hey! creates an AI playground for students

March 26, 2025

The Digital Campus BeCentral at Brussels Central Station was buzzing with innovative ideas on Friday 14 and Saturday 15 March! No fewer than 90 students from a variety of disciplines (including technology, marketing and communication) and several universities, including ULB, IHECS, KUL and EPHEC, rolled up their sleeves in ten teams for an intense 48-hour hackathon. Their mission? To take up five exciting technological challenges involving artificial intelligence.

It was more than just a competition, because this event offered participants a unique opportunity to delve into the fascinating world of AI, immerse themselves in co-creation methods and - the icing on the cake - make valuable connections with industry professionals.

The concept? Simple but effective! For each challenge, two teams of 8 to 10 students worked together to design the most relevant solution. And all in just 48 hours! A panel of experts from Orange Belgium, Orange Business, Google, Amazon and FARI (a joint initiative of the VUB and ULB bringing together interdisciplinary expertise in AI, data, robotics, social sciences, ethics and law) had the delicate task of choosing the best approaches.

‘The teams tackled five strategic challenges that aimed at improving different aspects of hey!’, explains Elise Demierbe, Growth Manager at hey!, Orange Belgium's b-brand:

• An intelligent chatbot to help hey! customers better understand offers.
• A generative AI tool to speed up the creation of visual marketing content.
• An automated cybersecurity solution for website maintenance.
• A virtual HR assistant to facilitate workforce planning.
• An intelligent chatbot that enables employees to quickly find answers to their questions.

This means that the ideas developed by the students will not end up in a drawer - they will be implemented by the company. The winning teams are invited to come and share their projects with a wider audience at the Orange Belgium offices in April.

This is the tenth hackathon organised by hey! and the first to be open to all students, apart from existing partnerships with specific schools or training centres (EPHEC, Thomas More, BeCode, IHECS, ULB). By attracting different profiles, we wanted to bring together young people with a wide range of skills. At hey! we want to stimulate collective intelligence,’ continues Elise. So, in each group there was a clever mix of skills: business, data, tech, communication... Just like in real working life!

Once the themes had been defined and the teams formed, everyone was ready to get started. After an enlightening introduction from FARI with Rob Heyman on the ethical challenges of AI, the students got down to work. Throughout the adventure, they were able to count on experts from Orange Belgium for the technical aspects and on coaches from Impact Valley - an organisation dedicated to supporting companies in mobilising people around sustainable transformation - to facilitate their creative process.

‘We teach participants to collaborate and co-create, step by step,’ explains Alexandre Philippe from Impact Valley. ‘There's a whole dimension of soft skills that comes into play: speaking up, exposing oneself to potential judgement... We strive to strengthen each person's talents while encouraging them to step out of their comfort zone.

Corneille Akakpo, a final-year digital marketing student, is taking part in his second hackathon. ‘Last year, it gave me an enormous amount in terms of teamwork and strategic development. The diversity of the group is a real asset - everyone can contribute according to their skills.’

For Homa Wasiq, president of WomInTech and a student at the École Polytechnique de Bruxelles, the hackathon represents an excellent gateway to AI: ‘I'm specialising in robotics. In the future, there will certainly be a lot of convergence, but we don't always have the opportunity to explore that in class. In addition, you learn to work with people from different backgrounds. It's a really enriching experience!’

This hackathon fits in perfectly with the values of hey!. ‘Co-creation is part of our DNA and motivation takes precedence over competence,’ Elise points out. ‘This event also demonstrates our customer-focused approach. We offer students a unique experience and make our time, expertise and data available to them. We give our customers a voice to challenge ourselves. We hope to give students the opportunity to make a difference with other students by testing things out in tech, meeting experts and people with different backgrounds and networking.’

Corneille is well aware of the added value of this experience and makes the most of it: ‘I've created a portfolio highlighting these kinds of activities and I mention them in my CV. It adds a touch of credibility to my career. And developing your professional network is always useful for the future, isn't it?’

But in the end, who came out on top? Of all the participants, Team 5 particularly stood out with its winning project: an Intelligent Virtual Assistant designed to improve hey! telecom's offerings. Their success was based on several key elements: a perfectly structured concept, a dynamic presentation, a captivating question-and-answer session and a functional demonstration that brilliantly illustrated the potential of their solution. These strengths earned them the unanimous approval of the jury alongside Christophe Bonnart (Managing Director of Orange), Christophe Dujardin (CCO of Orange Belgium and CEO of VOO) and Géraldine Hoffmann (HR Strategy & People Analytics Director, Orange Belgium and VOO). The winning team included Tamkin Neda, Savino Di Noi, Henry Chou, Kadir Dolek, Ben Schor, Lucas Gérard and Samy Marsou.

‘And the best part,’ says Elise, ’Google, Amazon, Orange Belgium and Orange Business are offering attractive internsh'ips, job opportunities, training and even paid internships abroad to all participants - not just the winners!

Fancy taking part in a hackathon and broadening your horizons? Then keep an eye on our social networks - we'll be delighted to welcome you next time!

Or are you ready to take the first step? Discover all our job opportunities on proudtobeorange.be