UNHack 2024
Join us as we develop solutions to create a sustainable future.
November 15 – November 17
About UNHack 2024
UNHack 2024 is a community event for all undergrad post-secondary students to come together for an unforgettable weekend to try and solve some of the world’s greatest challenges.
You will take part in an experiential learning opportunity with the Lassonde School of Engineering BEST Program at York University, which will help you learn how you can solve some of the most important challenges facing our world.
We hope that this experience helps shift your perspective and encourages you to explore how you can address important global issues, reflect on your experiences, and challenge the existing norms and traditional career pathways.
Over the weekend, you will work to solve global challenges along with your team by following our structured design sprint methodology. With this methodology, you will be able to identify an important problem, develop a viable solution and build an implementation plan.
What’s in it for you?
- Discover your passion
- Learn how you can make a difference
- Connect with like-minded people
- Identify problems and develop solutions to solve it
- Understand desirability, feasibility and viability concept
- Foster teamwork and leadership skills
- Build your network with students, mentors and advisors
- Explore future career paths
Program Schedule
DAY 1
Friday, Nov 15th
5:00 pm – 10:30 pm
Introduction
Opportunity discovery
User need
Root cause analysis
DAY 2 am
Saturday morning, Nov 16th
8:30 am – 1:00 pm
Formulate a “How Might We” statement
Solution ideation
Solution selection
DAY 2 pm
Saturday afternoon, Nov 16th
1:30 pm – 9:00 pm
Solution validation/prototyping
Pitch & get feedback from mentor
Refine solution
Pitching
DAY 3
Sunday, Nov 17th
8:30 am – 4:00 pm
Preliminary pitches and feedback
Final judging
Closing ceremony and prize announcement
A few takeaways from UNHack 2023 participants
What’s the Design Sprint?
Learn about SDGs
Areas of Focus
Join as a mentor!
Mentorship is a key part of Experiential Learning activities as it provides the most value possible to students as they gain invaluable advice from an experienced person, and build their professional networks.
Mentors reinforce the Design Sprint process, facilitate teamwork and guide students through the process.
By becoming a mentor, you gain valuable experience, build meaningful relationships with other students and will enjoy interacting with aspiring entrepreneurs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Note: If you are not a post-secondary student, please contact the organizers to see how you might be able to take part in this event.
In addition, we will have some specific challenges available from our sponsors/partners. You can choose your challenge or use one of the available challenges (e.g. YorkU SDG challenges).
• Innovativeness,
• Desirability,
• Feasibility,
• Viability,
• Impact on sustainability,
• Presentation quality
In addition, the winning teams will be awarded to join the BEST Lab to access various resources such as mentorship, coaching, and connections to take their projects to further steps.
UNHack 2022
UNHack 2021
UNHack2020