Amanda Baker Email and Phone Number

I made the transition into the higher education sector over 11 years ago after spending 20 years in the advertising production industry and pride myself in building productive working relationships, linking academia with industry/community partners.I joined Kingston University to manage the HackCentre project in September 2018 which was set up in partnership with Santander Universities Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Fund to run hackathons (challenge-based problem-solving workshops) across the university. We embed these Hackathons into the curriculum to encourage students to ‘hack’ defined challenges and explore new ideas. Hackathons encourage students to develop their capacity for ideation, help them apply their knowledge to real-world issues, work in teams, and develop an enterprising mind-set. Hackathons follow a set process and vary depending on the course and complexity – some might aim to have a tech or physical prototype as an output, some might be a problem solved conceptually. With the onset of Covid-19 and the various lockdowns, we transitioned to running hackathons online, utilising breakout rooms and collaborative workbooks to aid group work and guide students through the process. With the ease of restrictions we transitioned back to in-class delivery but have kept a lot of our learning and digital techniques to complement our work and guide students through the innovation process.To date we have worked with amazing industry, community and alumni partners who have joined our sessions both in class and online, with many of them joining from all over the world! They have all enjoyed working with students, listening to their ideas and gained valuable insights/ideas to the challenges they face.If you would like to find out more or set a challenge for a hackathon please get in touch.Fellow Advanced HE - December 2022Kingston Learning and Teaching Fellow Award, a competition recognising personal achievements inlearning and teaching excellence - June 2021