Team Bath Heart has continued its impressive record of international success, finishing second overall at the 2026 Heart Hackathon in Suzhou, China.
The University of Bath's student-led team narrowly finished runners-up among 17 teams taking part in this year's global competition, where students design, build and evaluate their own total artificial heart.
A total artificial heart is a mechanical device capable of circulating blood around the body of a patient experiencing heart failure, replacing the function of a real heart.
The result continues a run of success stretching back to the inaugural Heart Hackathon in 2023, which Bath won before successfully defending its title in Japan in 2024. Last year, the team's latest prototype was recognised with the competition's 'Most Advanced Design' award, which the team added to with a double win at the Engineering Talent Awards.
This year's competition took place on 21 October at the Suzhou Shishan International Conference Center in China, with teams presenting their designs to judges before a prototype display and awards session.
More than 70 students are involved in Team Bath Heart this year, working across biological, mechanical and electrical engineering alongside VR, commercial, finance, outreach and risk teams. Their latest prototype, the TBH26, forms part of the team's continuing work to develop a total artificial heart which puts patients and quality of life at the centre of its design.
Cardiovascular innovators
The Heart Hackathon is an annual global student competition designed to nurture the next generation of cardiovascular innovators. Teams collaboratively conceive, design and build innovative total artificial hearts, developing their engineering skills while connecting with researchers and professionals from around the world.
Team lead Aksharaa Gupta said: “Coming second overall out of 17 international teams is an incredible achievement, and we're extremely proud of what the team has accomplished. Representing the University of Bath on an international stage and seeing our work recognised alongside such strong teams was both exciting and rewarding.
“What makes the result particularly meaningful is that it reflects the hard work of more than 70 students from a wide range of disciplines who have contributed to Team Bath Heart over the past year, building on the work done by the team over the last four years.
“For us, designing a total artificial heart is about more than the engineering challenge; it's about the person who may one day depend on it. We want to create a device that puts patients first, prioritises their quality of life, and considers the diverse needs of the people it is designed to support.”