Winners of an online hackathon co-organized by Taiwan and the U.S. with the goal of developing sophisticated solutions for managing the coronavirus pandemic were announced May 18 in Taipei City.
Co-hosted by the Executive Yuan and American Institute in Taiwan in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Health and Welfare, National Development Council, National Center for High-performance Computing under the National Applied Research Laboratories and Institute for Information Industry, the event attracted 53 entries from countries around the world including Canada, Germany, Hungary, Japan, the U.K. and the U.S.
Teams Autonomy, LogBoard, TeamsEP, Interdisciplinary Laboratory and Gemini Data were declared winners, with the first four groups from Taiwan and the latter from the U.S.
Recognized for creating geographical disease forecasts by merging local governmental and institutional data with individual information, Autonomy submitted an early warning system that provides essential information to government officials and helps citizens avoid risky locations.
Meanwhile LogBoard and TeamsEP focused on collecting individual data, respectively designing a personal health recording tool and offering an application tracking body temperature and location data for those under mandatory 14-day home quarantine.
Equally impressive are Interdisciplinary Laboratory’s guidance platform for disseminating information on relief acts, medical services and temporary shelters and Gemini Data’s interactive contact tracing tool.
According to the Executive Yuan’s Board of Science and Technology, creative solutions offered by the winning teams will greatly contribute to collecting comprehensive information, strengthening public-private collaboration on disease management and making a smooth transition to normalcy after the pandemic. The government will continue sharing such technology with allies and like-minded partners around the world, the board added.
Organized under the auspices of the Taiwan-U.S. Joint Statement on a Partnership against Coronavirus announced by the MOFA and AIT March 18, the event was held May 5-12. A panel of judges selected winners May 15, evaluating entries based on factors such as innovation, feasibility, social influence and citizen participation. (YCH-E)
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