Hong Kong Metropolitan University (HKMU) held its first “HKMU Hackathon” recently, attracting about 100 students to participate in the event, which provided a series of pre-competition networking and training workshops to nurture the students' creative ideas. In the two-day main Hackathon event, held on 9 and 10 January, 10 finalist teams presented unique and innovative solutions to compete for the awards.

The competition had five finalist teams competing on each theme – “Aging Population” and “Environmental and Cultural Sustainability” – for the first-, second- and third-place prizes.

After several rounds, the champions were chosen. The winner in the “Aging Population” category proposed collaborating with enterprises with a large number of older employees to provide interest classes, taught by young people, and emotional support services for their older employees. The aim of the project is to expand the social network of the elderly and promote cross-generational integration. In the “Environmental and Cultural Sustainability” category, the champions proposed a “New Hongkongers Cultural Exchange Centre” to help Mainland students integrate effectively into Hong Kong society. The Centre would line up host families for newly arrived Mainland students, and arrange for older residents to be “teachers” to take good care of the students and help them learn Cantonese and more about Hong Kong. The solution may promote cultural integration between Hong Kong and the mainland China and at the same time, help the older people rejoin the workforce and boost their self-esteem.

HKMU Vice President (Research & Student Development) Prof. Ricky Kwok Yu-kwong commended the participating teams for their outstanding presentations within a short period of time. He said, “We were delighted to have about 100 students participate in the competition, which was designated to engage students in a short period of time to come up with creative and innovative solutions to address problems. Rather than having them design new software, our goal was to inspire the students to think structurally to solve problems, thereby stimulating their creativity. In fact, many employers value this 'soft skill' when assessing talent. Creative thinking is a crucial skill for both career development and entrepreneurship.” Prof. Kwok said he hoped that the event would continue to provide a platform for students to realise and optimise innovative ideas and contribute to the nurturing of talent.