Hackathons have become popular collaborative events for accelerating the development of creative ideas and prototypes. There are several case studies showcasing creative outcomes across domains such as industry, education, and research. However, there are no large-scale studies on creativity in hackathons which can advance theory on how hackathon formats lead to creative outcomes. We conducted a computational analysis of 193,353 hackathon projects. By operationalizing creativity through usefulness and novelty, we refined our dataset to 10,363 projects, allowing us to analyze how participant characteristics, collaboration patterns, and hackathon setups influence the development of creative projects. The contribution of our paper is twofold: We identified means for organizers to foster creativity in hackathons. We also explore the use of large language models (LLMs) to augment the evaluation of creative outcomes and discuss challenges and opportunities of doing this, which has implications for creativity research at large.

Hackathons have been my life for the last year. Staying up until 4 AM every weekend building advanced projects under a time crunch produces an unmatched adrenaline rush. While hackathons are surely enjoyable no matter the outcome, it is not the same without a win. However, winning is not easy, and learning how to do so can take a long time. As a result, many new hackers become discouraged and don't continue. Lucky for me, this was not the case, as I was able to quickly develop strategies that helped me be successful.