Digital Sandbox - Online Hackathon Platform for University Students

数码沙盒计划**将为大学和雇主提供解决方案，为学生举办虚拟黑客马拉松和比赛（例如商业创意挑战赛、编程黑客马拉松等）。大学越来越多地利用黑客马拉松和竞赛来帮助学生获得就业技能，发展雇主网络，并向学术界和雇主社区展示他们的技能和想法。虽然没有可靠的统计数据，但据估计，每年在世界各地的大学里大约有1万场黑客马拉松。美国、英国、欧盟和澳大利亚占据了超过50%的活动。然而，新冠肺炎疫情的爆发促使许多大学取消了这些课程，从而剥夺了学生们重要的学习机会。虽然大多数大学都很乐意采用现有的平台和工具（如Zoom、MS Teams等）来开展在线课程和实习，但由于缺乏合适的工具，他们在将黑客马拉松和竞赛转移到网上方面并不那么成功。“数字沙盒”项目旨在解决这一差距。目前还没有工具或平台可以帮助大学和雇主端到端地为学生举办在线黑客马拉松。在后新冠疫情时代，我们的解决方案将帮助将这些项目（以及学习成果）的范围和影响提升到一个更高的水平，使：1)雇主能够举办跨大学甚至跨境的黑客马拉松和竞赛；2)超过10倍的学生参加这些活动，不受物理世界的固有限制（例如场地容量，通勤时间等）；3)学生组建跨校、跨界团队，扩大曝光度和人脉；4)评委向所有参与者提供清晰、有条理的反馈，从而提高学习效果；5)来自弱势背景的学生（例如有经济问题、身体残疾等）通过消除障碍来参与这些机会；6)显著降低单位成本，从而使这些项目更容易负担和推广。我们还将在2020年第四季度和2021年第一季度与来自20所英国大学的250名学生进行试点，与最终用户一起测试新平台，使其准备就绪，并开发用例以加快上市速度。总之，我们的解决方案将帮助大学以更包容的方式与更多的学生开展更多的黑客马拉松，以更低的单位成本获得更好的学习成果。反过来，这将有助于以更快的速度缩小英国的就业技能差距。

The **Digital Sandbox project** will develop a solution for universities and employers to organise virtual hackathons and competitions (e.g. business idea challenge, coding hackathons, etc.) for students.Universities are increasingly using hackathons and competitions to help students acquire employability skills, develop employer networks as well as showcase their skills and ideas to academic and employer communities. Although no reliable statistics are available, estimates suggest ~10,000 hackathons take place in universities worldwide annually. US, UK, EU and Australia account for over 50% of events.However, the onset of Covid-19 pandemic prompted many universities to cancel these programs, thereby, depriving students of critical learning opportunities. While most universities readily adapted existing platforms and tools (e.g. Zoom, MS Teams, etc) to launch online classes and internships, they have been less successful in migrating their hackathons and competitions online due to a lack of appropriate tools. The "Digital Sandbox" project intends to address this gap.There is no existing tool or platform to help universities and employers conduct online hackathons for students, end-to-end. In the post Covid-19 era, our solution will help elevate the scope and impact of these programs (and the learning outcomes) to a higher level, by enabling:1) Employers to conduct cross-university and, even cross-border hackathons and competitions;2) More than 10x students to participate in these events, without the inherent limitations (e.g. venue capacity, commute time, etc.) of the physical world;3) Students to form cross-University and cross-border teams and thereby expanding exposure and network;4) Judges to offer clear and structured feedback to all participants, thereby enhancing learning outcomes;5) Students from disadvantaged backgrounds (e.g. with financial problems, physical disabilities, etc.) to participate in these opportunities by eliminating barriers to access;6) Significant reduction of unit costs, and thereby making these programs more affordable and widespread.We will also conduct a pilot with 250 students from 20 UK universities during Q4 2020 and Q1 2021 to test the new platform with end-users to make it launch-ready as well as develop use cases to accelerated speed to market. In summary, our solution will help Universities to conduct more hackathons with more students in a more inclusive way with better learning outcomes at a lower unit cost. This, in turn, will help reduce the employability skills gap in the UK at a faster pace.