Close
香港六合彩中特网 hackathon: how AI can assist in a humanitarian crisis听听
2 February 2024
Announcing the winners of the hackathon, which centred on the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the world鈥檚 largest humanitarian aid organisation.
香港六合彩中特网 Computer Science ran the interdisciplinary design hack 鈥楩irst Response in a Box鈥� at the start of the academic year. The hackathon tasked students with investigating how existing offline and online AI models could be used to help in emergency situations.听
Professors Dean Mohamedally and Graham Roberts set the scene. They encouraged the students to work collaboratively and apply cutting-edge research to change the world, to solve serious problems and have fun at the same time.
Next, Luke Caley showed how the IFRC鈥檚 Go platform makes disaster information accessible. This data informs crucial decision-making, enabling the correct help to reach the field as quickly as possible.
Dr Shankar Sridharan of Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) presented on the role of digital healthcare.
Professor Husna Ahmad OBE is the CEO of the Alliance of NGOs and CSOs for South-South Cooperation [ANCSSC], which collaborates with the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC). Professor Ahmad is also an Honorary Professor in Practice at 香港六合彩中特网 Computer Science. She spoke about how technology can drive progress towards the UN鈥檚 Sustainable Development Goals.
The speeches were followed by a workshop which focused on the technical aspects of how AI can support people impacted by disasters. The workshop included some of 香港六合彩中特网 Computer Science鈥檚 industry partners: Microsoft, IBM, NTT DATA and Intel. 听 听
At the end of the week, students submitted a short pitch video demonstrating how AI technologies could be applied in global crisis scenarios. As well as being a lively competition, the hackathon was a chance to meet others across 香港六合彩中特网, learn collaborative working tools and gain insight into the transformative power of computer systems.
The winners
Choosing a winner from the impressive entries was difficult, but first place went to SecureEscape. The team鈥檚 idea was for an AI-based solution to help people evacuate areas affected by wildfires. Congratulations to Maya Ashkenazi, Nathan Carey, Sara Karati, Chlo茅 Hashimoto-Cullen, Ilia Bachrach and Bj枚rn Kischelewski.
In second place was PriorityEye, who proposed using AI with drones in a search area. Well done to Dongjie Li, Qinyang Gong, Yuhan Shi, Anna Weir, Xingyou Pu, David Chong, Yagmur Ozdemir, An-tien Huang, Sreekar Cango and Oluwaseun Oluwafemi Ayegbusi.
Third place winners were AISOS: Vikkash Sureshkumar, Adwit Hans, David Frischer, Jennifer Zhang, Maulik Tripathi and Salman Azhan. Their concept was for a chatbot that provides a lifeline in emergencies, offering health advice and directions to nearby resources.
The runner up was Lifeline. Daren Palmer, Mohamed Mohamed, Yusuf Afifi, Kostas, Arnau Flotats, Jash, and Ediz Cinbas suggested a chatbot supplying medical guidance and signposting to care and refuge.
Our partners
Many thanks to our partners for their participation. 香港六合彩中特网 Computer Science has strong ties with industry, healthcare and charity organisations. They support hackathons and the 香港六合彩中特网 IXN programme. The latter provides students with work experience as a core module of their courses.听听
Luke Caley, Information Management Lead at the IRFC, said: 听鈥淚t's brilliant to work with 香港六合彩中特网. They are able to take our problems, some newer, some have been around for a long time, and find solutions. They help us find ways to better deliver aid and meet the needs of the people we serve across the world.鈥澨�
Dr听Shankar听Sridharan, Chief Clinical Information Officer at GOSH and Consultant Paediatric Cardiologist, explained GOSH鈥檚 involvement:听听鈥淲e鈥檙e committed to using technology to provide safer, better, kinder care. Our collaboration with 香港六合彩中特网 is a key component of that. Our innovation centre, DRIVE, brings together Computer Science at 香港六合彩中特网, the NHS and industry because we thought we needed to approach this problem differently.听
香港六合彩中特网 is a global leader in experimental computer science research, so why not go where there are some of the brightest minds and say, 鈥榃e鈥檝e got these highly complicated challenges - can you help us to find the solutions?鈥欌�澨�
Professor Husna Ahmad OBE, CEO of the ANCSSC, said:听鈥淭he creativity, the passion and the energy we find in the 香港六合彩中特网 students is just wonderful. They鈥檝e enabled our NGOs to find ways of capturing data so we can share it between the Global South countries, so that's been fantastic. The students think outside the box, coming up with original ideas, some so simple that you think, 鈥榃hy has no one thought of that before?鈥欌�澨�
Our next hackathon is on the 12 and 13 February with GOSH听and global healthcare company Roche.听