrams, storyboards, applications, demos and presentations all in a short space of time. Those who participated have made a fantastic impression on the professional industry.”

Two teams have been invited to Holiday Extras HQ for further workshops, and two teams will be collaborating with Barclays Eagle Labs, expanding their professional networks and developing their projects further, as well as exploring graduate and potential career paths.

Platinum Sponsor, Romax Digital, will be offering a 3-month paid internship to a standout student completing or entering the final year of a Computer Science or Software Development-related degree in 2025. 

Rune Painter, first-year Software Engineering Student, spoke about the "incredible experience, commending the talent and passion from all the participants, which was special and rewarding".

Prizes awarded included: 

• Overall 1st Place Winners: FixFury, An Anker Powerbank each and an invitation to Holidays Extras HQ for an AI-based workshop with their Software Engineers  

• Overall 2nd Place Winners: Fourmula, An Anker Bluetooth speaker and a £50 Amazon Voucher each (provided by Romax Digital)

• Overall 3rd Place Winners: Sticky Amoebas, £10 STEAM Vouchers (provided by Wave Community Banking) and a Tamagotchi each 

• Challenge Winners:  
  • Holiday Extras: FixFury – Winners 
    • Temporary Fix – Runners Up (prize: an invitation to Holidays Extras HQ for an AI-based workshop with their Software Engineers) 
  • Romax Digital: Fourmula 
  • Barclays Life Skills: Gandalfs Gateway (prize: 5 days of co-working at Barclays Eagle Lab and a 1:1 business workshop) 
  • Wave Community Bank: Sticky Amoebas 
  • Southeastern: CRT ALT DEFEAT (prize: 2 weeks of free train travel on Southeastern) 
  • Overall Theme Winners: Rougelike Pint Drinkers (prize: a set of wireless earbuds each) 
• Honourable mentions:  
  • Team Slime 
  • Haunted Picture Productions 
  • Bingus & Friends 
  • RatKing Studios 
  • Mankar Fanclub (Runners up in Barclays Challenge and a prize of 2 days of co-working at Barclays Eagle Labs) 
  • Market Crashers
  • Dr Burger PHD Esq. (Runners up in Wave Challenge and a prize of STEAM Vouchers provided by Wave Community Banking) 

Special thanks to iGaming who provided funding for the event.

Based in Varna and with offices across several European countries, iGaming is a fast-growing digital media and lead generation company specializing in affiliate marketing. The team creates and operates informative, user-friendly websites to connect users with trusted online platforms and services. By focusing on innovation, performance and responsible practices through their iGamingCare program, they are helping to shape a more sustainable future for the gaming industry.

Find out more about Hackabury 2025