AI privacy breakthrough wins Europe’s biggest student hackathon

A team of students from across Europe, including first-year Chemical Engineering student Ege Ozguven from the University of Bath, has won top honours at HackEurope, Europe’s largest student hackathon, with their project Aegis AI - a tool designed to protect sensitive data when using AI chat services.

The 30-hour competition brought together over 1,000 developers, designers, and problem-solvers across Dublin, Paris, and Stockholm. Teams were challenged to create innovative solutions under tight deadlines, with winning teams at each location receiving €5,000.

Aegis AI addresses a growing challenge as AI tools like ChatGPT and Gemini are increasingly used in professional and academic settings. Sensitive information, from names and addresses to medical records and credit card details, can be inadvertently exposed when entered into cloud-based systems. Aegis AI introduces a privacy-first gateway that scans information locally, automatically detecting and masking sensitive data before it reaches external AI models. This enables users to benefit from powerful AI systems without compromising confidential information.

Reflecting on the win, Ege said: "Winning HackEurope was an incredible experience. I joined a team I hadn’t met before, and 30 hours later we had built a tool that could make a real difference in AI privacy. Chemical Engineering is my course, but I love turning messy ideas into practical products."

The international team included Lukas Noel (KTH Royal Institute of Technology, MSc IT), Advik Bahadur (Trinity College Dublin, Electronic & Computer Engineering), and Jing Liu (Uppsala University, MSc Industrial Analytics).

Following their victory, the students are working with Acceler8, the University’s student entrepreneurial society, to refine Aegis AI and pilot a beta version. They aim to test it in real-world scenarios where staff and researchers regularly use AI tools, ensuring sensitive data remains protected.

Siobain Hone, Graduate Enterprise Manager at the University of Bath, said: "Hackathons are a powerful way to introduce students to entrepreneurship. Bath has a strong track record of supporting student innovators, helping them turn ideas into projects that can scale beyond the classroom."

Looking ahead, the team hopes to develop Aegis AI into a scalable, privacy-first infrastructure for AI adoption, while building a community of organisations and users committed to embedding privacy safeguards into everyday AI use.

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