Formal Report Proposal

To: Dr. Erika Paterson

From: Jason Smith

Date: Oct 9th, 2019

Subject: Proposal for Increasing Hackathon Submissions

Introduction 

nwHacks is a hackathon run at UBC by the student club nwPlus. The Hackathon’s primary focus is to gather students related to fields in computer science, engineering and graphic design, encouraging them to innovate solutions to common world issues. At the end of the event, teams present their projects to a panel of judges in order to determine the winners. nwHacks has major aspirations to keep students engaged and motivated for the duration of the event, such that quality projects are presented at the end.

Statement of Problem 

This report will probe the amount of students that start a project and give up before the end of the hackathon, as well as the quantity of students that do end up finalizing a project. Over previous events, nwHacks has consistently struggled keeping students engaged and motivated throughout the entire 24 hour period of the hackathon. Consequently, the club executives are worried that students are attending the hackathon for free swag, food and not for the true purpose of learning and submitting a project for presentation. For this reason, I need to explore a new strategy in order to keep students motivated throughout the entire hackathon, and make sure they end up submitting a project at the end. Ultimately, the goal here is by finding the reason why students lose motivation, I will be able to propose a solution which will rectify hackathon participant issues.

Proposed Solution 

A solution here is to provide all hackathon attendees with a common need in order to keep them motivated. This may be better distributed mentorship, prizes for submitting a project and possibly better career opportunities. By providing all attendees with the appropriate accommodation, they will reciprocate with staying until the end of the hackathon and successfully submitting a project. Presently, the underlying issue behind why the majority of hackathon attendees leave early or don’t submit a project is unknown, so by probing prospective and past participants, I will be able to develop an appropriate strategy and approach to keep students motivated.

Scope

To assess the feasibility of this solution, I will explore the possibilities with these questions:

1. What percentage of students submit and don’t submit a project?
2. What percentage of students feel unmotivated during a hackathon?
3. Which methods exist to currently keep hackathon participants happy and motivated?
4. What causes students to feel unmotivated during a hackathon?

Methods

My data sources will include surveys across past and prospective hackathon participants

My Qualifications

I’m currently entering my 5^th year as a Computer Science major at UBC. My background includes over two years of sponsorship and marketing positions for Hackathons. In addition, I have experience working with quantitative measures and analytics from my academic background. My connections with the current nwHacks executives increase potential for an in-depth study.

Conclusion

nwHacks needs to strategize a solution to make sure hackathon participants actually end up submitting a project at the end. Consequently, by observing my inquiries above, I will be able to conclude if providing appropriate accommodation such as prizes or mentorship is a valuable approach for nwHacks to focus on. In conclusion, with your approval I will start my research.