Hacking Solutions for At-risk Individuals: COVID-19 Response Hackathon Weekend 2 Recap

The pandemic exposed a multitude of different groups to hard hitting direct and indirect effects of COVID-19. Whether these individuals be elderly, minority groups, those struggling with health or mental illness, or others, they each have their own unique needs and obstacles. This past weekend, April 16-18th, 2021, NEMIC hosted our second COVID-19 Response Innovation Hackathon to hack solutions to solve problems for these at-risk individuals. Participating teams had the opportunity to choose a user with an associated problem, partner with a design team lead, and build a solution to best support the chosen group.

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First Place - $1,000 Prize

First prize went to team Locomotion. Locomotion is a virtual dance exercise platform designed for school aged children affected by the pandemic and social-isolation. The team was lead by Design lead, Paul Osimo, Product Design Consultant, and team members Kelvin Chang, Brown University AMS MD Candidate, Calgary Haines-Trautman, RISD MID Candidate, and Justin Bosscher, Computer Science URI Candidate.

Second Place - $500 Prize

Team Rebalance. Rebalance is a social app to connect those recovering from alcohol and substance abuse during times of isolation. The team was lead by Design Lead, Catherine Jameson, Mechanical Engineer at Loft llc., and team members Priya Bhanot, Brown University Candidate, and Emanuele Raggi, Software Engineer.

Participating Teams - $100 Prize

Runners up included:

Team Lumavax. Lumavax is the Kayak.com for ADA accessible COVID-19 vaccine information. The team was lead by Design lead, Corwin Ackerman, partner at AK Studios Design, and team members Whitney Terrill, Brown University Candidate, and Seva Simone, RISD ID Candidate. Both Terrill and Simone participated in Weekend 1 of the COVID-19 Response Innovation Hackathon. Read about it here.

Team Village. Village is a online community created to support working mother’s through community caregiving. The team was lead by Design Lead, Chris O’Connell, Industrial Designer at Loft llc., and team members Sahar Shahamatdar, Brown University MD-PhD Candidate, and Shivam Mathura, Senior Director of Product and Strategy at COTA, Inc.

The COVID-19 Innovation Response Hackathon would not be possible without our partnership with the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training’s Back to Work Program.

Explore the Hackathon Weekend

Day 1 - Immersion

Teams were matched with designated design leads who lead the teams through a problem analysis, “How Might We…” statement brainstorm, evaluation criteria development, ideation sprints, concept development, concept refinement, and presentation design. We want to shout out a HUGE thank you to Catherine Jameson, Chris O’Connell, Corwin Ackerman, and Paul Osimo for leading the teams throughout the entire Hackathon.

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Teams utilized Miro, an online visual collaboration platform for teamwork, to organize, ideate, and create their products and ventures while working virtually with their teams.

Ayan Bhandari and Aidan Petrie, as Masters of Ceremonies, lead Introduction to the Innovation Process & Opportunity Selection presentations to get the groups thinking creatively before they worked with their teams to begin ideating into the evening.

Day 2 - Concept Generation

Day two was focused on giving teams as much time to collaborate as possible. In the morning Master of Ceremony, Ayan Bhandari lead teams through a Concept Generation & Visual Communication Presentation & Drawing Lesson. Teams then broke away into breakout rooms to complete Rapid Ideation Sprints lead by Design Leads. By the end of the day, teams down selected their idea and refined their product.

Day 3 - Refine + Pitch

Day three’s focus was on refinement of their product/service and pitch deck creation. The first presentation of the day was lead by Aidan Petrie who took the teams through a Pitch Deck Development Overview and Pitch Deck Template Discussion. Teams then utilized the full day to develop their pitch deck and practice their pitch for final judging in the evening.

By 5pm EST, teams were ready to pitch their innovations to our panel of judges that included, Margaux Boyaval, UX Creative Director, Digital Health, Teva Pharmaceuticals, Dave Durfee, CEO & Chief Scientist, Bay Computer Associates, Dee Dee Chatham, Director of Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Undergraduate Research at URI, Melissa Simon, Director of Business Development, Brown Technology Innovations at Brown University, and Danny Warshay, Executive Director, the Nelsen Center for Entrepreneurship at Brown University.

Teams were judged based on the following criteria:

• Energy & Presence

• Visual Presentation & Flow

• Novelty of the Idea

• Impact to the Problem

• Commercial Viability

• Overall Pitch

What did the Participants Say?

"This was my first time being apart of any kind of hackathon, and it was addicting. It was such a fun and engaging process, and I feel like I learned so much this weekend. It’s amazing how if you just sit down with a team of people and dedicate your focus on solving an issue and being creative with your ideas, and following the set out structure, what you come up with.”

“ I feel like we all found different of the issue to work on. I think learning more about the innovation process was of tremendous value to me. Practicing it in real time. The networking aspect as well. Being in touch with people who come from different specialties. Often times, in the medical/health specialty you only meet people in that space.

“I think this hackathon was fantastic. The whole process was so polished. All the apps that we used were so helpful. I have never heard of Miro before and I am certain I will use it again. It was a learning opportunity and got me to look in a different direction.”

“I didn’t expect it to be as formal. I mean with without any negative connotations. This innovation process is a thing people follow in industry and it’s very real and it’s very effective. I have no doubt in my mind, going thorough this weekend, about the value of this hackathon.”

“As a Design Lead, having run some design workshops for clients in the past, I know how much work goes into setting them up and having the templates in place really allowed us as team leaders to just jump in. All the supplies were so set up we could just steamroll into each activity.”