How to organize a university hackathon.

Each of the three parties gets something different out of it.

• Students work on a real problem, with a deadline and with other people, and come away with work they can show. Employers look for demonstrated skills. In the US, 70% of employers in NACE's Job Outlook 2026 survey (183 employers, data from August-September 2025) use skills-based hiring, up from 65% the year before. It is US data, so treat it as a rough guide.
• Partner companies see how students handle one of their problems before offering an interview or an internship.
• The university brings companies into its courses with a concrete project that career services can repeat every semester.

Pick the benefit to one of the three parties as your main goal: the prize, the criteria and the metrics follow from it. How to measure the result is covered in after the hackathon.

H-FARM's H-ACK "Robots in Action", for example, lasted 24 hours. For the staged format, see the business game page. Inside a course, the submission can count toward the course grade if the course allows it: put that in the syllabus before you start.

It is a variant for departments and courses. Several teams work on the same problem, with the same data and the same measure of results, set in advance. Each team submits what it tried, the results and the limits, including the attempts that did not work. The jury compares methods, not presentations. That way every submission tells you something about the problem, even when no project "wins".

What to put in the brief:

1. The problem, as one question.
2. The data, the same for everyone, with rules of use; if it contains personal data, check with the university's DPO.
3. The measure, for example the error of a forecast on data held back from the teams.
4. The deliverable: method, results, limits and the steps to repeat the work.
5. The criteria: rigor of the method, clarity about limits, whether others can repeat the work.

On MARA you can keep it closed: reserved for your university's students, who sign in with their university email, or for whoever receives the private link.

1. Look for a problem before you look for a sponsor. You need one person at the company who lives with the problem and answers the teams' questions. This is the challenge owner: without them, teams have nobody to ask.
2. Write the brief with the company. One precise question, the constraints, the materials, the deliverable. Three complete briefs are in brief examples.
3. Agree with the company on what it gives and gets. It gives the problem, the materials, people for the jury and the prize. It gets to meet students and see their work. For a hesitant partner, offer a seat on the jury, logo placement or a prize category of its own.
4. Put people's time in the calendar. Each judge's hours are submissions × minutes per submission ÷ 60. Example with values to replace: 30 submissions × 8 minutes = 4 hours per judge. The full calculation is in the guide to hackathon judges. The company contact also needs hours set aside for questions.
5. Write the agreement down. Copy the outline and fill it in with the company.

Agreement with the partner company
Goal of the hackathon:    [one sentence]
Problem (one question):   [...]
Company contact:          [name, role], hours for questions: [n]
Materials for teams:      [anonymized data, documents, access]
Deliverable:              [format and limits]
Jury:                     [n people from the company] + [n faculty]
Criteria and weights:     [3-5 criteria, set before publishing]
Use of AI:                [banned / allowed if declared / free]
Prize:                    [interview / internship / day at the company]
Submitted work:           [who it goes to; told to students before sign-up]
Student data:             [who processes it; check with the university's DPO]
Dates:                    [launch, deadline, awards], outside exam periods

If the prize is an internship, check your university's internship rules: in Italy, for example, an internship usually needs a formal agreement between company and university. A cash prize may fall under national rules on prize contests (in Italy, DPR 430/2001): check with an adviser.

Stay clear of exam periods and the summer break. In many Italian universities exams cluster in January-February, June-July and September, and universities are mostly closed in August. That leaves mid-October to the end of November and mid-March to mid-May as the easiest windows. Check your own academic calendar.

Then count backwards from the event date and leave a few weeks for promotion: the example plan in how to promote a hackathon starts 6 weeks ahead. Promote where students already are: lectures, career services, student associations, course group chats.

Welcoming newcomers is the hardest part: impostor syndrome kicks in and people get lost choosing a project. What to do at a university:

• A briefing session before the event: present the brief, rules, criteria and tools.
• One question on the sign-up form: is this your first hackathon? Then you know where to send mentors.
• Experts in the room: for themed hackathons, bring domain experts with a ready project, so people new to the topic have somewhere to start.
• A name that does not scare people off: consider a name other than "hackathon", because the word puts off people who don't know it. "Challenge" works for non-technical courses too.
• Fast answers: students need documentation, examples and quick replies. On MARA every challenge has announcements and a Q&A space that all participants can see.
• Clear times: a fixed finishing time and no all-nighters.

Also decide what happens to students who sign up alone. MARA does not match people: how teams form is set in the challenge rules, decided by the organizer. If the rules call for teams, give people who are on their own time at kickoff to find one.

• Credits: only if the course or the university allows it. The university decides under its own rules; MARA does not award credits.
• A verifiable certificate: MARA issues one to everyone who submits, winners or not, naming the challenge and the organizer. It has a verification link that anyone can open and it goes on LinkedIn, with no wallet and no cost (how certificates work).
• A portfolio: for each challenge it holds the brief, the student's role in the team, the work submitted and the certificate.
• Feedback: the organizer can send individual notes to people who submitted. Write it into the agreement with the company.
• Submitted work: ownership is set in the challenge rules, which students see before they join. Write it into the agreement with the company and tell students before sign-ups open. Students keep their certificate and portfolio either way.

You can point students to the guide on hackathons on your CV.

MARA is software with AI for creating and running practical challenges: hiring challenges, hackathons and business games.

1. Cost. Conditions for universities, including challenges with partner companies, are agreed with the team: write to info@marachallenge.com or talk to the team. Students never pay. A company running a challenge on its own pays MARA's public prices: drafts are free, then from €67 a month, VAT excluded.
2. Who writes the challenge. The university or a professor can write and publish challenges for their own courses, with no partner company needed. You can also write the challenge for a partner company: it goes live once the company approves it.
3. University code. If you work with partner companies, the university gives each one a code. With that code the company publishes challenges for your students, who sign in with their university email.
4. Builder. Describe the problem: MARA AI asks a few questions, proposes two directions and writes the story, brief, rules, criteria, deliverables and timeline. You edit everything. Nothing goes live until you approve it.
5. During. A workspace, submissions in one place, announcements and Q&A for each challenge, visible to all participants. Students take part alone or in teams, as the rules set out.
6. After. Judges enter the workspace, see the submissions and update the statuses in the participant list. Results arrive through an announcement, each student's updated status and an email. You can export everything to Excel or ZIP, and everyone who submitted gets a certificate and a portfolio.

MARA is building a community of students, which is growing with partner universities. You can publish the challenge to the MARA student community or keep it closed: reserved for a university's students, who sign in with their university email, or for whoever receives the private link. MARA gives no scores and does not rank anyone: faculty and company staff judge, inside MARA, on criteria fixed before publishing. More on the universities page.