Hackathon as a platform for inbound open innovation − case study of a public hackathon

The objective of this thesis is to study the use of inbound open innovation in a context of a hackathon and provide development ideas on how to organize a successful hackathon. The research questions that guide the study are: Q1: Are public hackathons commonly utilized as a platform for inbound open innovation? Q2: Have organizations succeeded in exploiting the inbound ideas in their innovation process? Q3: What are the critical success factors of a hackathon considered from a perspective of an organization pursuing for inbound open innovation? Open innovation as a term refers to an emerging innovation paradigm that strives to provide an answer to challenges organizations encounter in a modern world: globalization, rapid technology development and mobility of highly skilled workforce just to mention a few. The core idea of open innovation is to break the organization’s boundaries in innovation processes. Open innovation consists of totally separate processes: inbound, outbound and coupled process. In this thesis the focus is on inbound open innovation, which is the most common of all the open innovation processes. Inbound innovation is a process where an organization seek ideas from external sources to be nurtured further into innovations. The process of inbound open innovation is studied in a context of a public hackathon, which is a hackathon event where more than one organizations are as partner organizers. The research strategy chosen to guide the qualitative research of this thesis is case study. The case studied is the “Junction 2017 hackathon” event. The research data is based on theme interviews with Junction 2017 partner organizations and the analysis of the research data is done using content analysis, both as theory-based and data-driven. According to the findings of this thesis, public hackathons are commonly utilized for inbound open innovation. Organizations have also succeeded in using the inbound ideas born in the hackathon in their innovation process by refining them further. Still, inbound open innovation is only pursued by larger organizations, while the small organizations have other motivations in joining the hacka-thon. Refining the ideas needs a well-established innovation process and linking the hackathon seamlessly into that process. From the findings of this thesis it was possible to conduct the critical success factors of a hackathon considered from the perspective of open innovation. The four success factors were: 1) defining the motivation and targets, 2) preparing for the event 3) active, multidisciplinary presence and 4) focus on after-care. In the background of these are more profound reasons why these are seen as critical factors considering the pursuit for open innovation in hackathons. These success factors can be used in every organization that is pursuing for inbound open innovation and plans to utilize a hackathon as a platform for idea creation.Tässä opinnäytetyössä tarkastellaan avoimeen innovaatioon liittyvää ulkopuolista ideoiden hyödyntämistä julkisen hackathonin kontekstissa. Opinnäytetyön tarkoituksena on tarjota kehitysehdotuksia siitä, miten järjestää onnistunut hackathon avoimen innovoinnin näkökulmasta. Opinnäytetyötä ohjaavat seuraavat tutkimuskysymykset: K1: Käytetäänkö julkisia hackathoneja yleisesti alustana avoimeen innovointiin liittyvään ideoiden luomiseen? K2: Ovatko organisaatiot onnistuneet jatkojalostamaan syntyneitä ideoita omassa innovaatioprosessissaan? K3: Mitkä ovat hackathonin kriittiset menestystekijät sellaisen organisaation näkökulmasta, joka pyrkii hydöyntämään tapahtumaa avoimeen innovointiin? Avoimen innovoinnin ytimessä on ajatus organisaatioiden rajojen rikkomisessa innovointiprosesseihin liittyen. Samalla avoin innovointi pyrkii tarjoamaan ratkaisun niihin haasteisiin, joita moderni maailma organisaatioille innovoinnin näkökulmasta asettaa. Näitä haasteita ovat mm. globalisaatio, teknologian nopea kehittyminen ja työvoiman aktiivinen liikkuvuus. Avoin innovointi koostuu kolmesta erillisestä proesessista: sisäänpäin suuntauneesta, ulospäin suuntautuneesta ja yhdistetystä prosessista. Tässä opinnäytetyössä keskitytään ensisijaisesti sisäänpäin suuntautuneeseen prosessiin, joka on avoimen innovoinnin prosesseista yleisin. Sisäänpäin kääntyneessä avoimessa innovoinnissa organisaatiot hakevat ideoita ulkopuolelta jatkojalostaakseen niitä edelleen innovaatioiksi. Sisäänpäin suuntautunutta avoimen innovoinnin prosessia tutkitaan julkisen hackathonin kontekstissa. Tutkimusstategiana käytetään tapaustutkimusta tutkittavan tapauksen ollessa ”Junction 2017 hackathon”. Tutkimusaineisto perustuu teemahaastatteluihin, jotka toteutettiin Junction 2017 kumppaniorganisaatioiden kanssa. Tutkimusaineisto on analysoitu sekä teoria- että aineistolähtöisen sisällönanalyysin mukaisesti. Opinnäytetyön havaintojen perusteella julkisia hackathoneja käytetään yleisesti sisäänpäin suuntautuneen avoimen innovoinnin alustana. Organisaatiot ovat myös pystyneet hyödyntämään hackathonissa syntyneitä ideoita omassa innovaatioprosessissaan. Sisäänpäin suuntautunut avoin innovointi kuitenkin ollut vain suurien yritysten kiinnostuksen kohteena, ja pienemmillä organisaatioilla on ollut omat motivaationsa hackathoniin lähdön taustalla. Syntyneiden ideoiden hyödyntäminen on myös vaatinut ulkopuoliseen ideointiin integroitua innovaatioprosessia ja hackathonin liittämistä saumattomasti osaksi tätä kokonaisuutta. Tutkimusaineiston analyysin kautta oli löytyi neljä kriittistä menestystekijää, jotka nousivat esiin avoimen innovaation näkökulmasta: 1) motivaation ja tavoitteiden määrittäminen, 2) toimeksiannon valmistelu, 3) aktiivinen ja monialainen läsnäolo tapahtumassa sekä 4) keskittyminen tapahtuman jälkihoitoon. Näiden kriittisten menestystekijöiden taustalla on useita tekijöitä, jotka vaikuttavat niiden tärkeyteen. Kriittiset menestystekijät on esitetty kehityskohteina, joihin jokainen organisaatio voi kiinnittää toiminnassaan huomiota ollessaan kiinnostunut hyödyntämään hackathonia avoimeen innovointiin

Major results from the first plasma campaign of the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator

After completing the main construction phase of Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) and successfully commissioning the device, first plasma operation started at the end of 2015. Integral commissioning of plasma start-up and operation using electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) and an extensive set of plasma diagnostics have been completed, allowing initial physics studies during the first operational campaign. Both in helium and hydrogen, plasma breakdown was easily achieved. Gaining experience with plasma vessel conditioning, discharge lengths could be extended gradually. Eventually, discharges lasted up to 6 s, reaching an injected energy of 4 MJ, which is twice the limit originally agreed for the limiter configuration employed during the first operational campaign. At power levels of 4 MW central electron densities reached 3 1019 m-3, central electron temperatures reached values of 7 keV and ion temperatures reached just above 2 keV. Important physics studies during this first operational phase include a first assessment of power balance and energy confinement, ECRH power deposition experiments, 2nd harmonic O-mode ECRH using multi-pass absorption, and current drive experiments using electron cyclotron current drive. As in many plasma discharges the electron temperature exceeds the ion temperature significantly, these plasmas are governed by core electron root confinement showing a strong positive electric field in the plasma centre.Peer reviewe

Search for Scalar Diphoton Resonances in the Mass Range 65−60065-600 GeV with the ATLAS Detector in pppp Collision Data at s\sqrt{s} = 8 TeVTeV

A search for scalar particles decaying via narrow resonances into two photons in the mass range 65–600 GeV is performed using $20.3\text{}\text{}{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$ of $\sqrt{s}=8\text{}\text{}\mathrm{TeV}$ $pp$ collision data collected with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The recently discovered Higgs boson is treated as a background. No significant evidence for an additional signal is observed. The results are presented as limits at the 95% confidence level on the production cross section of a scalar boson times branching ratio into two photons, in a fiducial volume where the reconstruction efficiency is approximately independent of the event topology. The upper limits set extend over a considerably wider mass range than previous searches

Description and performance of track and primary-vertex reconstruction with the CMS tracker

A description is provided of the software algorithms developed for the CMS tracker both for reconstructing charged-particle trajectories in proton-proton interactions and for using the resulting tracks to estimate the positions of the LHC luminous region and individual primary-interaction vertices. Despite the very hostile environment at the LHC, the performance obtained with these algorithms is found to be excellent. For tbar t events under typical 2011 pileup conditions, the average track-reconstruction efficiency for promptly-produced charged particles with transverse momenta of p(T) > 0.9GeV is 94% for pseudorapidities of |η| < 0.9 and 85% for 0.9 < |η| < 2.5. The inefficiency is caused mainly by hadrons that undergo nuclear interactions in the tracker material. For isolated muons, the corresponding efficiencies are essentially 100%. For isolated muons of p(T) = 100GeV emitted at |η| < 1.4, the resolutions are approximately 2.8% in p(T), and respectively, 10μm and 30μm in the transverse and longitudinal impact parameters. The position resolution achieved for reconstructed primary vertices that correspond to interesting pp collisions is 10–12μm in each of the three spatial dimensions. The tracking and vertexing software is fast and flexible, and easily adaptable to other functions, such as fast tracking for the trigger, or dedicated tracking for electrons that takes into account bremsstrahlung