UK’s largest student-led behavioural science hackathon returning to London

6 April 2023

This year the UCL Behavioural Innovations Society has partnered with the LSE Behavioural and Psychological Science Society to deliver Nudgeathon 2023; their biggest event to date!

Returning to London this April is the UK’s largest student-led behavioural science hackathon. This year the UCL Behavioural Innovations Society has partnered with the LSE Behavioural and Psychological Science Society to deliver their biggest event to date. Nudgeathon 2023 will see teams compete to develop innovative solutions to a real-life behaviour change challenge, within just 48 hours!

Sitting at the bridge between academia and applied behavioural science, Nudgeathon brings together the leading companies and brightest young minds in the field. The Nudgeathon concept was conceived by Dr. Umar Taj with the purpose of leveraging diversity, knowledge and crowdsourcing to create new and exciting solutions to existing problems. Umar holds a PhD in Behavioural Science from Warwick Business School, a MSc in Decision Science from London School of Economics and Political Science and is currently a Director at one of Nudgeathon 2023’s partner organisations, CogCo. CogCo combines insights and methodologies from the three interrelated disciplines of behavioural science, design and data science to test and develop ideas that work. Nudgeathon is also partnering with Ogilvy Consulting’s behavioural science practice, digital behaviour change firm, People Squared Solutions, behavioural science consultancies, BeWay and Cowry Consulting, debiased hiring solutions firm, Applied and behavioural data analytics service for investment managers, Essentia Analytic.

As we countdown to Nudgeathon 2023, which kicks off on the 12^th of April, participants are itching to find out what this year’s challenge will be. Last year’s brief was set in collaboration with Cogo and saw teams tackle the multifaceted problem - “How can banks use carbon footprint and climate action data to encourage the average consumer to switch to lower carbon spending decisions?” This year’s brief is currently under lock and key, but we can reveal that it has been devised in partnership with CogCo under the ethos of nudging for good!

Each team will be assigned an experienced mentor from the field of behavioural science to offer practical behaviour change advice through the pitch development process. Once the teams have envisioned a behavioural intervention to the problem brief, their pitches will be judged by a stellar panel of judges from both academia and industry. Past judges have included Vice Chairman of Ogilvy and Ted Talk sensation, Rory Sutherland, Vice President of Ideas 42, Erin Sherman and Principle Behavioural Scientist for the Department for Transport, Pete Dyson.

The successful team that wins the praise of our judges will not only earn fame and glory, but will also receive a bounty of jaw-dropping prizes. This year the UCL and LSE Nudgeathon have teamed up with People Squared Solutions to offer a spectacular main prize. Drum roll please….! The winning team of Nudgeathon 2023 will be setting off on an all-expenses paid two-day trip to Paris to work on research and development for People² Solutions. People² Solutions is a leading platform and solutions provider in the field of capability-building and behaviour change. Their Boost platform incorporates effective techniques from the gamification of learning, neuroscience, and behavioural psychology, allowing them to achieve consistent impact across cultures and corporate environments. If a trip to Paris isn’t enticing enough, our teams will also be competing for a number of other impressive prizes.These include an invitation to present the team’s pitch on Dan Bennett’s podcast, The Growing Pains of Behavioural Science, as well as a pair of Nudgestock tickets, a couple of work experience placements, copies of Behavioral Scientist’s Brain Meets World and more!

The winner of Nudgeathon 2023 will be announced on Saturday the 15th of April, but before we reach that pivotal moment, participants will get to hear from six influential speakers from the field. This year’s lineup includes Vice Chairman of Ogilvy and host of Nudgestock, Rory Sutherland, Behavioural Design Lead at Cowry Consulting, Phoebe Kent, Behavioural Science Lead at Beway, Daniel Naranjo, Nudgeathon founder, Umar Taj, Chief Product Officer of Essentia Analytics, Chris Woodcock and Managing Director of People Squared Solutions, Yohan Bibay. If you are as excited as we are to hear these major players speak then you will be delighted to know that this year the Nudgeathon Directors have decided to open the final day of Nudgeathon 2023 to the wider public. Tickets can be purchased from the UCL website with further details of this linked below. After the winners have been revealed, the participants, judges, mentors, sponsors and attendees will be invited to partake in some very well deserved celebratory drinks!

Nudgeathon 2023 is just around the corner and this year’s event is not to be missed! We would like to say a huge thank you to our sponsors CogCo, People Squared Solutions, Ogilvy, Applied, Essentia Analytics and Cowry Consulting who have helped bring this year’s Nudgeathon vision to life.

Ticket Sales:

Nudgeathon Conference and Awards

Stay up to date with the latest announcements here:

UCL Behavioural Innovations Society

Sponsor Websites:

CogCo

People Squared Solutions