HACKATHON PROCEDURE

1. ALPINE SKI HOUSE
HACKATHON PROCEDURE
The world “hackathon” blends the concepts of “hacking” and
“marathon”.
It is a problem-solving procedure born in the US, aiming to
approach themes from as many points of view as possible.
It consists of a 24-hour working marathon, during which the
participants work divided in teams to find innovative and
sustainable solution to major challenges

2. ALPINE SKI HOUSE
ORGANIZATIONAL INDICATIONS
Each school should choose a number of student, which must be divided in groups of 8
people each.
Each group must be followed by 1 “Mentor”, and all the mentors must be coordinated by
1 “Head”.
“Mentors” and “Head” must also be students and must be chosen based on their
capability of giving constructive criticism and knowledge of the topic of the challenge.
PLEASE DO NOT CHOOSE MENTORS AND HEAD WITH GRADE POINT AVERAGE.
Mentors must intervene in the assigned group NOT TO HELP WITH THE PROJECT ITSELF
but to make sure their team is properly following the methodology (see below). Also, they
should follow a given timing (see below), which can be adapted depending on the
situation.
The head must check that every mentor is properly helping and respecting the timing,
WITHOUT INTERACTING WITH THE WORKING TEAMS, but only with the mentors.

3. ALPINE SKI HOUSE
TIMING
An Hackathon should last 24 hours.
At the end of the working session each team must present their work in a presentation of
MAXIMUM 3 MINUTES. At the end of this given time, the team must stop even if they are
not finished talking.
The first intervention of the mentors should be after 1 hour from the start of the working
session, because the members of the teams must have some time to know each other
and realize who they’re going to be working with.
Each intervention should last no more than 10 minutes, and between two intervention
must pass at least 20 to 30 minutes (this criteria can be adapted depending on the
situation). There must be as few interventions as possible, since the final result must be
obtained by the groups and not from the mentors.
The groups are encouraged to work at night, so, if possible, the designed working area
should be available during the night as well. If not, they should be encouraged to meet
somewhere to work during the night or use online tools to work.

4. ALPINE SKI HOUSE
TEAMS AND JURY FORMATION
Teams: teams should be formed trying to each have as little people who know each other
as possible. Each team should contain between 6 and 10 people (ideally 8).
Jury: the jury must be of exactly 5 people: 1 teacher of the school (not the e-hand
representative); 1 school representative (like a school employee, not a teacher); the
school principal; 1 school ex-student; 1 external representative of the civic society in
which the school operates.

5. ALPINE SKI HOUSE
CO-CREATION METHODOLOGY
4 FASI OPERATIVE
4 steps
Co-creazione significa “dar vita” a
strategie e soluzioni con altre persone,
tenendo conto di altri punti di vista, di
una molteplicità di esigenze, mettendo
in rete informazioni, conoscenze e risorse
Co-creation means «giving life to»
shared strategies and solutions ,
considering different points of view and
needs, and creating a network of
information, knowledge and resources

6. ALPINE SKI HOUSE
METODOLOGY
The methodology works as follows:
• First the team must focus on identifying a problem all the members agree to be
relevant to the challenge and of major importance. They still mustn't work on solutions
or practical actions, but just think about the problems.
• The team must then understand all the opportunities given by the problem found in
the prior phase, in order to develop a so called “VISION”, which is a short and easily
understandable statement able to summarize the intentions of the group. It is very
important that everybody agrees on such statement, since it’ll be the main guide to
prevent getting lost during the work session.

7. ALPINE SKI HOUSE
METODOLOGY
• The most important and most simple phase is the third one. Once the team found
the problem and developed a vision, it must now work toward a feasible, tangible,
innovative and sustainable solution, which will be the main topic of their 3 minutes
long presentation.
• The third and fourth phase go on together, since during the work session the team
must understand the added value of their project. Added value is to be understood as
the contribution to the society of the solution.

8. ALPINE SKI HOUSE
OBSERVATION
PUO’ ESSERE FATTA A DIVERSI LIVELLI A SECONDA DEL TEMPO DISPONIBILE
Uniamo le idee per trovare un problema comune
Valutiamo il problema sotto i vari aspetti per trovare come questo problema ci accomuni
Let’s compare and share ideas to find out a common issue and let’s analyse it from different viewpoints
OSSERVAZIONE INDIVIDUALE
• Quali sono i problemi che ritengo siano
più strettamente collegati alla sfida
posta?
INDIVIDUAL OBSERVATION
WICH ARE THE PROBLEMS MORE CLOSELY
RELATED TO THE CHALLENGE ?
OSSERVAZIONE A GRUPPI – GROUP OBSERVATION
• Ricerca desktop (ricerca di parole chiave della sfida, immagini,
citazioni, indagini)
• DESKTOP RESEARCH ( KEY WORDS, PICTURES, SURVEYS,
QUOTATIONS….. )
• Interviste – individuare i diversi soggetti toccati dal problema e
preparare le domande da porre ai diversi soggetti)
• INTERVIEWS (FIND OUT THE STAKEHOLDERS INVOLVED IN THE
ISSUE AND MAKE A LIST OF QUESTIONS)
It can be carried out at different levels, depending on the time available

9. ALPINE SKI HOUSE
CO-GENERATION
Trasformiamo il nostro problema condiviso in una soluzione,
mettendo in gioco noi stessi, le nostre emozioni,
lavorando come singoli individui all’interno del gruppo
LET’S TRANSFORM OUR PROBLEM INTO A SOLUTION BY
INVOLVING OURSELVES , OUR EMOTIONS, OUR SKILLS AND OUR
CAPABILITY TO WORK IN A TEAM

10. ALPINE SKI HOUSE
VISION
La VISION è il nostro obiettivo comune a cui il gruppo tende
può essere espresso mediante una frase, un motto.
THE VISION IS OUR COMMON GOAL
SUMMARIZED IN A
SINGLE SENTENCE OR A MOTTO
NON E’ IL PROGETTO (action) IT ISN’T THE FINAL PROJECT

11. ALPINE SKI HOUSE
ACTION
Sviluppo del progetto in termini concreti di
• Sostenibilità
• Risorse
• Corpo
• Chi fa cosa
DEVELOPMENT OF THE PROJECT FOLLOWING THESE POINTS
• SUSTAINABILITY
• RESOURCES
• BODY
• WHO DOES WHAT

12. ALPINE SKI HOUSE
INTEGRATION
Come introduciamo il nostro progetto nell’ambiente esterno?
• Potenziale
• Energia
• Opportunità
• Punti di forza e/o debolezza (rivalutazione)
HOW DO WE RELATE OUR PROJECT TO THE EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT?
• POTENTIAL
• ENERGY
• OPPORTUNITIES
• SWOT ANALYSIS «STRENGTHS-WEAKNESSES-OPPORTUNITIES-THREATS»

13. ALPINE SKI HOUSE
SUL TAVOLO – ON THE TABLE
VISIONE
TARGET
ADDED VALUE
CONTENT
VISION
COSAVALORE
AGGIUNTO

14. ALPINE SKI HOUSE
EVALUATION
The project evaluation must follow 5 main criteria:
1. Feasibility/Sustainability (technical, temporal and economic)
2. Coherence to the given challenge
3. Innovation and ambition of the project
4. Community value/ third-party subjects involved
5. Quality of the presentation