EUvsVirus Hackathon project: A case study from a mentor’s perspective

Abstract

In early 2020, the COVID-19 (C-19) pandemic reached Europe and triggered a wave of country-wide lockdown restrictions which resulted in a pause on most social, economic and industrial activity and interaction.  The EUvsVirus project was a rapid response, large-scale online phenomenon, organised by the European Commission, as a means to both reflect on but also react to this crisis at all levels within European society.  Central to the project was the pan-European Hackathon which was conducted over three days from 24^th -26^th April, 2020.  Winners from the hackathon were invited to take part in a follow-up ‘Matchathon’ event from 22^nd-25^th May 2020 to take the winning and placed projects forward, linking them with investors, developers, companies etc.  Although six domains of enquiry or challenges were pursued in the project, the main focus of the case study centres on the Remote Working and Education challenge and in particular, on the author’s experiences as a mentor in this challenge.