Designing for an International Online Hackathon

Session Description

An original in-person design thinking hackathon was moved to online due to the pandemic. As a result, participants from over 10 universities across Europe, Asia, and the USA attended. There were more participants than in previous years, many were located in different time zones, and with the event moved to a new online environment, careful designs were put in place to foster community building, collaboration, and creativity. The event focused on solving the current- and post-pandemic challenges through interdisciplinary and international teams, with the aspiration to bring a positive impact on global communities in innovative ways. Over the three-day event period, interdisciplinary and international teams of mentors, facilitators, and judges were also assembled to help participants think and see from multiple perspectives.

While participant surveys indicated overwhelmingly positive feedback, a few design considerations were pivotal in the running of the event. Warm-up activities before the start of the event helped break the initial ice. Frequent breaks with small community-building activities helped sustain the momentum. Commonly used low-tech tools such as google docs, mural, and zoom bridged between synchronous and asynchronous activities. In the presentation, we will also share the impressive gallery of works participants created.

Presenter(s)

  • Grace Meng-Fen Lin, University of Hawaii at Mānoa, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
  • Kristen Yuanxi Li, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong
  • Paolo Mengoni, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong
  • Xinzhi Zhang, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong
  • Fred Chia-Han Yang, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan
  • Alfredo Milani, University of Perugia, Italy
Posted in Uncategorized.