2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Hackathons have emerged as a beneficial platform for fostering innovation and practical problem-solving skills among students. These events encourage participants to prototype solutions to complex problems rapidly and promote personal and professional growth. As one part of a grant effort, it was proposed to study how students reflect upon, articulate, and exhibit the entrepreneurial mindset (EM) in their hackathon-based problem-solving approaches. As defined here, the entrepreneurial mindset is based on the KEEN framework. The KEEN framework consists of the 3Cs: Curiosity, Connections, and Creating Value. The Curiosity construct encourages learners to explore different perspectives and question the norm. The Connections construct emphasizes integrating information from diverse fields and linking theory or knowledge to create and innovate solutions. Lastly, the creating value construct is about identifying opportunities and delivering meaningful outcomes that address and tackle complex,
real-world challenges and transform ideas to create real-world impact.

As a standalone vehicle for learning and problem-solving, this wholly informal learning space for EM has yet to be explored. Students are believed to develop more innovative and impact-driven projects by explicitly infusing EM into the program. Thus, the EM pedagogy would enhance the existing experiential learning activities. It is also suggested that informal Hackathon-based learning can complement formal education (e.g., capstones and other project-based courses), many of which have already adopted EM. The overall effort employs a mixed-methods approach to evaluate the impact of Entrepreneurial mindset-based interventions. The approach is described in more detail in Section 3.

This paper will describe the overall hackathon program and the implementation of specific EM- infused interventions. It addresses early lessons learned in relation to the two informal learning vehicles, a hackathon and a makeathon, into which EM is integrated. Each intervention will be discussed in terms of its student impact and practical implications. Interventions include developing an EM-based competition rubric and supporting materials such as updated student, judge, and mentor guides. The parallel implementation of an EM student leadership series and capstone course intervention is also discussed. Video data from legacy hackathons will be compared with the new data extracted from the first full run of the EM-infused competition. Finally, the paper will discuss lessons learned from the initial implementation of the interventions that can be applied to future competition trials.

The overall effort employs a mixed-methods approach to evaluate the impact of Entrepreneurial mindset-based interventions. Participants include student teams submitting projects for judging to volunteer judges, mentors, and capstone instructors recruited through event registration and pre-event information sessions. Student teams are comprised of 2-4 individuals ranging from freshman to senior and open to all disciplines. Project outcomes will be documented through student presentation videos and self-reflection surveys. Other participants will also be surveyed for their feedback. The video data will be transcribed, and a thematic analysis will be conducted using qualitative analysis software to identify patterns and themes within the data. Additionally, videos will be analyzed using video analysis software to identify behaviors, interactions, and student work products that illustrate desired outcomes. In contrast, survey data collected from students, judges, and instructors will be statistically analyzed to quantify learning outcomes, contextualize the findings, and provide recommendations on using EM-based interventions and feedback on student engagement.

This paper will describe the overall hackathon program and the implementation of specific EM-infused interventions. It will emphasize the two informal learning vehicles, a hackathon and a makeathon, into which EM is integrated. Each intervention will be discussed in terms of its student impact and practical implications. Interventions include developing an EM-based competition rubric and supporting materials such as updated student, judge, and mentor manuals. The parallel implementation of an EM student leadership series and capstone course intervention will also be discussed. Video data from legacy hackathons will be compared with the new data extracted from the first full run of the EM-infused competition. Finally, the paper will discuss lessons learned from the initial implementation of the interventions that can be applied to future competition trials.