Inside UZH's First Business-Academia AI Hackathon
21. Sept. 2026
I studied finance at the University of Zurich while pregnant with my son. 14 years later, I go back to give a keynote.
I studied finance at the University of Zurich while pregnant with my son. 14 years later, I go back to give a keynote.
UZH.ai is running its first Business-Academia Hackathon.
Companies bring their real problems with AI
Students get two days to solve them.
Nobody has to write a line of code.
Prof. Dr. Lauren Howe gives the first keynote, on what the research shows.
I give the second, on what I see inside companies: how people take back control when AI takes over more of the work.
I am looking forward to meeting the students, company representatives and the organizers from the University on 22nd October, in the morning.
If you know a UZH student, send them this.
→ 22 and 23 October, Bluelion Zürich
→ Bachelor students from their second year, Master's and PhD students
→ Any discipline, no coding needed
→ Registration closes on Sunday, 11 October
What sort of human challenge would you like to solve with AI?
What this hackathon format says about how the next generation will work with AI
I studied at UZH pregnant with my son. Coming back on a stage designed around AI, for a generation of students who will never work without it, is a strange kind of full circle.
What I like about this format is what it does not ask for. No coding. No AI credentials. The two days test something else: can you take a real, messy company problem and work through it with an AI tool as your teammate, without the tool doing your thinking for you.
That is the exact question I bring into the coaching and keynotes I do with senior leaders. The tools are not the hard part anymore. The hard part is staying the one who reads the room, decides, and owns the judgment calls, whether you are twenty-two or fifty-five.
Prof. Dr. Lauren Howe opens with the research. I close with what I see inside companies: the leaders whose teams actually move are the ones who stay visibly in charge of the judgment calls, not the ones with the most AI knowledge.
If you know a student who could use two days of exactly that kind of practice, this is worth sending them.
If this resonates and you want a playful way to think about coaching and the next generation, I have a free A Child’s First Book on Executive Coaching that introduces coaching ideas simply enough for kids to follow, the same generation I will be meeting on stage this October. Leave your email here and I will send it over: https://www.thechangerepublic.com/free-resources