1 Introduction

This page presents the implications of the Pro Hackin’ project. Considering the diverse outcomes and far-reaching impacts of the project, we have categorized and discussed these implications through theoretical, practical, methodological and pedagogical perspectives. To allow for a clearer interpretation and analysis, the results have been divided into four different sections: Education, Research, Industry and Policy Making. Each section provides an in-depth examination of the project’s contributions in its respective field, highlighting its impact on expanding knowledge, improving practices, refining methods and shaping policy. By structuring the document in this way, we aim to provide a comprehensive overview that supports both academic and practical understanding of the outcomes of the Pro Hackin project.

As a reference we used the Erasmus+ impact tool to better explain the long-term impact of our Pro Hackin project (Figure 1). The notation can be found at the bottom of this page in “Table 1: Overview of impact on key pillars”, where key pillars means: Learners, Project staff, System, Partner organizations.

Figure 1: Erasmus+ Impact Tool

2 Implications and sustainability of education, research, industry and policy making

This section examines the implications of implementing the Pro Hackin’ Methodology and its sustainability across four key pillars: education, research, industry, and policymaking. The following subsections analyze how the methodology impacts these domains, highlighting its potential to enhance teaching and research practices, prepare graduates with industry-relevant skills, and support participatory approaches to governance and policymaking.

2.1 Education

The Pro Hackin’ Methodology reflects the growing emphasis in engineering education on project-based learning (PBL), a model that prioritizes active, experiential learning over traditional, lecture-centric approaches. Product Hackathons offer multidisciplinary challenges and promote among other things creativity, general problem-solving competencies and intrinsic motivation in students, qualities that are highly sought after in future engineers. The methodology provides a framework on how to conduct a series of project-based Product Hackathon events, characterized according to classical stages in the product development process, with focus on problem analysis, idea generation, development and hands-on experience. To integrate this approach into classical lectures, educators are faced with several entry hurdles that often prevent a change towards student-centered teaching. Pro Hackin’ addresses these challenges by equipping educators with adaptable resources and strategies to embed hackathon formats into classical lecture-based courses. One significant hurdle is the transition from standardized teaching and assessment methods to more flexible, collaborative approaches. Hackathons disrupt traditional assessment practices by emphasizing group work, making it challenging to assess individual contributions and align with Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs). Pro Hackin’ provides a structured framework to address this, mapping hackathon activities to ILOs and including criteria for both group and individual assessments. This ensures the integration of creativity and collaboration without compromising academic rigor. Many educators lack experience with digital tools and methods for fostering teamwork and creativity, posing a challenge to designing collaborative (online-) learning environments. Pro Hackin’ presents showcases and guidelines for implementing ICT tools, virtual prototyping platforms, and facilitation techniques that enable effective collaboration across diverse settings. These resources make it easier for educators to lead multidisciplinary teams and integrate hackathons into existing curricula. Adopting the hackathon model also requires educators to redefine their roles as facilitators and co-designers of activities. Simultaneously, selecting students with appropriate competencies and teamwork skills is critical for meaningful participation. The Pro Hackin’ Methodology provides clear guidance on both fronts, outlining roles and responsibilities for participants and facilitators alike. Organizing hackathons demands careful coordination, among all parties involved. Pro Hackin’ simplifies this process with a step-by-step implementation guide, covering activities before, during, and after each hackathon-like event. By addressing these barriers, Pro Hackin’ aims at transforming education into an active, student-centered experience, equipping learners with critical knowledge, skills and abilities for a dynamic global workforce while empowering educators with tools and strategies to modernize their teaching practices.

2.2 Research

The project resulted in various implications for research divided into three main aspects of hackathon research:

1. integration of hackathon-like events into engineering curricula,
2. identification of needs for support in preparing and executing hackathon-like events, and
3. exploration of industrial perspective on hackathon initiatives.

The insights obtained indicate that hackathons could benefit engineering curricula in several ways, often resulting in a higher engagement and motivation for students and educators in given interactive and practical educational settings. Coupled with real-world challenges, this educational format could bring numerous advantages to current engineering curricula and enrich educational offerings. Still, further studies are needed to investigate whether and to what extent these activities could replace or complement traditional project-based learning in terms of learning outcomes and the development of soft skills (as part of engineering courses and curricula). As confirmed previously and again in this project, hackathon-like events open new possibilities to study student behavior while being immersed in an industrial context and provided with new experiences due to their exposure to the fast-paced and bounded nature of challenge. Furthermore, this project focused on integrating hackathons into engineering curricula despite broad opportunities to involve more non-engineering participants and embrace different perspectives into similar hackathon-like events. This would allow cross-disciplinary learning, gaining new non-engineering competencies and offer new student collaboration options. As such, this should be further studied to gain insights into stand-alone hackathon-like events and informal learning outcomes of such efforts.

The second group of these implications is related to the recognizing needs and developing support for preparing and executing hackathon-like events. As part of this project, lessons learned and best practices were identified, which served as a basis for developing guidelines for performing such activities within a higher education context. Within this project, research studies have shown that some design methods and digital tools could be more beneficial in hackathon-like events than others. However, their role should be further examined on a larger scale (with more student teams and at different institutions) and in different settings (virtual and physical). As expected, the hackathon environment heavily influences the team dynamics and various collaboration aspects throughout these events. In addition, the role of some design activities, like sketching and prototyping, should be studied to understand better what they enable and provide for participants in this type of event. However, additional hackathon mediators of different types have to be identified, and their influence on the hackathon activities and outputs should be studied (as many of the current research efforts are still nascent). The final group of implications is associated with the industrial perspective on conducted hackathons and their active role in preparing and conducting hackathon events. Despite obvious benefits for the industrial partners that have been reported many times in previous studies, the actual implementation of ideas or concepts being developed as a part of hackathon initiatives and spillover effects should be further studied. In addition, from the perspective of industrial partners, hackathons serve as an open innovation strategy and as a platform to establish links with educational institutions and students. Therefore, their perspective on the short-term and long-term value for a company could be detrimental to better understanding perceived benefits, hackathon success factors and the underlying reasons for their willingness to continue with similar open innovation endeavors.

2.3 Industry

In industry, hackathons are an effective means of driving innovation and rapid prototyping. They enable companies to explore new ideas and solutions within a tight timeframe. They encourage cross-functional collaboration and bring together different skills to solve real-world problems quickly. This approach can shorten development cycles, reduce costs and enable the validation of concepts at an early stage. By promoting agility and iterative design, hackathons help companies stay competitive, adapt to market changes and foster a culture of creativity and responsiveness within their teams. In an industrial environment, the combination of hackathons with project-based learning offers students a hands-on experience that closely mirrors real-life product development. This experience not only prepares students for the dynamics of modern work environments, but also enables them to contribute effectively in their professional role from day one.

The introduction of project-based learning in the style of a hackathon into the education of students has a significant impact on the industry:

• Skilled workers are ready: Graduates enter the workforce with hands-on experience solving real-world problems, reducing the onboarding period and enabling them to contribute effectively from day one.
• Improved innovation pipeline: By fostering creativity and rapid prototyping skills in students, companies benefit from a pipeline of talent capable of developing new ideas and innovative solutions to complex problems.
• Enhanced team collaboration skills: graduates trained in collaborative, hackathon-like environments bring strong teamwork and communication skills that help them integrate smoothly into cross-functional teams.
• Adaptability and agility: With their experience in iterative design and agile project management, new hires can easily adapt to fast-paced, evolving industrial environments and respond efficiently to project changes.
• Focus on user-centered design: Students’ exposure to user-centered design principles results in a workforce that is better able to develop products that meet market needs, improving customer satisfaction and product relevance.

2.4 Policy Making

Hackathons serve as a powerful medium for citizen science, promoting open innovation by inviting public participation and generating solutions through collaborative problem-solving. Public institutions increasingly recognize the value of hackathons for policy-making and participatory problem identification, providing a dynamic setting where traditional boundaries are removed, and stakeholders engage as equal contributors. To maximize the impact of these events, policymakers must thoughtfully assemble teams, selecting participants whose diverse backgrounds will foster multidisciplinary insights. Additionally, they must define the type of coaching profiles that can effectively guide these teams, balancing mentorship with the autonomy needed for genuine innovation. Coaches with experience in both facilitation and relevant technical or policy fields can help align the creative energies of participants while maintaining focus on the core issues at hand.

A crucial aspect of structuring an effective hackathon lies in the design of the challenges. Policymakers should define these challenges in a way that yields valuable data and insights, directly informing the development of new policies while preserving the project-oriented spirit of the initiative. The problems posed should encourage analysis from varied perspectives, integrating inputs from different disciplines and ensuring that relevant stakeholders are present. This diversity in perspective is key to generating robust, contextually relevant ideas and solutions. The hackathon environment, with its emphasis on rapid prototyping and idea-sharing, empowers participants to collaboratively address complex public issues, bridging knowledge gaps and fostering community involvement in the policy process.

Ultimately, hackathons enable public institutions to harness the collective intelligence of a broad base of contributors, producing ideas that reflect a wide range of societal needs. By designing hackathons that prioritize diversity, informed coaching, and targeted challenge definitions, policymakers can create participatory frameworks that facilitate active citizen engagement. This approach not only drives innovation but also enhances transparency and inclusivity in governance, laying the groundwork for policies that are both responsive and resilient.

3 Next Steps

The project was designed to leave a tangible long-term impact, ensuring that the results go beyond the immediate outcomes and continue to benefit the stakeholders involved. To support this goal, we have carefully crafted a series of next steps tailored to each participating higher education institution (HEI). This will ensure the sustainability of the methodology developed for running the hackathon and encourage continued innovation and collaboration at all four universities involved in this project.

3.1 Politecnico di Milano

Sustainability of methodology for hackathon implementation in:

1. Education:
   • Keep it in current courses where it has been tested (Creativity for Sustainable Design).
   • Propose it as a powerful tool to improve team-building and knowledge sharing in companies while keeping the time of the participants productive for companies.
     • Extend its application in other courses which already includes collaborative activities in small teams of students.
2. Research:
   • Test its potential to improve the achievement of ILOs and its potential to improve retention with reference to the regular curriculum.

3.2. University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering

1. Education:
   • Continue to integrate hackathon-style methods into courses such as “Metodika konstruiranja” to build on proven results and ensure alignment with intended learning outcomes (ILOs).
   • Use hackathons to simulate real-world scenarios and help students transition smoothly into the professional environment.
   • Design “mini-hackathons” for students to encourage continuous collaboration throughout the semester while avoiding burnout.
2. Global collaboration and scalability:
   • Scale hackathons across institutions, including international university networks, to expose students to broader perspectives and problem contexts and foster global collaboration skills.
3. Research:
   • Conduct longitudinal studies to assess the impact of hackathons on the achievement of ILOs, such as improved retention, deeper conceptual understanding, and application of skills.
   • Investigate the impact of integrating hackathons into curricula on student engagement, motivation and employability.

3.3 University of Zagreb, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture

1. Education:
   • Introduce hackathon-like events to other project-based learning courses, by considering the overall course objectives.
   • Organize hackathon as a stand-alone activity based on PROHACKIN guidance and recommendations.
   • Use gathered insights on digital tools and design methods from these fast-paced events and implement them in “traditional” courses to improve learning/teaching process.
2. Research:
   • Continue exploring obtained insights during the hackathons to better understand the team roles and sequence of these activities during these events. Also, try to understand better the role of the environment in facilitating hackathon activities.
   • Plan additional hackathon studies as a part of our ongoing collaboration with other universities (outside of this consortium).

3.4 TU Wien

1. Education:
   • Embed hackathons in specific courses emphasizing design thinking and teamwork where their effectiveness has been validated, e.g., Machine Elements Engineering Design Training, Virtual Product Development.
   • Develop formats for smaller, recurring hackathons to foster continuous collaboration throughout the semester in other classes. Leverage insights from these events to enhance traditional classroom settings with digital tools and collaborative methods.
2. Research:
   • Conduct studies in other lectures to assess the effectiveness of hackathons in achieving ILOs, including skill development, retention, deeper understanding of course content, and employability. Investigate their role in enhancing student motivation and engagement.
   • Analyze team dynamics, roles, and the influence of physical and digital environments on hackathon success. Collaborate with partner institutions to conduct longitudinal studies and refine methodologies for broader implementation.

4 Impact

To better explain the long-term impact of our Pro Hackin’ project we started from the Erasmus+ impact tool. The notations can be found in the Table 1, where key pillars mean: Learners, Project staff, System, Partner organizations.

Table 1: Overview of impact on key pillars:

Scale of Impact	Learners	Project staff	Systemic	Partner HEIs
5	Adoption of relevant Knowledge, Skills and Abilities regarding mechanical engineering product development. Experiencing new student-centred learning styles.	Knowledge creation of organizing Hackathons, using ICT tools and creating hybrid learning environments.	Hackathon Integration into Curricula: complement or alternative to traditional project-based learning. Expands beyond formal education, towards non-traditional educational settings and cross-disciplinary events.	Foster internationalization of and collaboration between Higher Education Institutions Knowledge created on Hackathon format blends into other lectures Collaborative talent building throughout partner universities and industrial partners
4	Higher satisfaction compared with classical ex-cathedra lectures. Workforce readiness through experience with real world challenge.	Knowledge sharing among faculty and cross-departmental collaboration to bolster institutional teaching strategies.	Benefits for sector and professional network. Shorter, agile product development cycles.	New approach to integrate industrial partners in learning activities, knowledge creation on understanding industry perspectives.
3	Building international and professional networks.
2	Cross-cultural collaboration experience in remote student teams.		Harnessing collective intelligence to address complex public issues and bridge knowledge gaps Promoting participation, transparency and inclusivity, fostering trust in governance through active citizen participation.
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