Learning Futures Hackathon 21–22 May 2026 – Join us in building the future of learning!

Finnish higher education institutions have built a shared data platform that brings together data related to higher education and learners in a new way. The platform holds enormous potential, and its full capabilities have not yet been realized. At the Learning Futures Hackathon, participants will work together to explore how this data can benefit learners, higher education institutions, and society.
Hackathon gathers together students and professionals to develope future learning

Shared data in action – what can we build from it?

The Learning Futures Hackathon, taking place in May on the Aalto University campus, focuses on exploring how the higher education data platform and the data can be used. The goal is to identify and demonstrate use cases for the platform and its data, as well as to make potential solutions more concrete.

Teams will have access to a realistic mock version of higher education data and will build a POC (proof of concept) or prototype based on it. Solutions may relate to, for example:

  • learning navigation
  • AI-assisted guidance
  • support services for students and lifelong learners
  • ecosystem-level innovations built on shared data

During the two intensive days, participants will work with the support of mentors, develop their solutions, and pitch them to a jury at the end of the event. The working language of the hackathon is English.

Who can participate?

Learning Futures is an open hackathon. Students, professionals, career changers, teachers, designers, researchers and lifelong learners are all welcome to apply.

You can apply as a team of 3-5 people or join individually. If you apply on your own, teams will be formed before the event. Your educational background, degree level or current job situation does not matter. However, a basic understanding of data, artificial intelligence or service development is an advantage. The best ideas often emerge through collaboration across disciplines. Your perspective can focus on, for example, technology, design, pedagogy, business or societal impact.

Up to ten teams will be selected to participate. The selection will be based on the teams’ multidisciplinary composition, their technical capability to participate in the hackathon and the vision demonstrated in the pre-assignment, which is part of the application.

What’s in it for participants?

The winning teams will receive targeted mentoring sessions with the event’s partners.

In addition, hackathon offers:

  • hands-on experience in using data and AI tools
  • mentoring from experienced experts
  • opportunities to network with professionals from the higher education and technology sectors
  • valuable feedback from a multidisciplinary jury

The hackathon jury consists of experienced and highly regarded experts with strong expertise in both industry practices and the evaluation of innovations. Members include, among others

  • Risto Siilasmaa, Chairman, Founder & Investor
  • Susanna Niinistö-Sivuranta, President of Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences.
  • Mikael “Miklu” Silvanto, Chief Design Officer at Oura and Professor of Practice at Aalto University

Organizers

The Learning Futures Hackathon is organized by the Digivisio 2030 programme of Finnish higher education institutions in collaboration with Amazon Web Services, Solita, Lumi AI Factory, HigherEdHub Finland, and Futurice.

Read more on the event website

Apply by 1 April 2026 on Webpropol

Created 19.3.2026 | Updated 19.3.2026