Engineering design days: Engaging students with authentic problem-solving in an academic hackathon

Abstract

This paper describes the evidence-based use of a hackathon model to address student learning outcomes in first-year Engineering programs. There is a growing body of work around the use of hackathons to promote engagement, innovation, teamwork, and problem-solving in engineers before, during, and after their undergraduate studies. Existing hackathons tend to be open, extracurricular events with a focus on software and UX/UI design. While some have a theme to steer students towards a particular problem space, there is an absence of literature regarding the use of hackathons in-class to support course-level learning objectives. We created in-class, curricular hackathons that have been deployed in four different undergraduate programs (Computer, Electrical, Mechanical, and Mechatronics Engineering) on five separate occasions, with another two upcoming offerings. This model, which we call Engineering Design Days, has been implemented in slightly different ways to engage the various cohorts of students and to investigate best practices. Each instance is two days with no traditional classes, labs, or tutorials, where the students work in teams to design and build solutions to open-ended problems. These problems are designed to integrate knowledge from across multiple courses. Students solve design problems by making physical systems using off-the-shelf components. The solutions are presented and tested in front of their peers at the end of the second day. Students and course instructors from each implementation provided feedback through surveys, focus groups, and interviews. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and indicates an increase in students' affective domain valuing of the roles of creativity, analysis, and investigation in engineering design. The adoption of Engineering Design Days is expanding across the Faculty of Engineering as a result. We discuss lessons-learned and strategies for ensuring the sustainability of Engineering Design Days.