The hackathon ran across 4th and 5th April, 2020, taking place remotely and organized by HAT-LAB and supported by Dataswift, a data account management solution. HAT-LAB is a research and innovation space for the ‘Hub-of-All-Things’ (‘HAT’) personal data account ecosystem, and it seeks to enable innovators to work with verified personal data.
The aim of the hackathon was to find technologically-driven solutions to help in the battle against the SARS-CoV-2 (coronavirus) global pandemic. The Dataswift backed-hackathon took place in the U.K., and it formed part of a series of hackathons taking part across the world at the same time. A hackathon is a design sprint-like event where participants attempt to develop software and other applications over an intense time-period.
The hackathon had three themes:
Citizen Science: To discover solutions to empower individuals to help healthcare and the government tackle the disease faster.
Community Health: Developing technology or applications that help the vulnerable, or ensure communities have the resources necessary.
Mass Coordination: producing apps that can unlock the power of personal data, to ethically help our mobilization and coordination of resources.
Examples from the weekend events include devising an app called ShopAid, which brings store inventory and local shopping into the living room
Those supporting the hakathon included: NHSX, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland Clinic, WMG University of Warwick, University of Surrey, University of Exeter, the Ethical Tech Alliance, Samsung Medical Center, AITRICS, the Yonsei University Health System, Hanwha, and Asan Medical Center, which is one of South Korea’s healthcare centers.
