Last year’s wildly successful Hack4Health — a hackathon designed to address issues in the dementia and multiple sclerosis (MS) communities — returns this November for what event co-chair Lisa Loiselle hopes will be another exciting weekend.
Lisa and co-chair Assistant Professor Karla Boluk founded the Waterloo Applied Health Sciences hackathon after taking part in a similar event in Toronto called DementiaHack in 2014. “It was great, but the organizers hadn’t included people affected by the disease in the planning, execution or judging of the event. I knew with the ingenuity of Waterloo and the strength of MAREP (Murray Alzheimer Research and Education Program) we’d be able to take it to a new level,” says Lisa.
She was right. Last year’s inaugural Hack4Health saw 75+ participants working with mentors from the dementia and MS communities to brainstorm and develop mobile applications and programs designed to address issues specific to those communities.
The winning idea last year was Cloud9, a variable pressure redistribution mattress designed to ease pressure ulcers, more commonly known as bedsores. “The idea came directly out of a planning meeting we had with some of our mentors living with dementia and MS, who identified bedsores as a real issue,” says Lisa. The students who pitched Cloud9 have now formed a startup to develop the project, and hope to have a prototype ready shortly.
This year Lisa hopes to double the number of participants to 150, and to focus further on the social-innovation possibilities inherent in the hackathon format. The hackathon is open to all undergraduate and graduate students in any Faculty, and participants can register as teams or individuals.
“You don’t need a tech background to take part — if you’ve got great ideas and want to help, we’ll match you up with mentors and teammates who’ve got the skills you need.”
Update: At press time we heard H4H 2.0 had 140 participants, resulting in 28 teams – 10 of which moved onto the final pitch competition. Check Hack4Health for the winning ideas!
For further info: loiselle@uwaterloo.ca
