As part of the StartupHack edition 1 initiative organised by the Gdańsk Science and Technology Park, students, doctoral students and people interested in startups and the commercialisation of innovation had the opportunity to present their skills in real business conditions. Seventeen teams took part in the 24-hour hackathon, which took place on March 21-22, 2025. The University of Gdańsk was represented by three interdisciplinary teams. The ‘Work In Progress’ team from the University of Gdańsk achieved great success (second place). Thanks to the participation in the StartupHack initiative, it was possible to promote and expand the scope of the TALENtBRIDGE programme, under which Univentum Labs and WMFiI UG develop the offer of student internships and support entrepreneurship and interdisciplinary cooperation of students.

StartupHack is a new initiative that enables participants to acquire the knowledge and skills needed to create a comprehensive startup. During the hackathon, any idea could be confronted with experienced mentors who have been guiding young innovators in the startup market for years.

Preparations - Pre-hackathon at the Institute of Computer Science, University of Gdańsk

On March 14, students from the Faculties of Mathematics, Physics and Computer Science, Management and Economics met at the Institute of Computer Science of the University of Gdańsk. The aim of the meeting was to present the objectives of the upcoming hackathon and to form preliminary teams representing the University of Gdańsk. Dr Magdalena Markiewicz, Vice-Dean for Development and Cooperation with the Socio-Economic Environment of the Faculty of Economics at the University of Gdańsk, presented the key aspects of business and marketing analysis and gave valuable advice on how to prepare professional presentations.

Dr Jakub Neumann, prof. UG, Vice-Dean for Development of the Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Computer Science at the University of Gdańsk, and dr hab. Development of the Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Computer Science at the University of Gdańsk, and dr hab. Sylwia Mrozowska, prof. UG, president of Univentum Labs, talked about the TALENtBRIDGE programme, under which Univentum Labs and WMFiI UG support entrepreneurship and interdisciplinary cooperation of students. Dr hab. Anna Dziadkiewicz, prof. UG, Vice-Dean for Internationalisation and Development of the Faculty of Management at the University of Gdańsk, was also involved in the cooperation and support of students.

Success of the ‘Work in Progress’ team at the Hackathon on March 21-22!

The main part of the event took place in the Gdańsk Science and Technology Park. It was there that 17 teams, including three representing the University of Gdańsk, competed for 24 hours. During the event, participants had the opportunity to choose one of two paths of action:

• Solving reported challenges - participants undertook to solve specific problems reported by the recipients of the technology.
• Open path - giving the opportunity to develop own ideas and projects.

The second place at StartupHack was won by the team ‘Work In Progress’ from the University of Gdańsk. The team consisted of:

• Filip Maćkowiak (third-year student of Practical Computer Science) - team leader, front-end specialist, leader of the L2B2 initiative,
• Ewelina Chrzanowska (third-year student of Finance and Accounting) - responsible for economic analysis, marketing and finance,
• Mateusz Pisański (2nd year student of Informatics and Econometrics) - deals with business relations and financing issues,
• Dawid Roszman (3rd year student of Practical Informatics) - chief application architect, full-stack programmer,
• Patryk Winczewski (3rd year student of Practical Informatics) - DevOps Engineer and computer graphic designer.

The Work In Progress team focused on the Port of Gdańsk, creating an innovative solution called Beacon. The Beacon application is an interactive map of land and building records in the port area, allowing users to add areas and key locations on the map and assign important information and documents to them. The demo and the planned further development of the application show how this tool can improve the decision-making process in the management of an extensive port infrastructure.

‘The hackathon itself brought us a lot of new and valuable experiences. We had the opportunity to talk to people who are in contact with business on a daily basis. Moreover, while preparing for the competition, we met new colleagues from other departments, and I sincerely hope that this was just the foundation of our growing cooperation,’ says Filip Maćkowiak.

The L2B2 leader adds that the team hopes to present their idea in front of the port in Gdańsk.

Other teams representing the University of Gdańsk

Hackatovo team

The Hackatovo team presented the Wisteria project, a dedicated dashboard web application for the perfumery and cosmetics industry, enabling integration with ERP/CRM systems, dropshipping automation and advanced sales analytics. The project stood out thanks to its unique loyalty programme, flexible financial model and functions supporting the pricing strategy. Team members: Tomasz Petrykowski, Dorota Duda, Paweł Żabczyński, Julia Śliżewska, Konrad Gregorowicz.

Team Hermes

As part of the Open track, the team presented the concept of a start-up of the BS Zalkier statistical office, offering qualitative surveys for local companies in Pomerania. Team members: Michał Witkowski, Wiktor Sieracki, Jakub Kunikowski, Arkadiusz Semmerling, Daniel Zaleski

During the event, the hackathon participants representing the University of Gdańsk could count on the support of dr hab. Sylwia Mrozowska, prof. UG, dr hab. Anna Dziadkiewicz, prof. UG, dr Jakub Neumann, prof. UG, dr Magdalena Markiewicz and Monika Adamczuk.

Congratulations to all the students who took part in the hackathon!