NE EDUCATION BUREAU
MANIPAL, APRIL 9
Manipal Academy of Higher Education-run Manipal Institute of Technology announced that a three-member students team has won the Covid19 Hackathon recently organised by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a college release said.
The students, Akshatha Kamath of Computer Science Engineering, Shubham Rateria of Computer and Communication Engineering and Adri Rajaraman of Electronics and Communication Engineering of the batch of 19 were declared winners in a 48-hour virtual event – ‘Beat the Pandemic’ – to help tackle the critical needs caused by the COVID -19 virus outbreak organised by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
The unique hackathon witnessed 1,500 participants from 75+ countries and 250+ mentors. As per the challenge metrics, they had teamed up with Melia Watson, Washington DC (Respiratory therapist, MBA ), Hsiang Wei Hu, Taiwan (Cofounder of Acusense Biomed) and Mariane Melo, U.K. (M.D.) in their venture to win the hackathon, which was curated to explore possible solutions to the challenging scenarios emerging around the Globe due to Coronavirus.
This hackathon was primarily focused on two sections, ‘Protecting vulnerable populations’ and ‘Helping health systems’, where the participating teams had to identify and shortlist problems to generate relevant solutions. The team from Manipal Institute of Technology was declared as winners for their invention of Track-‘Who to test and when’, which is a ‘TeleHealth’ platform for non-contact monitoring of vital signs. With this victory, they will now have an opportunity to co-develop and implement the pitched solution with the support of their partners and they look forward to improving the accuracy of the function and incorporate it into Tele-medicine platforms.
This solution was against their identified problem of overcrowded hospitals with inappropriate admissions, whereas less than 5% of the average population under 50 years of age required hospitalisation. This one-of-a-kind non-contact monitoring platform allows monitoring vital signs, such as heart rate, respiratory rate and blood oxygen concentration using just a phone camera, or webcam from home. This was appreciated as the much-required way to combat the COVID situation amidst the grave situation like this.
Conducting multiple facets of concept proofs, prototypes, and a preliminary vision for execution, they have successfully been able to stand out for providing the most appropriate and timely solution towards this pandemic scenario. Throughout the hackathon, several mentors with diverse expertise from across the U.S. were present to improve the idea and business proposal. On Sunday, April 5, 0, the team reconvened to present their work in the form of a 3-minute pitch followed by a Q and A session with the judges.
Sharing his happiness on the big win, Dr. D Srikanth Rao, Director, Manipal Institute of Technology said, “We are extremely delighted and proud of our students who have won the prestigious hackathon on the current COVID – 19 situation. We encourage students to be inquisitive, innovative and courageous in tackling societal problems.”
