UK students drive sustainable innovation at BUV’s Heritage Design Thinking Hackathon

Nearly 70 students from nine UK universities transformed two weeks of cultural immersion into innovative ideas to preserve Vietnam’s cultural heritage and promote sustainable tourism at BUV’s Design Thinking Hackathon this June. Rather than developing ideas in the classroom, participants built business concepts inspired by first-hand experiences with Vietnam’s communities, heritage sites and local culture.

Where Experience Became Innovation

This year’s Culture Immersion Programme welcomed nearly 70 students from nine UK universities, with the theme centred on Vietnamese cultural heritage and sustainable tourism. Rather than jumping straight into brainstorming, students first explored Vietnam through workshops, expert talks, cultural experiences and community engagement, ensuring every idea was grounded in real observations instead of assumptions.

Over nearly two weeks, participants explored Vietnam’s cultural heritage and sustainability landscape through Design Thinking workshops, panel discussions on heritage conservation and sustainable business, immersive visits to cultural sites across Hanoi, a homestay in Mai Chau, and a coastal clean-up during their visit to Ha Long Bay.  These experiences became the foundation for a two-day Hackathon, where multidisciplinary teams transformed observations into practical business solutions.

“What sets this Hackathon apart is that participants build ideas based on what they have seen, experienced and learned during their immersion field trips,” said Ms. Hien Nguyen, Head of BUV’s International Mobility and Partnerships. “Through this approach, we ensure that ideas are not abstract but rooted in the real-life opportunities and challenges they witnessed in Vietnam.”

The judging panel, comprising industry experts and representatives from the UK Embassy, recognised projects that combined creativity with commercial viability and measurable social impact.

The first prize went to Team Greenovation, whose solution addressed one of Vietnam’s key tourism challenges. Despite the country’s more than 40,000 heritage relics and scenic sites, visitor traffic remains heavily concentrated while many local destinations receive little attention. Their platform, Vitree, connects travellers with verified community-based tourism experiences, encouraging visitors to explore lesser-known destinations instead of overcrowded hotspots. Judges were particularly impressed by the team’s disciplined implementation roadmap, beginning with a validation phase involving 100 tourism businesses and 1,000 users before expanding across Southeast Asia.

While Greenovation focused on where tourists travel, second-place Team Viet-Bassadors focused on who benefits from tourism. Their proposed platform, Vietnamese Heritage Trust, enables travellers to book authentic cultural experiences directly with local artisans, from pottery making to traditional rice cake workshops, allowing communities to retain up to 90% of the value generated. Judges highlighted the platform’s governance model, through which members collectively decide how revenues are reinvested into heritage conservation and education.

Third-place Team Fan the Flame approached the challenge from another perspective by influencing how travellers discover destinations. Their concept, Viet Ventures, is a gamified travel platform that encourages users to explore lesser-known locations through personalised itineraries, local cultural trivia, and a digital scrapbook documenting each journey. Guided by a mascot whose costume changes according to each region’s ethnic heritage, the app aims to make cultural exploration more engaging, with Hanoi identified as its pilot market before wider expansion.

“It was a fantastic opportunity to apply creative thinking, teamwork and problem-solving to real-world challenges before presenting our ideas at the programme finale,” shared Niyaz Rahman Munshi, a student from City St George’s, University of London.

Cultivating Global Citizens Through Experiential Learning

More than a classroom competition, the Design Thinking Hackathon demonstrated how experiential learning can transform cultural exchange into meaningful innovation. What began as workshops, field visits and conversations with local communities evolved into viable business concepts complete with revenue models, partnership strategies and measurable social impact.

The Hackathon also reflected the broader ambition of BUV’s Culture Immersion Programme: strengthening educational ties between the UK and Vietnam while equipping students with the mindset and skills to address global challenges through local understanding. Rather than studying sustainability as an abstract concept, participants engaged directly with heritage practitioners, local communities and environmental initiatives before translating those insights into practical, human-centred solutions.

This strong emphasis on sustainability reflects a commitment woven throughout every aspect of BUV. Green principles are embedded across the University’s campus design, operations, curriculum and student experience. Alongside its EDGE-certified green campus, BUV promotes responsible development through sustainability-focused education, inclusive employment opportunities for people with disabilities, accessible facilities, and extracurricular initiatives that encourage environmental stewardship and social responsibility.

Through initiatives such as the Culture Immersion Programme and its Design Thinking Hackathon, BUV continues to demonstrate how international education can go beyond academic exchange, bringing together cultural immersion, entrepreneurship and sustainability to nurture globally minded graduates equipped to create positive impact across borders.