{"id":5945,"date":"2026-05-05T11:58:31","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T18:58:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/?p=5945"},"modified":"2026-05-07T10:41:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T17:41:12","slug":"design-thinking-at-the-accelathon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/design-thinking-at-the-accelathon\/","title":{"rendered":"Design Thinking at the Accelathon: Claremont Accelerator Recap"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Claremont Accelerator hosted its first Accelathon at the Hive, a fast-paced hackathon challenging participants to \u201cfix a broken system or institution.\u201d With just five hours to ideate and prototype, teams used AI tools like Claude to build a product with power to solve real-world problems. Amid the chaos, two students invoked Human-Centered Design (HCD) principles to highlight one of the most important points in this context: remember <\/span>who<\/span><\/i> you\u2019re building for.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Charlotte Friedman, a junior at Pomona majoring in cognitive science with a concentration in HCD, and Weitao Ke, a first-year student at CMC studying computer science and HCD, led a design thinking crash course for competitors eager to claim the first-place prize.<\/span><\/p>\n

Weitao<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re aiming to help them navigate the HCD process so they can have a better way of generating ideas and figuring out just which one they should pursue.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In a crunch for time, their workshop introduced a condensed version of the process (empathize, define, ideate, prototype, iterate) that could still be applied to the single-day sprint.<\/span><\/p>\n

Charlotte<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re hoping to do is remind all the builders here to focus more on the user that they\u2019re trying to solve for,\u201d she said. \u201cTo \u2018fall in love with the problem,\u2019 so they can center in on the people they\u2019re trying to help, rather than just jumping straight to coding something that looks super awesome.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In a space where polished prototypes and technical sophistication often garner praise and success, HCD keeps participants mindful of resisting the instinct to optimize too early for appearance or performance. It pushes them to define the problem more clearly, grounded in real human needs.<\/span><\/p>\n

Weitao reminded us that while design is often by humans, for humans, it isn\u2019t always exactly human-centered.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cYou could have profit-centered design, where you disregard ethics or social impact. Or design for pure artistic purposes, or just for your portfolio,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to avoid that. We want to push people to build something that actually addresses the needs of those you\u2019re claiming to serve.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

These conscious choices fit within the greater context of AI\u2019s rapid development in today\u2019s world. While these tools accelerate what students can build, the question of what should be built, and for whom, becomes more urgent.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

written by Salina Mu\u00f1oz<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Claremont Accelerator hosted its first Accelathon at the Hive, a fast-paced hackathon challenging participants to \u201cfix a broken system or institution.\u201d With just five hours to ideate and prototype, teams […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":245,"featured_media":5946,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,63,79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-bite","category-community","category-impact"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDesign Thinking at the Accelathon: Claremont Accelerator Recap - The Hive<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/design-thinking-at-the-accelathon\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Design Thinking at the Accelathon: Claremont Accelerator Recap - The Hive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Claremont Accelerator hosted its first Accelathon at the Hive, a fast-paced hackathon challenging participants to \u201cfix a broken system or institution.\u201d With just five hours to ideate and prototype, teams […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/design-thinking-at-the-accelathon\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Hive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-05T18:58:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-05-07T17:41:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2026\/05\/Design-thinking-charlotte-weitoa-1024x656.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"656\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"smon2024@pomona.edu\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"smon2024@pomona.edu\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/design-thinking-at-the-accelathon\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/design-thinking-at-the-accelathon\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"smon2024@pomona.edu\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/#\/schema\/person\/928c310904c59a040aff83a39dc78187\"},\"headline\":\"Design Thinking at the Accelathon: Claremont Accelerator Recap\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-05T18:58:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-05-07T17:41:12+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/design-thinking-at-the-accelathon\/\"},\"wordCount\":396,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/design-thinking-at-the-accelathon\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2026\/05\/Design-thinking-charlotte-weitoa.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Buzz Bite\",\"Claremont Community\",\"Impact\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/design-thinking-at-the-accelathon\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/design-thinking-at-the-accelathon\/\",\"name\":\"Design Thinking at the Accelathon: Claremont Accelerator Recap - The Hive\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/design-thinking-at-the-accelathon\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/design-thinking-at-the-accelathon\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2026\/05\/Design-thinking-charlotte-weitoa.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-05T18:58:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-05-07T17:41:12+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/#\/schema\/person\/928c310904c59a040aff83a39dc78187\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/design-thinking-at-the-accelathon\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/design-thinking-at-the-accelathon\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/design-thinking-at-the-accelathon\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2026\/05\/Design-thinking-charlotte-weitoa.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2026\/05\/Design-thinking-charlotte-weitoa.png\",\"width\":1872,\"height\":1200},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/design-thinking-at-the-accelathon\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Design Thinking at the Accelathon: Claremont Accelerator Recap\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/\",\"name\":\"The Hive\",\"description\":\"The Hive helps students increase their creative capacity and practice collaboration across differences.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/#\/schema\/person\/928c310904c59a040aff83a39dc78187\",\"name\":\"smon2024@pomona.edu\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/44e9c939b441de19c52e1d06c51230023b7e864a830ab60279348f40c7a44b0c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/44e9c939b441de19c52e1d06c51230023b7e864a830ab60279348f40c7a44b0c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/44e9c939b441de19c52e1d06c51230023b7e864a830ab60279348f40c7a44b0c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"smon2024@pomona.edu\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/author\/smon2024pomona-edu\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Design Thinking at the Accelathon: Claremont Accelerator Recap - The Hive","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/design-thinking-at-the-accelathon\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Design Thinking at the Accelathon: Claremont Accelerator Recap - The Hive","og_description":"Claremont Accelerator hosted its first Accelathon at the Hive, a fast-paced hackathon challenging participants to \u201cfix a broken system or institution.\u201d With just five hours to ideate and prototype, teams […]","og_url":"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/design-thinking-at-the-accelathon\/","og_site_name":"The Hive","article_published_time":"2026-05-05T18:58:31+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-05-07T17:41:12+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":656,"url":"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2026\/05\/Design-thinking-charlotte-weitoa-1024x656.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"smon2024@pomona.edu","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"smon2024@pomona.edu","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/design-thinking-at-the-accelathon\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/design-thinking-at-the-accelathon\/"},"author":{"name":"smon2024@pomona.edu","@id":"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/#\/schema\/person\/928c310904c59a040aff83a39dc78187"},"headline":"Design Thinking at the Accelathon: Claremont Accelerator Recap","datePublished":"2026-05-05T18:58:31+00:00","dateModified":"2026-05-07T17:41:12+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/design-thinking-at-the-accelathon\/"},"wordCount":396,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/design-thinking-at-the-accelathon\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2026\/05\/Design-thinking-charlotte-weitoa.png","articleSection":["Buzz Bite","Claremont Community","Impact"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/design-thinking-at-the-accelathon\/","url":"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/design-thinking-at-the-accelathon\/","name":"Design Thinking at the Accelathon: Claremont Accelerator Recap - The Hive","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/design-thinking-at-the-accelathon\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/design-thinking-at-the-accelathon\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2026\/05\/Design-thinking-charlotte-weitoa.png","datePublished":"2026-05-05T18:58:31+00:00","dateModified":"2026-05-07T17:41:12+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/#\/schema\/person\/928c310904c59a040aff83a39dc78187"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/design-thinking-at-the-accelathon\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/design-thinking-at-the-accelathon\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/design-thinking-at-the-accelathon\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2026\/05\/Design-thinking-charlotte-weitoa.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2026\/05\/Design-thinking-charlotte-weitoa.png","width":1872,"height":1200},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/design-thinking-at-the-accelathon\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Design Thinking at the Accelathon: Claremont Accelerator Recap"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/#website","url":"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/","name":"The Hive","description":"The Hive helps students increase their creative capacity and practice collaboration across differences.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/#\/schema\/person\/928c310904c59a040aff83a39dc78187","name":"smon2024@pomona.edu","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/44e9c939b441de19c52e1d06c51230023b7e864a830ab60279348f40c7a44b0c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/44e9c939b441de19c52e1d06c51230023b7e864a830ab60279348f40c7a44b0c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/44e9c939b441de19c52e1d06c51230023b7e864a830ab60279348f40c7a44b0c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"smon2024@pomona.edu"},"url":"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/author\/smon2024pomona-edu\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/245"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5945"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5945\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5971,"href":"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5945\/revisions\/5971"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}