University of Southampton named winner of European hackathon series
Student hackers from the University of Southampton have been named the winners of the Major League Hacking (MLH) Europe Hackathon Season.
The University topped a leader board of over 150 European institutions in its debut entry to the series thanks to its high-achieving, 36-hour Hack the South competition.
Hackathons challenge small teams to work intensely over a weekend on a new website, app or device that is then presented for feedback and prizes.
The MLH Europe Hackathon Season, which ran from August 2018 to July 2019, included over 5,000 hackers creating more than 1,000 projects in 32 events across the continent.
Universities earn points toward their final ranking through a combination of merit points awarded for winning builds and participation points received from entering hackathon events.
Alexandru Rosianu, 2018-19 HackaSoton President, says, “Southampton is a great place for hacking. Since I joined in 2016, every year I saw tons of enthusiastic students learning new technologies and building crazy ideas. It’s a great place to be, especially with the Future Worlds accelerator ready to take hackathon-winners to the next level.
“I had always considered Hack the South a massive success, but it is an amazing surprise to be named the best MLH hackathon in Europe. I'd like to highlight the team's dedication — we all had coursework and third year projects, but we really, really wanted to make it happen.”
Over 150 people participated in Hack the South 2019, with the bumper turnout requiring an entire truck of food, snacks and drinks to be delivered to fuel the hungry participants. The event, which was co-organised by HackaSoton and the Fish on Toast entrepreneurship and business society, included over £2,000 in prizes for the judges’ pick of the top three teams.
“HackaSoton is focused on teaching tech and entrepreneurship skills through tech events,” Alexandru says. “Hack the South 2019 was my 13th hackathon and I still enjoy the thrills of working (almost) non-stop for a weekend to show a presentable product at the end. The group is looking for new committee members to build on this year’s success and everyone is welcome.”
English universities dominated the top 10 places of the Official 2019 Europe MLH Hackathon Season, with King’s College London and Coventry University maintaining their second and third finishes respectively. The University of Cambridge rose four places to 10th, while the University of Surrey climbed 39 places to 8th. The complete season’s standings are available on the MLH website.