Teams of Master's students from Lancaster University Management School (LUMS) impressed representatives from industry during a two-day workshop which saw them create compelling business plans for a fictional cyber resilience challenge.

Twenty-nine LUMS students, who are all studying for an MSc in Digital Business, Innovation & Management (DBIM) or an MSc in Project Management, were required to collaborate, network, and think on their feet to come up with sound business cases and innovative solutions to a fictional scenario.

The event, held on 15 and 16 March, saw academia and industry come together in the form of a ‘hackathon’– a type of collaborative workshop where teams work together in a short timeframe to propose technical improvements and solutions for digital transformation.

The hackathon has been run successfully for the second year as an integrated part of the MSc DBIM programme in LUMS.

In addition to being required to create and present a business to their peers, tutors and representatives from Fujitsu and Kingfisher on day one of the hackathon, the students were further challenged by being given live interjections throughout of simulated ‘live’ events that were challenging their fictional business. This tested their real-time reactions and resilience.

The panel of judges – comprising of representatives from Kingfisher and Fujitsu – were impressed by the students’ contributions and during the closing session, presented the winning group comprising of Ashna Naqvi, Azusa Imakawa, Stian Engbakken and Vanessa Chan, with £250 prize money.

The winning team pictured with the judges

LUMS’ Dr Uzair Shah, Programme Director of the MSc Digital Business, Innovation & Management (DBIM) said: “The Hackathon workshop was an excellent opportunity for our students to collaborate with leading practitioners and develop insights into issues regarding cyber-security and digital transformation from a technical as well as organisational perspective. Fujitsu and Kingfisher representatives were impressed with the way our students engaged with the workshop-task, and offered extremely positive feedback about the quality of work the students produced. Our students also found the workshop to be a great developmental activity, and all such experiences will support them with university-to-work transition.”

To find out more about studying for an MSc in Digital Business, Innovation & Management (DBIM) visit: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/lums/our-departments/management-science/masters/msc-digital-business-innovation-and-management-/