An Extra-Curricular Challenge Co-Developed with Industry: A Learning-Focused Hackathon

Abstract

There are numerous strategies to include industrial perspectives in undergraduate education, however, it is challenging to provide students with high-fidelity industrial experiences in a classroom setting. These industrial perspectives are very valuable to students’ education as the problems faced in the real-world are often multi-disciplinary and ill-structured. This paper describes an extracurricular event co-organized by an automotive manufacturer and a Canadian university that aimed to bring an industrial problem to students in a setting where they could learn and practice their engineering skills. The challenge was a software-driven task with testing done on real hardware in real time. Optional training at the start of the event helped to ease the learning curve and ensured that students were able to achieve some level of success. While the activity ultimately looked similar to a hackathon, the structure of the event, and the lack of competition between teams created a low-stakes learning environment where attendees of all skill levels could thrive. Feedback from students and the industrial partner was positive, with several students commenting on how this event changed their perspective on work in the automotive sector.