Congratulations to MUDT Bachelor of Engineering student Enes Ago and his team, TAM Audio, for securing 2nd place at HACKATUNE at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) — an achievement that demonstrates what can happen when students combine technology, creativity and their personal passions.

The hackathon brought together participants from different academic levels to develop innovative solutions at the intersection of technology, artificial intelligence and music.

The competition was organized by Munich Music Labs, Algoriddim, Klangio – AI for Musicians and Neural Frames.

Among the winning teams, first place went to a PhD student, while third place went to a Master's student. Right between them in second place was Enes Ago, a first-year Bachelor of Engineering student at Munich University of Digital Technologies & Applied Sciences (MUDT), together with his TAM Audio teammates.

For a student in the first year of his Bachelor's degree, competing successfully in this environment is an achievement we are particularly proud of.

Where Engineering Meets Music

Enes has a strong background in computer science as a former Computer Science Olympiad student, but technology is only one of his passions.

Music is another.

He has performed in front of audiences of thousands across different cities and recently performed in Athens alongside a leading Eurovision artist.

At HACKATUNE, these two worlds came together.

Instead of treating engineering and music as separate interests, Enes and his teammates used technology to create a solution around something they genuinely care about.

This is exactly the kind of interdisciplinary exploration that MUDT encourages.

Applying Algorithms & Data Structures to a Real Project

What makes the achievement especially relevant academically is that Enes was able to apply concepts from his Algorithms & Data Structures course at MUDT directly to the hackathon project.

Rather than learning algorithms only as theoretical concepts or studying them for an examination, the project provided an opportunity to use what he was learning to solve a real problem.

Following the hackathon, Cyanite extended access to its API for an additional day, allowing Enes to demonstrate the project and its underlying ideas to his entire class at MUDT.

A competition project therefore became another learning opportunity — this time not only for Enes, but also for his fellow students.

Learning by Building

At MUDT, Active Learning is an important part of our educational approach.

We want students to do more than listen to lectures, memorize information and reproduce it in examinations.

Students are encouraged to build.

To experiment.

To collaborate.

To take concepts from their courses and apply them to problems, projects and areas they genuinely care about.

This philosophy was also recently emphasized during a MUDT guest talk by Rish Bhardwaj, who spoke about the importance of learning through building.

MUDT's Kathrin Hoeckel has similarly described learning as an adventure — an opportunity for students to explore, experiment and discover where their abilities can take them.

Enes' HACKATUNE experience is a practical example of both ideas.

Beyond Grades: Creating Real-World Impact

University success should not be measured by grades alone.

For students studying fields such as Software Engineering, Cyber Security, Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, opportunities to apply their knowledge outside the classroom are particularly valuable.

Hackathons, industry projects, competitions and personal projects allow students to test their skills against real challenges and collaborate with people from different academic and professional backgrounds.

They also give students something that a traditional examination cannot always provide: the experience of turning an idea into something tangible.

Enes competed alongside talented participants from across the academic community and demonstrated that even as a first-year Bachelor student, it is possible to build something that stands out.

Munich as a Classroom Beyond the Campus

Studying technology in Munich also means being surrounded by one of Europe's most active ecosystems for engineering, technology, entrepreneurship and innovation.

At MUDT, we encourage our students to make use of that environment.

Events such as HACKATUNE give students the opportunity to meet developers, entrepreneurs, researchers and fellow students from other institutions while applying their university knowledge in entirely new contexts.

The learning experience does not have to stop at the classroom door.

Congratulations, Enes and Team TAM Audio!

We congratulate Enes Ago and his TAM Audio teammates on their second-place achievement at HACKATUNE.

Seeing a first-year MUDT Bachelor of Engineering student applying concepts from his studies, combining them with his passion for music and receiving recognition at a competitive hackathon is exactly the kind of student development we want to encourage.

We look forward to seeing what Enes — and all our students — build next.