First Round Details

1st Round Marketing Analytics Hackathon 2026
Inter-University teams selection.

Date: By the 30th of May (10am – 6pm) - each university will decide its own dates (Oxford Brookes University, Queen Mary University of London,  the University of Exeter, Cardiff University, the University of Surrey).
Contact your co-ordinating faculty for more details and logistics of this stage 1.

Teams: teams are composed by 4–5 students, can also be a mix of UG and PG students.
There will be a maximum of 2 teams per university to be selected for the 2nd and final round Intra-University Hackathon on 11 June 2026 at Oxford Brookes Business School.

Round 1 timeline – It can be conducted in person or online the decision will be left to each university.

o 09:30 am: Event kickoff and keynote by an academic

o 10:00 am: Problem statement briefing and dataset distribution. Round 1 dataset will be differnt from round 2 dataset

o 10:30 am - 4:00 pm: Hacking sessions (bring drinks and lunch to have them during the session)

o 4:00 pm: Submission of solutions

o 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm: Team presentations (10-minute pitches + Q&A)

o 6:00 pm – 6:30pm: Selecting two teams and closing remarks 

Judging criteria

1. Analytical rigor (30%): Depth of data analysis and interpretation

2.   Academic rigor (10%): Problematisation of phenomenon and critical reasoning

3. Innovation (20%): Creativity and uniqueness of the proposed solution

4. Practical applicability (20%): Relevance and feasibility of the solution

5. Presentation (10%): Clarity, storytelling, and engagement during the pitch

6. Team collaboration (10%): Effective teamwork and communication

Note about AI and ethics:
Students are allowed to use AI as a "critical friend" for coding or enhancing research and reasoning, but not for uploading the dataset and have AI interpretation and analysis. Also, any written text or presentation notes and images/charts cannot be provided by a chatbot but must be human conceived and written and generated by the use of software or coding. The dataset will be provided under GDPR regulation and must be considered confidential and reserved, not to be shared outside the competing teams or online or with chatbot/AI agents.
When teams present their works and outcomes in the final round, “a Declaration on the ethical use of AI and compliance with the Hackathon AI guidelines” at the end of the presentation has to be provided (one slide).