2025 ADM+S Hackathon: Navigating the "Wicked Problems" of Search

Target audience: ADM+S members

When: Thursday 6 - Friday 7 November 2025

Where: in person and online. In-person at The Oxford Scholar, Melbourne (Day 1) and The Studio, Melbourne Connect, University of Melbourne (Day 2).

2025 ADM+S Hackathon: Navigating the "Wicked Problems" of Search

The Challenge
To develop a methodological approach which helps gain a deeper understanding of how search systems enable and constrain diverse groups facing “wicked problems”. This may be achieved through developing realistic personas and their attributes as a way to capture information seekers’ context and formulate realistic search queries for algorithmic audits, or other ways of auditing search systems and overcoming their “black box” nature. Regardless of the direction, the proposed methodological approach or approaches must account for contextual diversity of social groups and the “wicked problems” they tackle.

 
On Day 1, teams will will be asked to identify a “wicked problem” and produce 2-3 concise representations of people who may be searching for information related to it. They will consider the contextual properties relevant to understanding how these types of users will formulate their search queries and which platforms they will use to search for information. Multiple methods and data sources can be utilised for persona development, including inference from open fora (Reddit, StackExchange), consultation with external stakeholders invited to the event, interviews of fellow group members, and more. These methods will be used to formulate 15-60 queries reflective of the context of the social groups. For queries that are likely to be conducted via Google Search, the members of the Australian Search Experience Project (subproject 2) will utilise their existing infrastructure to simulate such queries and collect the first page of search results for each query.

On Day 2, teams can choose to:

• Develop an approach to evaluate the search results collected from Google for the queries they produced.
  or

• Develop a prototype or an approach to collect and evaluate search results from other platforms relevant to the personas they developed on day 1.

Throughout the event, teams will be supported by mentors and leaders from across the Centre with expertise in information retrieval, computational social science, and internet studies.
Team members and team leads - no technical experience necessary. ADM+S members from any interdisciplinary background are welcome!

Outputs

The process and results of the Hackathon will be documented in a methodological paper, with all participants invited to join as co-authors.

Hackathon Roles
Please select which role/s you are interested in at check-out.

Team Lead
Lead a team of up to 4 ADM+S Students, Research Fellows, and Affiliates.

As a Team Lead, you will help your group stay on track, work collaboratively, and foster a welcoming, inclusive environment. It’s a great opportunity to guide a fun, hands-on research project and learn alongside others.

Time commitment: Thursday 6 & Friday 7 November (9:30am – 4:00pm)

Team Member

Join a small cross-disciplinary team to tackle a creative research challenge.

As a Team Member, you’ll actively contribute ideas, collaborate with others, and help shape your team’s approach. No hackathon experience needed — just bring your curiosity and enthusiasm. It’s a chance to explore new perspectives, work with peers from across the Centre, and have fun experimenting together.

Time commitment: Thursday 6 & Friday 7 November (9:30am – 4:00pm)

Drop-in Mentor
Offer feedback and guidance to teams in short mentoring blocks.

Mentors can help with strategy and ideation, methodology, pitching, troubleshooting, or tools. This is a light-touch way to support the event and connect with participants.

Time commitment: 2 hours across one or both days (e.g. Thursday morning or Friday morning)

Details

When: Nov. 6-7, 2025

Where: In person and online. In person location is The Oxford Scholar Melbourne (Day 1) and The Studio, Melbourne Connect, University of Melbourne (Day 2).

Who: All ADM+S members are invited to participate, no previous experience necessary, no technical experience necessary either. We are looking for team participants, team mentors/leaders, and roving mentors.

How: Please register your interest by completing this registration and at check-out nominate whether you will be participating in person or online. Participants will be provided with a “hack pack” two weeks prior to the hackathon. The pack will include background research on recommender systems, as well as some data and information on recent approaches to evaluating public service news content.

Interstate and Regional VIC applicants

ADM+S Research Training Program has earmarked several travel bursaries to enable our interstate and regional VIC ADM+S students and ECR members to travel to participate in person. These bursaries are up to a maximum of $1,100 to contribute to return economy airfares, accommodation, and ground transportation. Please select travel bursary in the check-out questions in the registration, and we will review each applicant to ensure a spread across nodes/locations.

Teams

Participants are welcome to nominate other team members in advance of the Hackathon, these nominations will be considered but not guaranteed. Teams will be comprised of multi-disciplinary research background, cross-nodal and varied in experience level (students and researchers). Teams will be a maximum of 4-5 people. Manager, Research Training and Development Sally Storey will connect with all registered participants in the lead-up to the hackathon to get nominations.

Prizes

DAY 1 Judges Prize: Best Representation of Search Context
Individual project support funds up to $500 per winning team member.
The winning team members will be allocated $500 each, in research support funds (via their node) which can be used towards thesis or research fieldwork, travel support to present or attend a conference, or other support activities in discussion with Sally Storey.

DAY 2 Judges Prize: Best Approach to Result Capture/Evaluation
Individual project support funds up to $500 per winning team member.
The winning team members will be allocated $500 each, in research support funds (via their node) which can be used towards thesis or research fieldwork, travel support to present or attend a conference, or other support activities in discussion with Sally Storey.

Any questions can be directed to Manager, Research Training and Development Sally Storey.

Image credit: Hanna Barakat  & Cambridge Diversity Fund / https://betterimagesofai.org / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/