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Hackathons Target Coronavirus


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A screenshot of team members during a hackathon.

Thousands worldwide are participating in hackathons to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

Credit: Johns Hopkins University Center for Bioengineering Innovation & Design

Thousands of technology enthusiasts and others worldwide are participating in hackathons to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

For example, the Johns Hopkins Center for Bioengineering Innovation and Design ran a five-day hackathon during the last week of March whose targets included communicating effectively about COVID-19, prevention of transmission within communities, and healthcare equipment shortages.

Meanwhile, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology hosted a two-day Beat the Pandemic hackathon in which 1,500 participants worked in 238 teams to produce a mobile machine learning app to score individuals' COVID-19 immunity according to as location, age, interactions, and health history.

Said Sam Lessin of venture capital firm Slow Ventures, which helped organize a hackathon last month, “Doctors are leading the fight, but a lot of people would love to find ways to engage and help.”

From The Wall Street Journal
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Abstracts Copyright © 2020 SmithBucklin, Washington, DC, USA


 

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