Business-Academia Hackathon 2026

Generative AI is transforming organizations, but successful implementation depends on more than technology. Companies face human, organizational, legal, and ethical challenges when adopting GenAI in real-world settings.

UZH.ai is hosting a two-day Business–Academia Hackathon to bring together students, researchers, companies, and industry mentors to develop practical, human-centered solutions to these challenges.

• 22nd - 23rd October 2026

• Bluelion, Zurich

• Challenge Submission: Partner companies from various sectors submit concrete business challenges related to genAI adoption (e.g., AI training, preserving critical thinking, automation burnout challenges, and technostress, personalizing customer service, optimizing document management, compliance, data protection and privacy, transparency, liability issues, risk management, “human-in-the-loop” approaches).
   
• Team Formation: Interdisciplinary teams of students (from computer science, data science, business, design, law, and social sciences) will be formed around these challenges.
   
• The Hackathon: Over two days, teams will work to develop prototype solutions. The event will be supported by mentors from both academia and industry, who will provide strategic guidance. The hackathon will conclude with team presentations to a jury of academic and industry experts and awarded prizes.

Dr. Thilo Eckardt will facilitate the full two-day event, structuring sessions, guiding participants through the design thinking process, keeping the schedule on track, and more. Dr. Eckardt is co-founder of MyLearningBoutique, a Swiss consultancy helping organizations turn strategic change into people capability. For over 20 years, he has advised companies across sectors on future readiness, talent strategy, and organizational transformation. He is an associated senior lecturer at HEC Lausanne and EPFL and a frequent international conference speaker. 

• Keynote 1: Prof. Dr. Lauren Howe, Department of Business Administration, University of Zurich.  

Dr. Howe’s research focuses on how individuals and organizations can harness fundamentally human attributes – such as emotion, empathy, and social relationships – to improve the world of work as rapid advances in technology and other forces change it. During the keynote talk, she will talk about the current state-of-the-art research in organizational behavior on how AI implementation affects human work. 

• Keynote 2: Tünde Lukacs, Keynote speaker, AI leadership expert, and executive coach. 

Tünde Lukacs is the founder of The Change Republic, an AI-native leadership development firm in Switzerland. She is an ex-Partner at EY, leading transformation and innovation programs across Europe, and a certified coach, connecting people and technology. Today, she works with companies and senior leaders on the human side of AI. She is a TEDx speaker and a University of Zurich alumna. 

During the talk, she will challenge the popular advice that lets AI do the work while you keep the judgment. She will show why that advice has one flaw, and why that flaw decides how much control you actually keep: judgment is built by doing the work, not by approving someone else's output. She will offer a practical look at where AI adoption really stalls inside companies, and at what each of us can do, individually and as teams, to take control back instead of surrendering it by default. She will close with a set of questions that participants can take straight into their own challenge work 

Mentors from academia and business will be available throughout the hackathon to support teams as they move from idea to concrete strategy. 

• Dr. Thilo Eckardt, Organizational Development and Transformation Expert, co-founder of MyLearningBoutique, associated senior lecturer at HEC Lausanne and EPFL. 

• Nina Bessei, Organizational & Leadership Developer, ex-Bain, -Migros, and -ZKB. 

• Antoine Logean, University of Zurich, Project lead UZH AI Buddy, ex-Swiss Re.

• Michael Wechner, University of Zurich Digital Lab, CEO at Katie/Founder of Wyona. 

• Christian Huder, Coach and Consultant for high Impact Leaders and Organizations, Founder of  Unison Labs & innergy.berlin. 

• Dr. David Schmocker, University of Zurich, Community Team Lead for Teaching Development. 

• Nick Kabrel, University of Zurich, PhD Candidate in Organizational Psychology, UZH.ai Hub Community Coordinator. 

The following organizations are contributing challenges to this year's hackathon: 

• DSV Switzerland 
• Swiss Re 
• Syngenta 
• Hyatt 
• KPMG 

Each company has a unique real-world challenge that reflects its ongoing work with AI in the company. Topics are quite broad, ranging from communication strategies to organizational readiness for enterprise-wide AI agent deployment, from building agent-driven team structures for dynamic, fast-moving markets, to designing intelligence systems that help leaders turn scattered stakeholder and performance data into clear, evidence-based decisions. A concrete description of challenges will be announced at the hackathon itself. 

Why come? 

• Prizes and company gifts are awarded to the top teams at the close of the event. 
• Direct networking with mentors and representatives from large international companies. 
• A pathway to employment. Strong performance can lead to further conversations about internships or entry-level roles with participating companies, potentially helping you implement your solutions in the company over the long term. 
• Practical experience working on a real challenge submitted by an organization, rather than a simulated case study, with feedback from people who work on these problems professionally. 
• Delicious free food, lunches, snacks, and drinks will be provided throughout the event. 

Why stay for both days?

The hackathon is structured so that the value builds across the full two days: day one covers the challenge briefing, empathizing with the problem, ideation, and an early prototype; day two is dedicated to iterating on that prototype, building the pitch, and presenting it live to a jury for direct feedback. Leaving partway through means missing the mentoring, the pitch feedback, and the prize ceremony, which are where most of the concrete takeaways happen. The closing session also includes informal mingling with company representatives, which has been a starting point for internship conversations in past UZH hackathons. 

Students can apply as a team of four to seven people or individually.

We prefer teams to form in advance of the event, since interdisciplinary challenges work best when a group has already discussed roles and working style before day one; individual applicants are still welcome and will be placed into a team if places allow. Because the challenges are interdisciplinary, teams should include people from different academic and professional backgrounds. Teams made up of a single discipline will not be accepted. 

The hackathon is open to University of Zurich Bachelor's (2nd year onward), Master's, and PhD students from all disciplines who are interested in how generative AI is changing the way people work, decide, collaborate, and build trust. No coding skills are required. We welcome students from psychology, design, computer science, business, law, philosophy, economics, the social sciences, and beyond. 

You will work on a real challenge contributed by a partner organization, with mentorship from industry and academic experts throughout. Prizes and company gifts are awarded at the close of the event, and strong teams may be invited to continue developing their solution afterward, in some cases leading to a follow-up internship. Delicious food, pizza, snacks, and (caffeinated) drinks are provided throughout the event. Filming crew from UZH will be present on the first day, shooting the process and some interviews (if you are not comfortable being filmed, indicate so in the application or approach us at the event). 

Registration for the Business Academia Hackathon 2026 is now open!

Deadline: Sunday, 11 October 2026 at 23:59. 

To apply, submit the registration form with your team details (or as an individual applicant) before the deadline. Places are limited, and teams that register early and arrive already formed will receive priority consideration. In addition, we ask for a brief motivation that will also be considered during preselection.  

Registration 

The hackathon is initiated by UZH.ai and supported by: 

UZH Innovation Hub

Data Innovation Alliance.

Digital Society Initiative University of Zurich 

AI [at] uzh.ch