From Curious Coder to Global Hackathon Champion
Winning a single hackathon can take months of preparation, teamwork, and grit. Phen Jing Yuan, a 23-year-old Bachelor of Computer Science (Honours) graduate from Taylor’s University, has done that more than 30 times on global stages, from Singapore and Japan to the United States. For him, technology was never just about writing clean code; it was about building products that solve real problems and could become viable ventures. He treated university as a sandbox for experimentation, using every course project and hackathon as an opportunity to test ideas in the wild. This tech developer profile stands out because his student hackathon wins were not isolated trophies, but milestones in a continuous learning journey. Each event sharpened his competitive programming mindset, forcing him to move quickly from concept to prototype while collaborating with strangers under pressure.
A Flexible Degree that Trains Builders, Not Just Coders
Jing Yuan’s trajectory was shaped by a computer science program intentionally designed for choice and real-world relevance. Taylor’s University’s School of Computer Science structures its Bachelor of Computer Science (Honours) around project-based learning and a customizable Triple Track model. Students choose a final-year focus: a conventional capstone plus internship, extended work-based learning in industry, or a technopreneurship track for those ready to build startups. Guided by Program Director Dr Navid Ali Khan, this ecosystem aims to turn classroom theory into impact. Jing Yuan used this flexibility to dive deep into both AI and cybersecurity at the same time, building systems that were innovative and secure by design. The result was a student software builder portfolio that blended technical depth with business thinking—exactly the kind of hybrid skill set hackathons reward and employers increasingly seek in early-career developers.
Learning to Win Through Collaboration and Competitive Programming
Modern software rarely ships from a single expert working alone—and neither do winning hackathon projects. At Taylor’s, computer science, software engineering, and information technology students collaborate in interdisciplinary clusters, mirroring the cross-functional teams found in industry. Working in these diverse groups gave Jing Yuan’s hackathon teams a crucial edge, combining front-end design, back-end engineering, AI, and security. That collaborative culture helped his team clinch Overall Champion at the BUIDL Asia Seoul Hackathon 2025, where they built an AI-driven mental-health assistant that integrated product thinking with robust security practices. Competitive programming skills—rapid problem-solving, algorithmic thinking, and code optimisation under time pressure—were important, but equally vital were communication and shared vision. As Jing Yuan observed, success came from surrounding himself with people who understood each other, took risks together, and turned ambitious ideas into working prototypes in just hours or days.
Hackathons as Real-World Classrooms for Student Developers
For Jing Yuan, hackathons became more than competitions—they were his primary training grounds. Supported by access to specialised facilities like the Cybersecurity Lab, Huawei Lab, and Mac Lab, and with pathways to international partners such as the University of the West of England, he could confidently step into global events and treat them as live experiments. Each hackathon was a mini startup sprint: identify a pain point, build a solution, and validate it with judges and potential users. Projects such as JustETH, a decentralised food rating app that reached the Top 5 at ETHKL 2024, and DhalWay, a multi-chain crypto transfer tool that won the Flow Track at ETHGlobal New Delhi, addressed concrete user needs. These experiences turned competitive programming practice into practical product skills, allowing him to build credibility in the tech community long before graduation.
From Student to Technopreneur: Building a Career Before Graduation
Behind the awards and global travel is a mindset that Taylor’s faculty describe as a growth engine. Dr Navid notes that students like Jing Yuan are distinguished by resilience and a growth mindset: they experiment boldly, learn from failure, and iterate relentlessly. That attitude transformed Jing Yuan’s degree into a springboard for technopreneurship. Ranked among the top institutions globally for Data Science and AI, the School of Computer Science provides not only labs and lectures, but also a network of mentors, industry partners, and international opportunities. Jing Yuan’s story shows how a student hackathon wins record can double as a public portfolio, demonstrating real-world problem-solving to employers, investors, and collaborators. His advice to aspiring builders is straightforward: university can supply the ecosystem, but the driving force must come from within—curiosity, persistence, and the willingness to build, ship, and learn in public.