Each year we run the Creative Industry Challenge, led by Centre Director Dr Coral Manton.
The Creative Industry Challenge is a core BSc Creative Computing module that brings together teams of Creative Computing students and local and UK-based creative organisations. Over an intensive 12-week period, students respond to a real industry brief and develop a working prototype for their partner organisation.
Through the module, students gain hands-on experience in professional pitching, project management, and collaborative working, while developing the skills needed to operate as freelance creative technologists within the creative industries and the wider tech economy.
Our students have worked with organisations including Aardman, IBM, Opposable Games, We The Curious, Complete Control, Soap Soup Arts, Bath Theatre Royal, Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institute, and The Herschel Society, among many others.
Each year, the module culminates in a public industry showcase, where students present their work to industry partners, academics, and the wider community.
Several student projects have gone on to be further developed into completed public works. These include Minny Stynker, an augmented-reality app and live theatre production created with Soap Soup Theatre Company, and an interactive data visualisation for Project What If? at We The Curious in Bristol, which displayed audience-submitted questions as a large-scale digital installation. Another project—a detailed 3D reconstruction of a historic space telescope developed for the Herschel Society—is now part of a planetarium show in Madrid.
Across the module, students have created games, VR experiences, augmented-reality applications, touchscreen installations, and creative websites. Projects have drawn on a wide range of technical and creative skills, including AI, sentiment analysis, mapping APIs, data visualisation, web development, and game development.
