Hackathons

This guide is for hackathons and related activities (makeathons, etc.) that are used to provide technology experiences to people at colleges/universities, K-12 schools, and other organizations.

For information on Ohio State's hackathon program, see 

You will see a varity of books, videos, journal articles, and links on this page.

Want to plan a hackathon? Consider checking out the Hackathon planning kit site.

Note: Items designated with a ¹ are limited to Ohio State users only.

General:

• Hack your organizational innovation: literature review and integrative model for running hackathons
• Crowdsourcing Properties and Mechanisms of Mega Hackathons: The Case of Junction
• Who captures value from hackathons? Innovation contests with collective intelligence tools bridging creativity and coupled open innovation
• On Hackathons: A Multidisciplinary Literature Review¹
• The Developers’ Design Thinking Toolbox in Hackathons: A Study on the Recurring Design Methods in Software Development Marathons¹
• Invention Development. The Hackathon Method¹
• One-off events? An empirical study of hackathon code creation and reuse
• Characteristics of invention development during the hackathon¹
• Socio-Technical Constraints and Affordances of Virtual Collaboration-A Study of Four Online Hackathons¹
• How do participants collaborate during an online hackathon? An empirical, quantitative study of communication traces
• Hackathons for Driving Service Innovation Strategies: The Evolution of a Digital Platform-Based Ecosystem
• Hackathons as Affective Circuits: Technology, organizationality and affect
• Minimal and adaptive coordination: How hackathons' projects accelerate innovation without killing IT¹
• The hackathon format: An analysis of its possible interpretations under a service design perspective
• Beyond open data hackathons: Exploring digital innovation success
• It’s a hackathon, not a sprint: Understanding startups and open data strategy¹
• Pyweekend: Not your typical hackathon¹
• Best practices in running collaborative GPU Hackathons: Advancing scientific applications with a sustained impact¹
• Hackathons as a means of accelerating scientific discoveries and knowledge transfer
• Everybody's hacking: Participation and the mainstreaming of Hackathons
• Hacking and making at time-bounded events: Current trends and next steps in research and event design¹
• The innovation-driven Hackathon - One means for accelerating innovation¹
• How to hackathon: Socio-technical tradeoffs in brief, intensive collocation
• Understanding and improving the culture of hackathons: Think global hack local¹
• What are Hackathons for?¹
• Community code engagements: Summer of Code & hackathons for community building in scientific software¹
• The use of prototypes within agile product development explorative case study of a Makeathon¹
• App Making for Pro-Social and Environmental Change at an Equity-Oriented Makeathon¹

Educational Aspects:

• Hackathons in software engineering education: Lessons learned from a decade of events
• Hackathons as an informal learning platform
• Developing course projects in a hack day: An experience report¹
• Hackathon as a Project Based Teaching Tool: Employing Programming Challenge in the Class¹
• Adapting Hackathon-Honed Skills Toward Software Engineering Capstone
• Student perception of the contribution of Hackathon and collaborative learning approach on computer programming pass rate¹
• The collegiate hackathon experience¹
• Hackathons as extracurricular activities: Unraveling the motivational orientation behind student participation¹
• Analysis of the results of a hackathon in the context of service-learning involving students and professionals¹
• Datathons: An experience report of data hackathons for data science education¹
• Hackathons as a part of software engineering education: Case in tools example¹
• Effects of a hackathon on the motivation and grades of CS1 students¹
• Hack.edu: Examining how college hackathons are perceived by student attendees and non-Attendees¹
• The use of the "hackathon" in design education: An opportunistic exploration
• A Hackathon Methodology for Undergraduate Course Projects¹
• Hackathons in the formal learning process¹
• Code camps and hackathons in education - Literature review and lessons learned
• A Curriculum Framework for Introducing Hackathons in Engineering Studies¹

Libraries

• Fostering a Tech Culture through Campus Collaborations: A Case Study of a Hackathon and Library Partnership
• Hackathons and Libraries

Medical/Health

• Hacking Hackathons: Preparing the next generation for the multidisciplinary world of healthcare technology¹
• Self harmony: Rethinking hackathons to design and critique digital technologies for those affected by self-harm
• Healthcare hackathons: Fostering medical education through innovation in a developing country: A case study from Pakistan
• Feasibility of a citizen-driven hackathon to increase public engagement and solutions to address the opioid crisis¹
• Health hackathons: theatre or substance? A survey assessment of outcomes from healthcare-focused hackathons in three countries
• Healthcare Hackathons Provide Educational and Innovation Opportunities: A Case Study and Best Practice Recommendations

Other Topical Hackathons

• Issue-oriented hackathons as material participation¹
• Sustainability Hackathon: Integrating Academia and Companies for Finding Solutions for Socio-environmental Problems¹
• Hacking the hackathon format to empower citizens in outsmarting “smart” cities
• Mapathons and hackathons to crowdsource the generation and usage of geographic data¹
• Hacking at the divide between polar science and HPC: Using hackathons as training tools¹

Youth

• Youth Hackathons in Computing for the Community: A Design Case¹
• Creating Socially Relevant Apps through Virtual Hackathons for High School Girls
• Consider “HACKS” when designing hackathon challenges: Hook, action, collaborative knowledge sharing
• From Camp to Conferences: Experiences in Leveraging Tech Conferences to Inspire Black and Latinx Girls to Pursue Coding and Tech Careers¹
• An explorative case study on effects of a makeathon for SDGs on middle school students learning and democratic empowerment¹

Business and Entrepreneurship

• Digital innovation and entrepreneurship through open data-based platforms: Critical success factors for hackathons
• Future Proof: Hackathons as Occasions to Experience Entrepreneurial Thinking
• Digital innovation and entrepreneurship transformation through open data hackathons: Design strategies for successful start-up settings
• Designing Corporate Hackathons with a Purpose: The Future of Software Development¹
• Using hackathons to teach management consulting¹
• Success factors for hackathons: German banks collaborate to tame the economic crisis¹
• Hackathons and the Making of Entrepreneurial Citizenship¹
• Open data hackathons: an innovative strategy to enhance entrepreneurial intention¹

Underrepresented Groups

• How Gender, Ethnicity, and Public Presentation Shape Coding Perseverance after Hackathons
• Can hackathons unlock a new talent pool from the developing world?¹
• Hackathons as participatory design: Iterating feminist utopias
• Understanding female-focused hackathon participants’ collaboration styles and event goals¹
• StitchFest: Diversifying a college Hackathon to Broaden participation and perceptions in computing¹
• Creating Socially Relevant Apps through Virtual Hackathons for High School Girls
• From Camp to Conferences: Experiences in Leveraging Tech Conferences to Inspire Black and Latinx Girls to Pursue Coding and Tech Careers¹

Try the following resources to help take your project to the next level: