Our Address
Our Address
Our Address
UWS Ignite Imagination
to Innovation Hackathon
Get your students ready to spark their imagination, unleash their creativity, and experience innovation like never before! A brand-new, action-packed, one day programme, which is designed for S3 pupils who are ready to explore bold ideas and bring them to life.
Across four one-day events held at our UWS campuses in Ayr, Blantyre, Paisley, and Dumfries, you’ll team up and meet with other young student teams from other schools, to tackle real-world challenges, experiment with new ways of thinking, and discover how imagination can transform into impactful innovation.
No experience is needed — just curiosity, enthusiasm, and a willingness to try something new. By the end of the day, you’ll walk away with fresh ideas, new friends, and a boosted confidence in your ability to create change.
Join us at UWS Ignite and see where your imagination can take you. Big ideas start here!
This project has been awarded funding from the Entrepreneurial Education Pathways Fund, to support new ideas for teaching entrepreneurship to young people and their teachers.
Real World Challenges
Explore Ideas
Build Friendships
Pitch Your Ideas
Meet students from other
local schools and build new friendships.
Work in your school teams to tackle real-world challenges.
Explore both creative thinking and innovation throughout.
The opportunity to showcase your teams ideas at a pitching fair.
Dream Big.
Think Differently.
Whether you’re into tech, design, business, science, or simply love problem-solving, Ignite gives you the space and support to dream big and think differently. Through hands-on activities, fast-paced teamwork, and creative challenges, you’ll build valuable skills in:
Entrepreneurial Thinking
Innovation and Problem-solving
Communication and Collaboration
Design Thinking and Rapid Prototyping
Entrepreneurial Thinking
Entrepreneurial thinking is about having a “can-do” mindset.
It means:
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Seeing problems as chances to make something better
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Coming up with new ideas
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Taking smart risks
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Being willing to try, fail, and try again
It’s not just for people starting businesses—any student can use entrepreneurial thinking to improve school projects, clubs, or everyday life.
Innovation & Problem Solving
Innovation is creating something new or improving what already exists. Problem-solving is how you get there.
It involves:
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Figuring out what the real problem is
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Thinking of creative solutions
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Testing your ideas
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Making changes based on what works and what doesn’t
It’s basically using creativity and logic together.
Communication & Collaboration
Communication means sharing your ideas clearly and listening to others. Collaboration means working together to reach a goal.
This can mean:
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Talking through ideas during group projects
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Respecting different opinions
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Giving helpful feedback
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Combining everyone’s strengths to get the best result
Good communication and teamwork make group work way easier and more successful.
Design Thinking & Rapid Prototyping
Design Thinking is a way to solve problems by focusing on what people really need. It includes:
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Empathise – understand the people you're helping
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Define – figure out the real problem
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Ideate – brainstorm lots of ideas
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Prototype – build a simple version of your idea
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Test – try it out, get feedback, improve it
Rapid Prototyping means quickly making a rough model - like a sketch, a mock-up to see if your idea works. It’s about learning fast and improving your ideas without wasting time or resources.
Wednesday 4th February
Paisley Campus
Wednesday 11th February
Dumfries Campus
Thursday 12th February
Lanarkshire Campus
Wednesday 18th February
Ayr Campus
Event Dates
Are you interested in having your school students join our programme?
Complete the form below and we will be in touch, or reach out to us directly at enterprise@uws.ac.uk