Real challenges and innovative solutions at the Santalucía Impulsa Universities Hackathon
On April 8, under the Santalucía Impulsa Universities program, we held a hackathon with six educational centers in which viable, monetizable projects with a great strategic impact were developed for Santalucía Seguros. We'll tell you about it.
Which universities participated in the hackathon?
At Santalucía Impulsa Universities, we challenge young talent to, through entrepreneurship, provide solutions to real problems of the Santalucía Group. To this end, until now we have collaborated with a few universities, but the number is getting larger.
The hackathon modality has started to expand in this edition. In order to work with a larger number of universities attached to the program, we have chosen this type of “competition” from among them.
Specifically, the six universities that participated in the hackathon and the corresponding grades from which the students came were:
· Camilo José Cela University (Degree in Entrepreneurship and Business Management).
· Francisco de Vitoria University (Degree in ADE and Digital Transformation).
· San Jorge University (Degree in ADE +Law).
· Pontifical University of Comillas (Double Degree in Business Administration and Management and International Relations /University Master's Degree in Business Analytics).
· ESIC (Higher Degree in Entrepreneurship and Innovation).
· Rey Juan Carlos University (Degree in International Relations/Double Degree in International Relations +Economics/Double Degree in Telecommunication Technology Engineering +Aerospace Engineering in Aeronavigation/ADE/ADE + Marketing).
Dynamics of the Santalucía Hackathon Impulsa Universities
The 42 students from the six universities mentioned above attended the LAB with the same purpose: to solve a challenge proposed by the company by developing a scalable value proposition.
The teams were comprised of six members, a mentor, and a LeInner. It should be clarified that LEINN is the official university degree in Entrepreneurial Leadership and Innovation from TeamLabs/, a company with which Santalucía Impulsa collaborates and which was also present during this day. The LeInners participated as facilitators of the innovation process in the development of the projects.
From the same TeamLabs/ team, Javi Larrea and María Piferrer guided and energized the session with the Design Sprint methodology. For 8 hours, the students completed the following phases: understanding, diverging, deciding (the value proposition or business model), prototyping, validating and, finally, presenting their projects.
The challenges faced by the students at the hackathon
After making the official presentations and after learning about the methodology with which the students were going to work, the assignment of challenges took place. A total of three challenges (one for every two universities) focused on real company problems.
Challenge 1: solutions focused on social mobility
The first challenge was to create innovative and accessible mobility solutions for the family, improving their safety and quality of life.
He was assigned to the Camilo José Cela University And to the Francisco de Vitoria University.
Challenge 2: solutions focused on social sustainability
The second challenge was about innovating to offer solutions that facilitate the adoption of sustainable habits among customers, making sustainability attractive and easy to integrate into daily life.
He was assigned to the San Jorge University and to the University Pontifical pontificate of Comillas.
Challenge 3: insurance-focused solutions for young people
The third and final challenge focused on designing innovative, accessible and personalized insurance solutions for young people. These had to be adapted to their digital, work and social reality, also taking into account their potential payers.
This was assigned to ESIC Already the Rey Juan Carlos University.
The value propositions of the Santalucía Impulsa Universities Hackathon
After intense hours of teamwork, creativity and innovation, the teams found the solution to the challenges.
Thanks to Lovable, a text-to-application conversion tool that allows you to create functional applications without programming knowledge, the students managed to turn their value proposition, their idea, into something tangible like an app or a landing page that could even be navigated.
This prototype was shown at the presentation of their projects, to complement their elevator pitch. And that's how the six universities presented their business model to a jury composed of members of the Santalucía Group, who would later choose three of those six proposals to continue until the program's semifinal. The solutions presented were:
· Santalucía Impulsa Mobility from the Camilo José Cela University.
· Routed of the Francisco de Vitoria University.
· LynxFund of the San Jorge University.
· ECOLEGA from the University of Comillas.
· Zenda from ESIC.
· Tech&Care of the Rey Juan Carlos University.
The final decision of the jury
After a deliberation that evaluated the innovation and originality of the product or service, the demand in the market and its level of adaptation to the customer's needs, the quality and scalability of the business model, the potential for long-term income and benefits, the viability in the implementation and the team's ability to explain the project, the jury made a decision.
The three proposals that went on to the next phase were ECOLEGA from the University of Comillas, Zenda of ESIC and Tech&Care of the URJC.
These three projects will compete in the semifinal of Santalucía Impulsa Universities, which will be held on June 17, with 5 other university proposals. That day, three finalist proposals will come out again, which will enter an acceleration phase from June to October. And, finally, in the grand final event, which will take place in November, those three proposals will compete for the cash prize, which can only go to one of them.
For now, and whatever proposals reach the final, these types of initiatives help us to value and appreciate young talent, their commitment and their capacity for innovation and creation of disruptive ideas.
First Hackathon with the Pontifical University of Comillas
Before holding this hackathon with six universities, we brought together 42 students from the Pontifical University of Comillas (specifically the Degree in Business Administration and Management, and the Degree in Business Administration and Management together with the Business Analytics degree), who came to the LAB to carry out a similar activity.
This time, the challenges were focused on different customer lifestyles, the customer cybersecurity and financial education for young people. And, based on the Design Thinking methodology, the students developed a value proposition and a business model with next testing steps.
After evolving each challenge to a minimum viable product, a jury also made up of people from the company evaluated the proposals, and chose 3 winners who will also go to the semifinal of Santalucía Impulsa Universities.
As you can see, there is university talent, and a lot. You just have to find it.
