Green Tech Jam – 2024

The Green Tech Jam runs over 12 weeks, engaging Computer Science students in a series of lectures, practical workshops, and guest talks. Students collaborate in teams to develop web applications with a focus on social impact. These web applications address specific problem statements aligned with one or more of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), aiming to create tangible solutions for real-world challenges. At the end, students present their completed web applications to a panel of judges comprising industry professionals, representatives from charitable organisations, and academia.

First place: Common Cents

Common Cents is a fun and educational web application with the aim of teaching young people healthy money habits to implement into their daily lives. It is an idle simulation integrated with quizzes. Additionally, there is a budget tracker which the user can input their real-life spending to understand more about their personal finances.

Students:

Rupanshu Singh – Computer Science
Athavi Sivakumaran – Computer Science
Saul Roche – Computer Science
Sharmika Nirmalan – Computing and Information Technology
William Bang – Computer Science
Mohammed Mkharam – Computing and Information Technology

Prize awarded: £1,500

Second place: Eunoias

Eunoias solves the problem of nurturing a healthy workforce with a platform for companies to help improve their employee’s mental health (via the counsellor) while maintaining professionalism. This app has many features including mental health assessments, an intervention system in which counsellors can help employees facing challenges, and a leaderboard to promote healthy competition which in turn, helps each user. Managers with admin permissions will also have a dashboard with moderative capabilities. The user will also have a dashboard showing statistics, articles and challenges.

Students:

Ismaeel Anjum – Computer Science
Aran Jannson – Computer Science
Alex Horgan – Computer Science
Karl Posnett – Computer Science
Naim Ali – Computer Science
John Nicholas Nor – Computer Science

Prize awarded: £1,000

Third place: Empower Events

Empower Events is a platform for disabled users to find accessible events for them and to be able to leave feedback for to charity to make improvements. This will allow disabled people to have a voice in the activity’s created for them – on a website especially designed to fit all their needs.

Students:

Thomas Draper – Computer Science
Omar Houchou – Computer Science
Miles Legood – Computer Science
Sam Ivuerah – Computer Science
Matthew Dawson – Computer Science
Nishita Chandani – Computer Science

Prize awarded: £500

Positive feedback

The EIBC fund holds significant value for our students. It is integrated into the curriculum as part of one of our compulsory modules (Software Engineering Project in Year 2) for BSc Computer Science and BSc Computing and Information Technology courses. Despite its mandatory nature, students had the choice to participate in the Green Tech Jam competition, yet all opted in, attending extra sessions as needed to refine their ideas and web applications with front- and back-end development. They applied web development tools learned in Semester 1 of Year 2, collaborating on real web applications addressing problem statements aligned with sustainable goals. These statements, suggested by industry experts, charities, or academic staff, reflected real-world challenges, highlighting the impact of students’ efforts.

Throughout this competition and the introduction of an innovative hackathon-style teaching within the module, students developed crucial skills such as teamwork, problem-solving and project management beyond web development, all essential for their job readiness and employability. The EIBC fund and monetary prizes motivated engagement throughout the module, and also encouraged the winning teams to consider developing their projects further over the summer break.

Stella Kazamia
Senior Lecturer and Director of Employability
University of Surrey