Ege Ozguven, a first-year Chemical Engineering student, was part of the four-person team behind Aegis AI, the winning project at the HackEurope event held in Stockholm on 21 February.
The 30-hour hackathon brought together more than 1,000 young developers, designers and problem solvers across three cities, Dublin, Paris and Stockholm, with winning teams at each location receiving €5,000 in prize money.
Their innovation allows users to access cloud-based large language models (LLMs), like ChatGPT or Gemini, without exposing confidential information.
As the use of AI tools accelerates across industries, sensitive information, including names, addresses, credit card information, and medical records, is increasingly being entered into cloud-based systems. This data, once shared, may be retained or used to train future LLM improvements, embedding the confidential information outside of the user’s control.
Aegis AI addresses this challenge by introducing a privacy-first gateway that scans information locally, automatically detecting and masking sensitive data before it reaches the external models. This allows users to benefit from powerful AI systems while minimising the risk of data exposure.
Reflecting on the team’s success, Ege said: “Winning Europe’s largest student hackathon in Stockholm was an incredible experience. I arrived in Sweden without knowing anyone on the team, and 30 hours later, we had built Aegis AI.
“I love building things and figuring them out fast. Chemical Engineering is my academic path, but most of my energy goes into startups and turning messy ideas into products that work.”
Emma Emanuelsson Patterson, a senior lecturer in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Ege’s tutor, said: “I was really glad to hear of Ege’s success. He is a very well-liked member of my tutor group; he is friendly, always happy, and contributes with a lot of positive energy.”
The team, which met for the first time when they landed in Sweden for the competition, included Lukas Noel (KTH Royal Institute of Technology, MSc Information Technology), Advik Bahadur (Trinity College Dublin, Electronic and Computer Engineering), and Jing Liu (Uppsala University, MSc Industrial Analytics).
“What excites me most isn’t just the win, but where Aegis can go next. This feels like the starting point, not the finish line,” Ege concluded.
Following their win, the team are working with Acceler8, the University’s student entrepreneurial society, to refine the tool and pilot a beta version. They hope to test Aegis in real-world scenarios where staff regularly use AI tools and must handle confidential information responsibly.
Siobain Hone, Graduate Enterprise Manager at the University of Bath, said: “Hackathons and student enterprise competitions can be a fantastic way of introducing entrepreneurship to students. The University of Bath has a great track record with student and graduate entrepreneurs, supporting them through student groups and through our Entrepreneurship Programme, Dragons' Den and Innovation Awards, which go to graduates to support them working on their business for a whole year post-graduation.”
Beyond the hackathon, the Aegis AI team are focussing on developing their technology into a scalable, privacy-first infrastructure layer ready for AI adoption. They also hope to build a community of organisations, founders and everyday users committed to embedding privacy safeguards into everyday AI use.