HackSTAIR 2025 brought together students, researchers and industry partners at Hochschule Luzern in Rotkreuz on 7 and 8 November. Organised by STAIR, the event combined three formats in one: GameJam, Capture the Flag and programming challenges. This hackathon provided space to show off creative ideas and technical skill.

GameJam: Where creativity meets technology

Running from 3 October to 3 November, the GameJam offered a platform to combine skills with playful creativity around this year’s topic “Leave something behind”. Three optional wildcard challenges encouraged participants to push beyond conventional game mechanics. Two games stood out for their interpretation:

1st Place: Heavenly Intern
2nd Place: Digital Janitor

Both games were presented by a representative at the event.

CTF: Challenges, endurance and physical activity

Over 40 students competed in demanding cybersecurity challenges as part of the Capture the Flag contest. Early technical difficulties with the challenge platform required the organisers to act quickly and set up an alternative platform.

“Normally, the biggest challenge in CTF is finding the flag. For us, the initial challenge was simply having a functioning platform.”

Marcel Christen

HackSTAIR-Team, STAIR

Having shown remarkable resilience, 3 teams emerged at the very top:

1st Place: Flagbot From Wish (62’200 points)
2nd Place: APT-1291 (31’350 points)
3rd Place: 707 (16’950 points)

“The midnight restart at 1 a.m. reminded us that every challenge can change at any time. We took the opportunity to enjoy the special atmosphere of the location while we continued to collect flags.”

CTF winning team

Programming challenges: practical innovation

Two practical challenges, provided by Kanton Luzern and ALSO, gave teams the change to develop real-world solutions.

1) AI assistant for geo data – Kanton Luzern

The teams were tasked with creating an AI assistant that can handle questions about datasets and maps of the canton of Lucerne. Both teams impressed with mature approaches, making the final decision especially close.

1st Place: Team 1
2nd Place: Team 2

“It was the first time I had taken part in an event like this. I was thrilled. I had a great team and learned a lot.”

Laura Grüter

Challenge Kanton Luzern (Team 2)

2) AI-based camera for quality assurance – ALSO

This challenge’s goal was to create an AI-powered system to detect faulty or misplaced packaging labels. The winning team developed a working full-stack solution.

“We worked closely together as a team for 24 hours. The combination of AI, hosting, backend and frontend was crucial.”

ALSO winning team

Shaping the future together

HackSTAIR 2025, organised by STAIR, highlighted the innovation, creativity and resilience of all participants. Despite technical challenges, the event successfully brought together students, university and industry partners.

STAIR is excited to carry this momentum forward into future editions of HackSTAIR.

This event was made possible by the support of: HSLU AI / ML, Kanton Luzern, ALSO, InfoGuard, Nationales Testinstitut für Cybersicherheit, Bitfee, Brands for Students, the HackSTAIR team and all participants.