Engineering Students Rapidly Learning at Hackathon Events

Abstract

-developed the STEAM Labs TM program to engage middle and high school students in learning science, technology, engineering, arts, and math concepts through designing and building chain reaction machines. He founded and led teams to two collegiate Rube Goldberg Machine Contest national championships, and has appeared on many TV shows (including Modern Marvels on The History Channel and Jimmy Kimmel Live on ABC) and a movie with his chain reaction machines. He serves on the Board of the i.d.e.a. Museum in Mesa, AZ, and worked as a behind-the scenes engineer for season 3 of the PBS engineering design reality TV show Design Squad. He also held the Guinness World Record for the largest number of steps -125 -in a working Rube Goldberg machine. Dr. Micah Lande, Arizona State UniversityMicah Lande, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Engineering and Manufacturing Engineering programs and Tooker Professor at the Polytechnic School in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University. He teaches human-centered engineering design, design thinking, and design innovation project courses. Dr. Lande researches how technical and non-technical people learn and apply a design process to their work. He is interested in the intersection of designerly epistemic identities and vocational pathways. Dr. Lande is the PI/co-PI on NSF-funded projects focused on engineering doing and making, citizen science and engineering outreach, and "revolutionizing" engineering education. He has also been an instructor and participant in the NSF Innovation Corps for Learning program. He received his B.S in Engineering (Product Design), M.A. in Education (Learning, Design and Technology) and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering (Design Education) from Stanford University. Steven Weiner, Arizona State University, Polytechnic campusSteven Weiner is a PhD student in Human and Social Dimensions of Science and Technology at the School for the Future of Innovation in Society at Arizona State University. He is interested in researching innovative learning frameworks at the intersection of formal and informal STEM education, specifically focusing on the impact of long-term, project-based programs on middle and high school students at community makerspaces and science centers. Before starting his doctoral studies, Mr. Weiner served as the founding Program Director for CREATE at Arizona Science Center, a hybrid educational makerspace/ community learning center. He has previous experience as a physics and math instructor at the middle school and high school levels.c American Society for Engineering Education, 2017 Engineering Students Rapidly Learning at Hackathon Events IntroductionHackathon events are severely time constrained events technological invention sprints where programmers and engineers dive deeply into solving design challenges. Part of the experience is to learn as much as you can in a short amount of time, usually 24-36 hours consecutively. A majority of participants enter hackathons not knowing the direction of their intended pro...

Integrating Hackathons into an Online Cybersecurity Course

“…Additionally, prior works have also focused on in-person hackathon events in the context of traditional courses [20,42].…”

Hack Your Library: Engage Students in Information Literacy through a Technology-themed Competition

“…In the focus group convened after the end of Project Shhh!, students expressed interest in hackathons--a contest model which requires a lengthy commitment, but that commitment is compressed into one period of time rather than across the semester. While hackathons are intensely concentrated blocks of time, studies have found that students are compelled to apply learning strategies and knowledge and are actively "learning by doing" [5]. In recent years, libraries have sponsored hackathons as events that embody "the spirit" of libraries' commitment to "community, innovation, and outreach" [6].…”

WIP: Building a Bridge Between Hackathons and Software Engineering Capstones Through Adaptive Expertise

“…The largest accessible group of research participants, undergraduate STEM students, are also the least studied in the literature. Aside from the previous examples, preliminary research in collegiate hackathons has identified small scale knowledge transfer within teams ((La Place et al, 2017)). One of the only mixed-methods approaches confirmed student motivations are centered around learning and networking, but also began to elicit from a small population why some students do not attend hackathons (Warner & Guo, 2017).…”

“…However, this study was conducted outside of a collegiate environment and does not clarify the development expertise of the participants interviewed which could have ranged from amateur to professional. Previous work on knowledge transfer within collegiate hackathons highlighted some resources participants used, but was limited in understanding the extent of what knowledge was brought into and out of a hackathon and did not address the process in which students worked on projects (La Place et al, 2017).…”

“…Even less understand how hackathons impact students. Some work has begun to address knowledge transfer within hackathons, specifically how students are sharing and receiving knowledge ((La Place et al, 2017)). There remains a missing link in understanding what knowledge students bring into hackathons and share with other participants, and how students use software process in their hackathon projects.…”