ESDST’2026

Résumé

Higher education is facing a great deal which is the production of graduates that are able to deal with complex real world issues via interdiscipline collaboration, critical thinking and responsible use of technology. In this setting which is see the rise of hackathons as very powerful elements of active learning which we see in terms of authentic problem solving, time constrained innovation, and multi stake holder engagement. This paper reports on a long term study of H12 Innovation a national hackathon series put on by ESPRIT (École Supérieure Privée d’Ingénierie et de Technologies, Tunisia) we look at it over the span of three successive editions (2024 2026).

Each issue of the series has dealt with what we may term key socio environmental issues as they present in different Tunisian regions. In 2024 Sfax hosted the first issue which looked at urban waste and environmental pollution issues; in 2025 Kasserine was the stage for a look at the issues of archaeological heritage and regional development; in 2026 Gabes saw us address industrial pollution and the health care issues it brings. This progressive theming of issues is a mark of the institution’s dedication to local issues and engaged civic education.

All at it we presented a large community which included academic institutes, industry players, public sector entities, and local communities in all three editions of the effort. In each of the programs we had expert mentoring sessions, thematic seminars, and reports from multi stakeholder panels that in turn supported the university society enterprise triad model which also introduced the students to professional innovation communities.

Through a qualitative case study approach we collected data via participant observation, analysis of student project outputs, and also through the systematic evaluation of pitch video presentations. We found that there was great and progressive development of transversal skills which included communication, teamwork, creativity, critical thinking, and data literacy also we saw very strong interdisciplinary collaboration between students from engineering, computer science, design and business backgrounds. The hybrid format we used proved very effective in terms of student engagement and in fostering a civic responsibility.

This paper reports that we have put forth the idea which is that the hackathon as a tool may be used very well if it is presented to the students with successively more complex issues, which we present in a true to life setting of a local problem context, which we base on real data and also we put in place a very robust multi stakeholder structure which we have found to be a scalable and repeatable platform to include in higher education topics related to AI literacy, data ethics and sustainability. Also we discuss the results in terms of how this plays out in terms of pedagogic design, curriculum policy, and the partnership between the university and territory.