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Organize an Open Source Hackathon §

Pattern Summary §

Organize an open source hackathon to promote open source on campus.

Problem / Challenge §

  • Students report a lack of ‘hands-on’ opportunities to collaborate on or contribute to ‘real world’ open source projects.
  • Undergraduate students also lack experience of ‘real world’ software development and delivery at scale.
  • There is a gap in awareness and/or motivation amongst students on best practices in open source and open science.
  • Students with an interest in open source are unlikely to be connected with peers who are based in different departments within their university.
  • Students may also be disconnected from broader open source movements like Hacktoberfest.
  • Faculty researchers need help extending their work but may lack resources.

Pattern Category §

  • Awareness
  • Community Building
  • Education & Skills
  • Promoting Best Practices
  • Rewards & Recognition
  • Supporting OSS development
  • Working with Tech Transfer / External Partners

Context §

A university or research institution. An OSPO has been established.

Forces §

  • Funding has become available for a hackathon either through external sponsorship or a successful grant application.
  • A hackathon may be scheduled to connect to wider activities (e.g. Hacktoberfest, Earth Day).
  • OSPO staff have the time and resources to organize a hackathon.
  • Physical space is available for participants to work during the hackathon.
  • Universities have computing infrastructure, faculty expertise and research centers that would benefit from more student engagement.
  • Potential participants have varying levels of prior experience and different goals (e.g. learning, networking, competition, portfolio building).

Solution §

Organize an open source hackathon that facilitates collaboration on open source projects; promotes open source skills development; and fosters the open source community on campus.

Designing the Hackathon §

The list below covers broad areas for consideration when designing/programming a hackathon:

  • The theme should take the following into account: the wider university’s priorities; specific requests from an external sponsor and existing research and open source projects on campus that would benefit from a hackathon’s input.
  • The hackathon model, i.e. competitive vs collaborative. This will inform the nature of participation and collaboration throughout the event.
  • The hackathon model will also influence decisions relating to prizes and recognition for participants e.g. cash prizes vs universal participation prizes (gift cards). Prize categories may focus on skills development rather than outputs (e.g. best use of open source, best research advancement).
  • The audience and stakeholders including participants, mentors and judges.
  • Participation from minors - any participation from minors will require liaising with risk or event management teams and further decisions on waivers; transport to and from the venue; and an appropriate finish time for this cohort each day.
  • The threshold for participation i.e. do participants need to be physically present at all times?

Finances §

During the planning stage, the following financial process/budget lines should be considered:

  • The overall budget.
  • A food budget for participants.
  • Providing clear instructions for funding and payment processes.

Identify internal partners §

Typical partners include members of:

  • IT team
  • Research centers
  • Computing departments
  • Communications/marketing team
  • Student support services
  • Student organizations

For research hackathons, recruit faculty to propose research projects and provide mentorship.

Student organizations are also valuable in terms of hackathon promotion and recruitment of participants.

Critical first steps §

  • Set up an organizing team comprising both colleagues and students (where possible).
  • Secure an appropriate venue that includes both a large space for opening, closing, awards and teamwork and smaller spaces for workshops, small group work, solo working and rest breaks.
  • Select a date that takes account of the academic, sports and events calendar. Consideration should be given to potential participants who will not be able to miss class during weekdays.
  • As soon as the date is confirmed, share a ‘save the date’.

Promoting the Hackathon §

  • Prioritize engagement with the institution’s communications/marketing team to agree on key communication points and messaging.
  • Promote the hackathon on the OSPO website and university website (if possible).
  • Leverage student communication channels to promote the event.
  • Share flyers in and around campus.
  • Request faculty to make announcements or make announcements at lectures.

All communications should include a link to the hackathon registration form.

Other important tasks: §

The following includes but is not limited to:

  • Emailing people with the registration form and sending reminders about the event to participants.
  • Recruiting mentors and judges.
  • Recruiting volunteers for support during the event. Support roles may include guides and facilitators.
  • Preparing explainers that outline the expectations of each role. Copies of the explainers should be on hand during the event.
  • Defining the judging criteria (if applicable).
  • Hosting orientation/induction workshops before or during the hackathon to familiarize both participants, volunteers and mentors.
  • Devising problem statements.
  • Ensuring that catering includes snacks and drinks that are available in between meals.
  • Developing and sharing pre and post surveys to evaluate the impact for all involved.

Equipment and resources §

The following items are essential items for any hackathon:

  • Power strips
  • Name badges
  • Pens
  • Whiteboards or flipcharts
  • External screens/monitors are useful but may not be essential.
  • Cloud storage platforms (e.g. Jetstream 2) may be necessary for supercomputing requirements.

Post hackathon tasks §

  • Send ‘Thank You’ communications to participants, mentors, judges and volunteers.
  • Report outcomes publicly on the OSPO website, newsletter, campus press and social media channels. Links to all deliverables and outputs should be shared in communications e.g. finalist projects, GitHub repos.
  • Review survey data for learning.
  • Document lessons learned to improve future events

Resulting Context §

Participants learn about open source best practices; gain practical technical experience; and produce portfolio-worthy projects.

Participants develop networking connections and the wider open source community on campus is strengthened.

Faculty research advances through collaborative problem-solving.

Open source contributions may extend beyond the event if sustainability is planned.

Hackathons also have the potential to position the university as a leader in open source or as an innovation hub in relation to the event’s chosen theme.

Other learning §

  • Actual attendance tends to be lower than registration numbers and this should be considered as part of the planning process.
  • Hackathon organizers manage intensive communication demands and coordination before and during the event. Scheduling a rest break when the hackathon ends is essential.
  • Success creates expectations for future events, requiring ongoing resource commitments
  • Projects may remain short-term without intentional sustainability planning.

Additional Learning from Carnegie Mellon University OSPO §

A significant amount of project management and time is required for hackathons. It’s important that the OSPO lead ensures that everyone involved understands their role, tasks and the event schedule.

Most students work on their own laptops. However, it may be necessary to provide some monitors.

Access to a supercomputer will depend on the theme and scale of the hackathon.

Additional Learning from the University of California, Santa Cruz §

It’s important not to underestimate the amount of time that project management and communications take up when organizing a hackathon - especially a hackathon where you have different people participating in different ways.

We recommend having more than one person to share responsibility for project management and to ensure seamless communication loops.

Additional Learning from the University of Texas OSPO §

Each hackathon has its own organizing team. It’s essential that students are on the organizing team for promotion (through informal student channels) and participant recruitment.

A useful piece of participant feedback was for the organizers to make more use of social media channels. This particularly relates to announcing winners on LinkedIn where potential employers can learn more about students’ achievements.

We’ve also learned, as organizers, that it’s really important to host internal communications on a group communication platform (e.g. Discord).

Our hackathon teams have access to the supercomputing center in Indiana and we pre-set our event with that.

Students bring their own laptops and their own power supply. We have extra power supply and power strips on hand for students.

We also provide each team with a dedicated space to work.

We host ‘pop-in’ presentations three times a day to keep people on track and make sure everybody's okay.

Every team has a mentor and we provide mentor training beforehand.

We also deliver pre-training workshops for participants who are less familiar with open source on GitHub, Jupyter Notebooks, Python.

Known Instances §

References §

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