HackHealth, a one-day, health-themed hackathon, was hosted by Stony Brook University’s Women in Computer Science (WiCS) on February 3. A diverse and beginner-friendly event, HackHealth provided a comfortable environment for participants to develop their ideas and skills.
With multiple big-name sponsors such as Google, Facebook, Softheon and Netsmart, HackHealth promised to be an interesting event and it delivered.
To start hackers off on the right foot, the day began with industry sponsors joining the students for breakfast, with the actual hacking starting at 11 am. WiCS President Kitty Liu first observed the 10 teams (with about 5 to 6 members per team) at work. Each team was tasked with creating and coding a piece of “health tech” ranging from topics such as mental health, nutrition, heart health and pediatrics. She then explained the nature of the problems that the teams were tackling. After lunch, the students continued hacking until 7 pm, followed by judging and awards until 10 pm.
WiCS seeks to foster understanding between men and women in computer science and to encourage and support both graduate and undergraduate students.
— Juan Tamayo, photo by Gary Haireti
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