Blue Wren hosts hackathon with UCLan and St Catherine’s Hospice

Software development students from UCLan attended a Hackathon at Blue Wren.

Blue Wren’s software developers collaborated with UCLan students to produce prototype software solutions for St. Catherine’s Hospice.

Blue Wren, the software and web agency, have a close relationship with the hospice. As well as delivering digital services for St. Catherine’s, Michael Lough, Blue Wren’s Managing Director, serves as a Trustee for the charity.

The teams spent the day building their solutions, which could form the basis of a piece of software for the charity. Each team opted to build a route planner for St. Catherine’s furniture delivery and collection volunteers.

The prototypes were then assessed on technical difficulty, commercial viability and the quality of presentation, with the two finalists being judged by St. Catherine’s Hospice’s Head of Communications, Sarah Walker.

Speaking about the Hackathon and the Hospice’s relationship with both Blue Wren and UCLan, Sarah said, “We appreciate the time, effort and consideration that’s gone into this Hackathon for the hospice, both from the students and Blue Wren. It’s amazing to see technical skills and expert knowledge translated into practical solutions which have the potential to benefit the everyday work of the charity. We’ve got a close relationship with the team and UCLan and are really grateful for their hard work on this innovative challenge.”

Left to right - Daniel Moore, Sarah Walker, Jonny Carter, Souban Quadri, Michael Lough

Dr Nick Mitchell, senior lecturer in computer games development at UCLan, discussed the impact that the experience had on the university’s students, saying, “The Hackathon was a fantastic opportunity for our students to work alongside professional software developers, exploring new technologies and experiencing how collaborative working is done for real.

"The teams made amazing progress in such a short space of time, and the students left with a real sense of achievement, having learned lots along the way. I’m very proud of how the students rose to the challenge, and am grateful to Blue Wren for inviting us along to share the day.”

Head of software at Blue Wren, Dan Moore, added: “It was a valuable knowledge exchange between Blue Wren and UCLan. Congratulations to everyone that took part. St. Catherine's were extremely impressed in each team's efforts. Jonny, Souban, Lauren and James just edged the win by producing an application that was available on both Android and iOS.”

Read more about the Hackathon event on Blue Wren’s blog.To find out how you can contribute to St. Catherine’s Hospice, visit their website here.