Embed wellbeing into Student Hackathons §
Pattern Summary §
Embed physical and psychological wellbeing into student hackathons to ensure that participants can perform at their best while remaining safe and supported throughout the event.
Problem / Challenge §
Hackathon culture tends to glorify extreme effort at the expense of basic self-care.
While mentors bring valuable expertise, some may unintentionally undermine wellbeing norms if not given clear guidance.
Left unaddressed, this can lead to physical exhaustion, impaired decision-making, and safety incidents — particularly for younger or more vulnerable participants.
Pattern Category §
- Community Building
- Education & Skills
- Promoting Best Practices
Context §
A university or research institution.
An OSPO has been established.
The OSPO is involved in organizing or supporting a hackathon.
Forces §
The hackathon will take place over a 24 or 48 hour period.
Hackathon participants may be on-site overnight.
Student teams may be unsupervised for periods of time.
Mentors will also be on-site for guidance.
A budget is available for food and hydration.
Solution §
Design wellbeing and safety into the following areas:
Planning §
Organizers should establish clear positions on sleep, participant welfare and safety.
Sleeping should be a non-negotiable requirement for participation.
Mentor Training §
Provide clear guidance to mentors on the hackathon’s approach to wellbeing.
Brief mentors explicitly on safety guidelines and actively encouraging participants to sleep.
Food and Hydration §
Ensure that food, snacks and water are available on-site throughout the event — particularly at night. This removes the need for participants to leave the venue alone at night, which presents both safety and safeguarding risks.
Minors §
Where participation from minors is permitted, coordinate with campus risk management colleagues.
Areas for consideration include: waivers, transport and when participants should leave and return each day.
Dedicated Wellbeing Support §
Appoint one or more welfare or wellbeing support people whose sole responsibility will be to support and monitor participant welfare. This role formalises care as a structured responsibility rather than leaving it to chance.
The support person(s) will circulate amongst teams, check in proactively and be a visible, approachable point of contact for students.
Messaging §
Ensure that safeguarding information about sleep, safety, food and support on-site is included in dvance communications with participants about the hackathon. This messaging should be reinforced throughout the hackathon.
Resulting Context §
Students experience the hackathon as an intensive but sustainable event.
Hackathon organizers can meet their duty of care with confidence.
Mentors have clear direction on the behaviours expected of them.
In the longer term, consistent modelling and enforcing of wellbeing norms can influence what participants come to expect and value — moving away from the glorification of exhaustion and towards a healthier, more inclusive vision of what collaborative innovation looks like.
Additional Learning from Carnegie Mellon University OSPO §
We have a policy of advocating for sleep.
We also try to have food and water on hand so that students aren’t making food runs at 3am when they're sleep deprived.
We always have a non-participating support person who makes sure all teams are safe, feeling good, working well and that they don't need anything.
Additional Learning from University of Texas at Austin OSPO §
We give explicit directions for sleep and we provide a mechanism to ensure that students get sleep.
Every team has a mentor
Known Instances §
- CMU Open Source Program Office, CMU Libraries, Carnegie Mellon University
- The University of Texas OSPO (UT-OSPO), University of Texas at Austin
Related Patterns §
- Organize an Open Source Hackathon
- Design a Collaborative Open Source Hackathon
- Enable Student-led Hackathons
- Engage a Hackathon Facilitator
- Collaborate with External Partners on Open Source Hackathons
- Lower the barriers to entry for Student Hackathons
Contributors & Acknowledgement §
- Angela Newell, University of Texas at Austin
- Ciara Flanagan, https://orcid.org/0009-0005-3153-7673
- David Lippert, George Washington University, https://orcid.org/0009-0003-6444-9595
- Emily Lovell, University of California Santa Cruz, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5531-5956
- Laura Langdon, University of California, Davis
- Tom Hughes, Carnegie Mellon University, https://orcid.org/0009-0008-7516-3687