HACK THE VIRUS – A HACKATHON TO COUNTERACT COVID-19

The IT community is joining together to create and improve existing projects aimed at combating the effects caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tekwill joined the C19.md initiative group to organize an online hackathon with the theme “Hack the Virus”. The event was held the weekend of March 20-22 and was supported by UNICEF Moldova, UNDP Moldova, the Mentor.Me Project, and the Cowsay.Show podcast.

For three days, participating teams presented several projects aimed at combating the pandemic by identifying solutions and tools using current technology available. The participants in the hackathon were guided by IT experts and had the opportunity to communicate with organizations and representatives from international communities in order to apply the best technologies.

Ana Chirița, director of the Tekwill project stated “Since the outbreak of the pandemic caused by COVID-19, the Tekwill project has been involved in several initiatives aimed at identifying real solutions so that certain processes in the society can continue their course with the help of information technologies. This time, Tekwill has aligned its efforts with the C19.md initiative to organize the first online hackathon that focuses on finding and developing projects to improve the process of disseminating truthful and official information to prevent the spread of the virus but also to reduce the consequences of the pandemic. The most viable ideas within the hackathon will be supported in order to be implemented and will have the necessary support from the relevant authorities.”

The hackathon did not intend to name a single winner but encouraged the IT community to get involved as much as possible in addressing effective solutions to overcome the consequences of the pandemic.

Thus, the following projects were presented at the “Hack the Virus” hackathon:

1. Disease Control – Monitoring and searching for available beds for critically ill patients (link: http://c19md.xyz/login, credentials: admin@example.com password: password).
2. Help in Need – A platform that unites social organizations/people who need material help with volunteers who can deliver these products.
3. KnowVid19 – A true resource that fights misinformation, ignorance, and rumors.
4. Business Support – Help, tips, and guides for entrepreneurs. (Link: https://seeonee.io/)
5. Robot Delivery – Creating a robot/machine to go to hospitals or quarantined places and deliver food and medicine. (Link: http://robotica.c19.md/).
6. Automatic Hand Sanitizer – Device for automatic disinfection of hands without direct contact with it. (Link: http://robotica.c19.md/).
7. Online guide for teachers – Distance learning. Guide for teachers and schools, proposing various digital tools for any need.
8. Green Zone / Avoid them Maybe? – An application that allows users to be informed about crowds in stores and gas stations to reduce the risk of coronavirus infection.
9. COVID-19 genotype map – Development and research of the COVID-19 genome map for finding action points on the virus to eliminate or limit its spread.

During the three days of the hackathon, representatives of the Ministry of Health and the Labour and Social Protection, who are also part of the Single Command Center for crisis management caused by the COVID-19 virus, interacted with 120 registered participants and came up with some project suggestions:

• Telemedicine – remote consultations for doctors from all over the country to inform them about the necessary measures to be taken, in order not to get infected with COVID-19.
• Solutions for centralized communication with all the hospitals in the country, so that all the managers of the medical institutions are informed about the latest decisions.
• Voice mail for the population.

There will be an opportunity for more ideas at the next online hackathon to generate more useful solutions to “Hack the Virus”.