{"id":72519,"date":"2016-10-27T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-10-27T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/healthhacks-ri-all-about-pushing-boundaries-of-discovery\/"},"modified":"2016-10-27T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-10-27T00:00:00","slug":"healthhacks-ri-all-about-pushing-boundaries-of-discovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2016\/10\/healthhacks-ri-all-about-pushing-boundaries-of-discovery\/","title":{"rendered":"HealthHacks RI all about pushing boundaries of discovery"},"content":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I., October. 27, 2016<\/strong> \u2014 \u201cBrainstorming\u201d is not a strong enough word to describe the intense and frenzied activity that defined HealthHacks RI 2016, the health and wellness hack-a-thon held at the University of Rhode Island earlier this month.<\/p>\n

Given the energy and creativity in evidence at URI\u2019s Makerspace, a new resource of high-tech tools for collaborative thinking and design at the Robert L. Carothers Library and Learning Commons \u2014 \u201cbrain-typhooning\u201d might be a better description.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really all about experimenting. It\u2019s exposure to failure,\u201d says hack-a-thon competitor James Gannon, a sophomore from Coventry, R.I<\/strong>., studying electrical engineering and Spanish in URI\u2019s International Engineering Program. \u201cYou come up with an extraordinary idea that might not seem possible and try to make it possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

URI\u2019s Colleges of Engineering, Health Sciences and Business Administration, the URI Research Foundation and the Ryan Institute for Neuroscience as well as industry partners\u2014including Slater Technology Fund, Optimity Advisors, EpiVax, Kenyon Industries and Doctor\u2019s Choice\u2014sponsored the hack-a-thon. It involved students, scientists, faculty and business leaders from Rhode Island and beyond, drawing 30 students from three universities, 13 industry mentors and countless URI staff and faculty.<\/p>\n

Nick DeLuca, a junior studying computer engineering and German in the International Engineering Program, was a member of the URI team that placed third in the competition. The team developed a wearable monitor that senses when a person\u2019s vital signs are abnormal and sends text alerts to family members and emergency dispatchers. \u201cWe worked on it for almost the entire 48 hours,\u201d says DeLuca, of Cranston, R.I.<\/strong> \u201cWe had very little sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n

DeLuca and Gannon say the impromptu team makeups proved particularly beneficial. \u201cIt was a unique opportunity to work together with people from different backgrounds who didn\u2019t know each other well and to come together to create something that can help people,\u201d DeLuca says.<\/p>\n

Gary Liguori, dean of URI\u2019s new College of Health Sciences, served as a hack-a-thon judge. He was impressed that such great ideas could come to fruition in 48 hours. \u201cThis type of energy is infectious,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\"James<\/a>
James Gannon, standing, of Coventry, R.I, a sophomore studying electrical engineering and Spanish responds to his teammate, Long Zou of Westerly, R.I., a sophomore studying electrical engineering at the Makerspace on the University of Rhode Island Kingston Campus on Oct. 15, 2016, during HealthHacks RI, a health and wellness hack-a-thon. (URI photo by Michael Salerno Photography)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gannon \u2014 whose team developed a wristband that tracks wearers\u2019 activity levels and syncs to a smartphone app so users can set goals and share data with health care providers \u2014 would agree. \u201cIf we walked out with anything, it was a big idea we can develop further.\u201d<\/p>\n

DeLuca\u2019s team will get to do just that. The students are fine-tuning their device for a presentation Nov. 2 in Providence at the Social Enterprise Greenhouse, a HealthHacks RI partner, along with MedMates. \u201cWe are looking for opportunities to take it to the next level,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

During the hack-a-thon, the teams drew inspiration and expertise from mentors, including Dr. Johnny Luo, founder of Doctor\u2019s Choice; Dr. Wendy Nilsen, program director for Smart & Connected Health, National Science Foundation; Ryan Maguire, creativity and entrepreneurship professor, URI College of Business; and Josh Daly, mentor with URI Start-Up Program\/Accelerator\/Resource Center and counselor at the URI\u2019s Small Business Development Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would love to see more of this and for the Academic Health Collaborative (a consortium of the Colleges of Health Sciences, Pharmacy and Nursing) to take the lead,\u201d Liguori says. \u201cIn fact, the Collaborative\u2019s leadership is already discussing some exciting student competitions for this spring, so stay tuned.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>HealthHacks RI 2016 Winners:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  • 1st Place: Team VitaMine – App and machine to create personalized vitamins and supplements, Worcester Polytechnic Institute<\/li>\n
  • 2nd Place: Team The Balcony –\u00a0A mobile application simplifying communication between caregivers and family members, Brown University<\/li>\n
  • 3rd Place: \u00a0Response RT – Sensor technology is used to equip first responders with health information and situational data before reaching the patient, University of Rhode Island<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    KINGSTON, R.I., October. 27, 2016 \u2014 \u201cBrainstorming\u201d is not a strong enough word to describe the intense and frenzied activity that defined HealthHacks RI 2016, the health and wellness hack-a-thon held at the University of Rhode Island earlier this month. Given the energy and creativity in evidence at URI\u2019s Makerspace, a new resource of high-tech […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72521,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72519\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}