Coronavirus: Bay Area-based global ‘hackathon’ takes aim at crisis

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Ladies and gentlemen, start your computers.

A former Facebook executive on Thursday launched a “hackathon” contest to draw solutions to the coronavirus crisis from the world’s technology developers. By noon, more than 8,000 people had signed on to participate.

“Everyone is affected by this crisis, and everyone has a role to play in the response,” Sam Lessin, a former vice-president of product management at Facebook and currently a Bay Area tech investor and tech CEO, said in announcing the contest.

In the face of the pandemic, the job of doctors and nurses is clear, but tech workers with valuable expertise may not know how to contribute, Lessin said.

“This hackathon is meant to be a platform for many to get involved and start to explore what they can do now to help,” he said. Hackathons are intended to use the talents of developers, engineers, designers and other tech-savvy people to rapidly produce solutions to problems.

While participants were encouraged to “feel empowered to get creative” in developing solutions for local or global coronavirus problems, hackathon organizers provided six suggested areas of focus: health, vulnerable populations, business troubles, community connections and services, education, and entertainment.

In one hackathon submission, a man identifying himself as a Delhi, India data-science student named Aaryan Verma wrote on the hackathon site that he had built artificial intelligence software to analyze chest X-rays and identify possible coronavirus infection in seconds. “I thought there should be the minimum time to test (for) this virus so that actions can be taken as soon as possible because of its highly contagious nature,” he wrote, adding that he planned to expand his software’s capabilities to cover CT scans.

Organizers said a number of prominent tech firms, including Twitter, were involved in the hackathon. Twitter’s head of engineering, Michael Montano, said the company saw the contest as an opportunity for its employees “to have a dedicated space to think and build creatively” in responding to the outbreak.

“We want to use our tools for good to improve our collective preparedness and response to this pandemic,” Montano said via email.

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The deadline for submitting proposals was set at 9 a.m. Monday, with judging to take place that week and “highlighted projects” to be announced April 3.

Source: https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/03/26/coronavirus-bay-area-based-global-hackathon-takes-aim-at-crisis/