Weatherhead School of Management’s xLab will partner with Cleveland Clinic’s Hwang Lab, Dataswift, Ethical Tech Alliance and HAT-LAB, along with a growing number of global partners, to host Hack from Home, a global hackathon that aims to find technology solutions to fight the spread of COVID-19.
The hackathon, which will be held remotely April 4-5, 2020, is calling all technologists, designers, activists, scholars, scientists, medical professionals, students and others to work together to combat some of the greatest challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The damage from this virus is not just about our health. It is also about our economy, our social lives and our community,” said Youngjin Yoo, xLab Founder and Elizabeth M. and William C. Treuhaft Professor of Entrepreneurship at the Weatherhead School of Management. “The COVID-19 pandemic is demonstrating in real time why society desperately needs a scalable ethical technology infrastructure."
The hackathon will center on three main themes:
- Mass data mobility
- Citizen science
- Community health
Jing Li, Leonard Case Jr. Professor in Engineering at the Case School of Engineering, hopes the hackathon will inspire more young people to use their skills and invest their talents to help end the pandemic.
“While our healthcare providers are busy taking care of patients, the virtual hackathon is an excellent idea to get people together from all around the globe to fight against the pandemic from a different dimension,” Li said. “From developing rapid testing kits and effective vaccines, to providing support for making public policies, computing, data science and other technologies have already become one of the most important tools scientists are using to study the virus.”
Yoo agrees that the hackathon will bring a multidisciplinary group of people from around the world to join efforts in fighting the pandemic.
“Our colleagues from the Case School of Engineering are among several campus partners who have quickly responded to the opportunity by mobilizing our students, staff and faculty, and their academic and professional networks, to join the hackathon” said Yoo.
Hack from Home has quickly garnered global attention, with participants from 30 countries registered. There is no limit on the number of people who can participate in the hackathon. Interested parties can sign up here.
Read Professor Youngjin Yoo’s article in Medium on fighting the pandemic with technology.