The move towards an engineering education that is more committed to global challenges requires not only technical knowledge, skills, and competencies but also a sustainability-oriented mindset that students develop during their academic training and can apply in their future professional practice. In this context, the School of Industrial Engineering (ETSII) of the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) has held three editions of INDUSHack, a university hackathon designed for engineering students that offers a dynamic and applied approach to challenge-based learning. Over the course of its three editions, INDUSHack has enabled students to address real societal challenges in a collaborative, competitive, and stimulating environment. The challenge-based learning methodology promotes the application of technical knowledge, skills, and competencies acquired during their degree programs and the development of key transversal competencies such as responsibility, decision-making, effective communication, teamwork, leadership and social and environmental commitment. To introduce students to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and foster a more sustainability-driven mindset, the third edition of INDUSHack, held in March 2025, included a committee specialized in SDGs. This committee was responsible for evaluating the impact of the student projects and awarding those most aligned with the SDGs. Additionally, to assess the educational impact of the event in relation to the SDGs, a set of three surveys was specifically designed and administered at different stages of the hackathon: at the beginning, during project development, and at the end. The purpose of these surveys was to analyse students’ prior knowledge of the SDGs and their learning expectations (initial survey), evaluate how the SDGs were integrated into their projects and the difficulties encountered (mid-event survey), and assess the final impact of the hackathon on their learning, their perception of the relevance of the SDGs, and their intention to apply them in their professional careers (final survey). This edition brought together 60 students organized into 15 multidisciplinary teams. The surveys achieved response rates of 95% (initial), 98% (mid-event), and 90% (final), which strengthens the reliability of the results obtained.

This paper presents the main outcomes of the event and the analysis of the survey results. Among the most notable findings is the positive impact of the hackathon on SDG-related learning: most students reported having learned new ways to apply the SDGs or having integrated them into a real project for the first time, and over 70% stated their intention to apply this knowledge in future professional projects. However, relevant challenges were also identified, such as the difficulty translating SDGs into concrete technical problems and the need for more specific training within engineering curricula. In conclusion, this study highlights the transformative potential of hackathons as educational tools. It underscores the importance of integrating the SDGs into engineering education to promote a more socially and environmentally responsible professional practice. In addition, it presents the value of using structured, multi-stage surveys as a transferable methodology to evaluate the educational impact of sustainability-focused learning experiences.

Keywords: Challenge-based learning, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Integral Education, Hackathon, Engineering Innovation.