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The second edition is on 16 to 18 March
Design a solution to problems around the theme ‘2050’ within 32 hours: with this assignment, student hackathon HEX will attract hundreds of Dutch and international students to Eindhoven in mid-March.

The students have to come up with a solution for a challenge they have chosen in teams of five people. This solution is developed into a prototype, with a winning design being chosen by a jury at the end of the weekend. The second edition – from 16 to 18 March – is open to students of all educational institutions and disciplines.

HEX has room for 300 students, but more than 700 have already registered. To a large extent, the applications come from the Netherlands, but also from England, Russia, Finland and 61 other countries. Compared to last year, the number of registrations has tripled, says team member Vincent van Mouche. “In the last few months, we saw HEX really come together.” HEX is a free event in which food and drink are facilitated for the entire weekend. In addition, participants receive a travel allowance. Ultimately, 150 students from the Netherlands and 150 from abroad will be selected.

The theme ‘2050’ will have 10 different tracks: E-homes, VR & AR, Robotics, Smart Cities, Future Society, Entertainment, Artificial Intelligence, Education, Healthtech and Future Mobility. The challenges for these tracks are facilitated by various companies such as Accenture, VDL, and TNO. These are also the main sponsors of the event. The organization itself consists of volunteers. This year’s location is the Veemgebouw.

The aim of the hackathon is not only to solve a submitted problem but also to promote student self-development. “There are just some things you cannot learn in a classroom”, the members of Team HEX say. They themselves are also fervent participants in hackathons. Ranice Janssen: “It was an enormous boost for both my network and problem-solving ability, but above all, I just had a great time with my team.”

You can register via the website www.joinhex.com and for more information HEX can also be found on Facebook.