In recent years, Software Engineering (SE) scholars and practitioners have emphasized the importance of integrating soft skills into SE education. However, teaching and learning soft skills are complex, as they cannot be acquired passively through raw knowledge acquisition. On the other hand, hackathons have attracted increasing attention due to their experiential, collaborative, and intensive nature, which certain tasks could be similar to real-world software development. This paper aims to discuss the idea of hackathons as an educational strategy for shaping SE students' soft skills in practice. Initially, we overview the existing literature on soft skills and hackathons in SE education. Then, we report preliminary empirical evidence from a seven-day hybrid hackathon involving 40 students. We assess how the hackathon experience promoted innovative and creative thinking, collaboration and teamwork, and knowledge application among participants through a structured questionnaire designed to evaluate students' self-awareness. Lastly, our findings and new directions are analyzed through the lens of Self-Determination Theory, which offers a psychological lens to understand human behavior. This paper contributes to academia by advocating the potential of hackathons in SE education and proposing concrete plans for future research within SDT. For industry, our discussion has implications around developing soft skills in future SE professionals, thereby enhancing their employability and readiness in the software market.

翻译：近年来，软件工程（SE）学者与实践者日益强调将软技能融入SE教育的重要性。然而，软技能的教学与习得具有复杂性，因其无法通过被动的知识灌输获得。另一方面，黑客松因其体验式、协作性与高强度特质而受到越来越多的关注，其某些任务可能与现实软件开发环境相似。本文旨在探讨将黑客松作为一种教育策略，在实践中塑造SE学生软技能的构想。首先，我们综述了SE教育中关于软技能与黑客松的现有文献。随后，我们报告了一项为期七天、包含40名学生参与的混合式黑客松的初步实证证据。通过一份旨在评估学生自我认知的结构化问卷，我们评估了黑客松经历如何促进参与者的创新与创造性思维、协作与团队合作以及知识应用能力。最后，我们借助自我决定理论视角分析研究结果与未来方向，该理论为理解人类行为提供了心理学框架。本文通过倡导黑客松在SE教育中的潜力，并在SDT框架内提出具体的研究计划，为学术界做出贡献。对产业界而言，我们的讨论对培养未来SE专业人员的软技能具有启示意义，从而提升他们在软件市场中的就业能力与职业适应性。