Navigation: About FAQs Partners Registration Bursaries
The Hackathon is back! For the second time CAPHIA is running a Public Health Hackathon in on Gadigal Land, Sydney November 4 – 6 2025. CAPHIA and The School of Public Health, University of Technology Sydney will bring together students, early career academics, entrepreneurs, community, and industry innovators to investigate a public health problem. Student teams are supported by mentors (substance use, youth health, tobacco control etc.), and Design Thinking Ambassadors (entrepreneurs, start-up and spin out founders) to utilse both topic-specific knowledge and design thinking processes.
This event brings together current and future leaders to reduce vaping harms in young people by leveraging public health approaches with design thinking principles.
Theme: Reducing vaping harms in young people
Vaping harms was chosen as our theme because this issue disproportionately affects our youth. Young people are being targeted by bad commercial actors who profit at the expense of the health of our future leaders.
Hackathon Challenges:
Public Health student teams will choose one of the following challenges to collaboratively investigate, analyse and build a solution to contribute to reducing vaping harms in young people.
HOW MIGHT WE
Mobilise community-led advocacy and activism to reduce vaping harms?
HOW MIGHT WE
Build culturally effective protective mechanisms with priority populations?
HOW MIGHT WE
Develop public health-informed policy, evidence-based practice and research?
Structure
Day 1: Meet the hackathon team, learn more about the theme and challenges
Day 2: Take a deep dive into the problem and potential solutions.
Day 3: Practice your Pitch with experts from diverse fields such as public health, youth engagement, tobacco control, policy and practice. The top 5 teams will pitch to delegates at the 2025 CAPHIA Teaching and Learning Forum
Teams will be trained in Design Thinking throughout the Hackathon to develop their capabilities with this social innovation toolset.
See our FAQs page for further details.
Event Details
Teams: 4-5 x students
Eligibility: Current undergraduate and postgraduate students from CAPHIA member institutions across Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand and the Pacific are invited. The majority of the tickets are for those studying public health and related courses (e.g. health sciences, medicine, nursing, allied health etc.) and we have also earmarked a portion for students from non-health disciplines.
Dates: Tuesday 4 – Thursday 6 November 2025 IN PERSON
Cost: $75 + fees. Equity Bursaries are available for students in need.
Location: University of Technology Sydney
Registration: Register here
To maximise connection and collaboration across our community the Hackathon occurs in the same week as our annual Teaching and Learning Forum and our Heads of Schools Summit.
Find out more about the Forum.