Let's get Waste(d)

Students powering through the night with coffee or energy drinks? Not such an uncommon phenomenon. Doing so with team members with various study backgrounds and nationalities - including a sleepover on campus? That's a little less common. UCLL strives, alongside 9 partner institutes to make the world a cleaner and more sustainable place! Let's get waste(d)!

Each year, Hack The Waste unites students from all around the globe to tackle a wicked issue: a societal problem which needs to be tackled in order to create a more sustainable future. This year, Nordværk - a Danish waste management company - challenges the teams to find a way to make both the sorting and disposal of household waste for especially students at dorms.

The students stay up all night to work on their solutions and pitch several times within that time span - making their project the star even when the stars are out. Sleeping bags on campus? Board games for moment of relaxation in between? Challenge accepted!

A sleepover with 13 countries

The teams work in international teams, "This offers us an oppotunity to work on a current-day issue within an international team. It's a great way to gain new and different insights," says Thomas Brone, student Bedrijfsmanagement: KMO & Ondernemen. He usually studies at campus Diepenbeek, but joined his crew in UCLL's Hack The Waste headquarters in Leuven, campus Proximus.

UCLL's resident international Moving Minds also signed up for the project. Among them Dhruv Agarwal from India, student at the Bachelor of Applied Computer Science in Leuven; "I really wanted to know more about sustainability and given it deals in that domain: if I were to propose the solution I need to understand the problem perfectly. I believe this is going to be a good experience and spending a day with my UCLL-colleagues why would I miss that chance (laughs). I knew one of my group mates before but the others I see for the first time so it’s a nice way to meet new people as well.”

Sustainability is an important topic and it allows me to already thing about how I'll apply it in my future business. Additionally: it's great to get to know students from abroad and from other study domains!

Margaux Lana, KMO & Ondernemen, Leuven

New insights through diversity

There's a wide variety in study domains represented within the project, an asset which the students note will come in handy in their future job. Student Loveleen Sindhu: “I participate because I am doing the Bachelor Toegepaste Informatica, choice trajectory Business & IT. I think this is a great exercise in figuring out the process behind offering better solutions to issues people struggle with daily. With IT, there's a wide range of options when it comes down to make things easier and more user-friendly. In this project the focus is on recycling but the skills I'll apply in these 24 hours, will aid me in helping future customers when they feel stuck on something.”

An opinion shared by Astrid Leroi, student Bedrijfsmanagement: Rechtspraktijk Diepenbeek: “I chose to participate in this project in part out of curiousity. We also have other options such as a trip to London with a high focus on the juridical aspect of our development, but I wanted to gain a view on another field of expertise as well. For example, I also participated in a HR-deepdive event at UCLL and noticed that it's enriching because you learn things you otherwise wouldn't due to the versatile teams. You may not know something but someone in your group does so you strengthen each other.”