Team 5 wins hey! hackathon to shape the AI of tomorrow
On March 14th and 15th, Orange Belgium’s b-brand hey! organized a hackathon dedicated to artificial intelligence at BeCentral in the heart of Brussels. Over 90 students, divided into ten teams, worked intensively for two days on five technological challenges designed to imagine tomorrow's AI solutions for hey! and Orange Belgium. Team 5 won this edition, impressing the jury with their well-executed project on an Intelligent Virtual Assistant designed to enhance hey! telecom offers. Their victory grants them a personality test with a personalized debriefing session, along with a specialized workshop at Google and Amazon.
This year’s hey! hackathon reached a new milestone with an even more inclusive approach, bringing together bachelor's and master's students from diverse disciplines—including tech, marketing, and communication—from several universities, including ULB, IHECS, KUL, and EPHEC. As a historical partner, EPHEC was involved from the very first hackathon, while Thomas More and BeCode continue their longstanding collaboration.
Building on strong ties with ULB-École polytechnique de Bruxelles (via Tech Academy by Orange) and EPHEC, and reinforced by new alliances with FARI, Google, and Amazon, this edition marked a significant expansion. The event provided a unique platform for both tech enthusiasts and creative minds to apply their talents to corporate innovation through AI. A first at this scale, it paves the way for even greater ambitions in the future.
Concrete challenges for AI applied to telecoms
The teams worked on five strategic challenges aimed at improving different aspects of hey!:
- An intelligent chatbot to help hey! customers better understand offers.
- A generative AI tool to accelerate marketing visual creation.
- An automated cybersecurity solution for website maintenance.
- A virtual HR assistant to facilitate workforce planning.
- An intelligent chatbot enabling employees to quickly get answers to their questions.
Guided by mentors and industry experts, participants thrived in a collaborative environment that allowed them to refine their ideas and bring innovative solutions to life. Among them, Team 5 stood out with their winning project: an Intelligent Virtual Assistant designed to enhance hey! telecom offers. Their success was driven by a well-structured concept, a dynamic presentation highlighting the assistant’s dual-level response system—general and specialized—an engaging Q&A session, and a working demo that effectively showcased its potential, earning them the jury’s unanimous approval. Team 5 was composed of Tamkin Neda, Savino Di Noi, Henry Chou, Kadir Dolek, Ben Schor, Lucas Gérard and Samy Marsou.
Empowering innovators through expert guidance
Students also had the opportunity to expand their networks by engaging with leading professionals in AI and digital transformation, including:
- Natalia Garcia-Colin, Research and Innovation Manager, Machine Learning Group, ULB/FARI
- Stijn Kosten, Account Executive, Google Cloud
- Bruno Quinart, Data & AI Transformation Domain Manager, Orange Belgium
- Luka Riester, Senior Solutions Architect Public Sector Benelux, Amazon
These experts were also part of the jury, alongside Christophe Bonnart (Managing Director, Orange), Christophe Dujardin (CCO Orange Belgium & CEO VOO), and Géraldine Hoffmann (HR Strategy & People Analytics Director, Orange Belgium & VOO).
Beyond gaining experience and networking opportunities, participants also received valuable opportunities to support their future careers.
Christophe Dujardin, Chief Consumer Officer at Orange Belgium: “With our hey! hackathon, we reaffirm our commitment to staying at the forefront of technological innovation. At Orange Belgium, open innovation is not just a strategy – it's a necessity. By collaborating with these students, we help them grow, and they push us to go even further. It’s a true win-win. Through this event, hey! and Orange Belgium confirm their ambition to support emerging tech talent and explore the opportunities offered by artificial intelligence to design the technologies of tomorrow.””
Romain Bertrand