Cardiff Business School students secure first place at National Marketing Analytics Hackathon
31 July 2026
Cardiff Business School postgraduate students have claimed the top prize at the prestigious Marketing Analytics Hackathon 2026, demonstrating the practical power of Cardiff’s data-driven business education on a national stage.
Team 9, a cross-disciplinary group featuring Jayeed Bin Kibria, Hissah Salmeen, Md Hesham Ahmed, Karina Dela Cruz, and Shamaiyum Muzammil, was crowned the Winner of the competition.
Dr Simon Jang, Reader at Cardiff Business School and team supervisor, expressed his pride in the students' performance, “I'm very pleased that a Cardiff team became the winner. They applied the business analytics techniques we teach to a real-world business case seamlessly.
Their achievement reflects excellent team collaboration, creative and advanced data analysis, and highly insightful recommendations.
“The victory was an exercise in pure resilience. Teams faced intense time limits and unexpected software crashes during critical analytical phases, but triumphed through preparation, strong chemistry, and adaptability.”
Students acted as data consultants on a modern corporate challenge for Two Sides, a global initiative promoting the sustainable attributes of print and paper packaging.
The students had fewer than 5 hours to analyse a dataset of 1,064 unique UK respondents, investigating how trust and digital overload affect advertising response, and demographics and behaviours of consumers willing to pay a premium price for eco-friendly packaging.
The evaluation panel consisted of 4 leading academics and an industry sponsor manager, judging the teams on analytical rigor, academic depth, innovation, and practical applicability under strict ethical AI guidelines.
Dr Thanos E. Galtsos held intensive preparatory training sessions led by two PhD students and members of the Data Lab for Social Good, Harsha Halgamuwe Hewage and Mustafa Aslan.
Bilal Ahmad Khan, Lakshay Aggarwal, Chay Watkins, Nik Nur Nathiqah Mohd Naser, and Rhys Hughes comprised the MBA with AI team - Team 8 - who were also recognised by global industry sponsor Two Sides, scooping Most Engaging Presentation.
Oxford Brookes University hosted the event, bringing together 45 elite postgraduate students from Queen Mary University of London, the University of Exeter, and the University of Surrey.
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