Earlier in 2024 we ran an event with the University of Liverpool for the Computer Science and Electronic, Electrical Engineering students. The event comprised of a hackathon, where students engage in a rapid and collaborative coding challenge over a set period of time.
One of the students who participated was Kieran. He was in his final year, and a few months later started working for us. When the University contacted us to ask if we would run another, Kieran leapt at the opportunity to create the challenge.
Participants faced the challenge of optimising delivery routes across various scenarios. Starting with straightforward tasks like planning the shortest paths between delivery points, they quickly advanced to more complex challenges, such as managing fuel stops and coordinating multiple vehicles. The ultimate goal was to successfully navigate all stages while minimising the total distance travelled by each vehicle. Each time a name appeared on the leader board ... they won a 'debugging duck'
Kieran thoroughly enjoyed pulling the task together and helping the students. It helped that he was in their position six months ago, and it was also great that students could see the opportunities that can arise from these events. Kieran explained “Hosting the Hackathon was a fantastic experience. As a former Computer Science student myself, I designed the challenge to be the kind of event I would have liked to participate in. The challenge required participants to tackle a series of problems under tight time constraints, demanding meticulous planning and time management skills. As the tasks grew in complexity requiring more intricate code, it quickly became clear that the later stages relied heavily on the decisions made during the initial stages. With students at different points in their academic journeys with a range of abilities, the focus wasn’t solely on topping the leader board—despite fierce competition for the top three spots! Instead, the atmosphere was about understanding the underlying problems for each stage and designing the solution methodically. The solutions were impressive, and lots of creative solutions emerged through the time pressure!”
There was a friendly competitive spirit to get onto the leader board and specifically to get in the top 3 to be in with a prize! The overall winner was Will, he commented “My experience at October’s hackathon was one I will not forget. The 4 problems posed were difficult but very applicable to real life, focusing on finding the shortest path given a set of locations a courier needs to visit. I used a greedy approach, in which at each location the courier navigates to the closest location it hasn’t yet visited, slightly modified for each of the 4 problems. Whilst simple, this solution was efficient and quick to put together and ended up coming on top.
At the event itself, the atmosphere was very collaborative and positive and the Ultamation team provided lots of help when needed. I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to attend and demonstrate my skills.”
We’ve had brilliant feedback from the event both in terms of the actual challenge, to the interaction from the Ultamation team with the students. So, although it takes a lot of effort to pull it together there is a huge benefit to all involved. From the University’s perspective, Paulina Kulakowska, Employability Officer said “I think the Hackathon was a fantastic opportunity for students to experience a technical challenge that they may not have been exposed to during their time at university. Such Hackathons allow students to think of innovative solutions to problem-solving with the addition of competitiveness - I think it takes them out of their comfort zone and helps them explore other ways of developing both transferable and technical skills. Most importantly for this Hackathon in particular, students had the opportunity to connect with a local company & alumni!”
The reason *we* do these events is that, firstly, it’s great to be involved in the University; it’s one of the reason we are based at Liverpool Science Park because we’re physically close to the University. Secondly, it’s a great way of raising our profile with the students. We are very aware that we are a small company who write (fun & interesting) software and there are much bigger players out there who might appear to have greater appeal when graduates are looking for a full time position. Lastly, it allows us to observe both current final year and future year students – not just for those who win the event (well done Will!) but also to see how students interact; do they help others, do they grab a pen and work things out on a whiteboard, do they persistently try and beat their best score or sit back in the glory once they’ve got to the top of the leader board?
Watch out for more Hackathons in the future and if you want to know more about careers at Ultamation contact
With special thanks to Bluesound who provided first prize of a Bluetooth speaker and to Sciontec who let us use their fantastic office space (available to hire) in Liverpool Science Park just down the road from the University.
