HackHarvard is an annual hackathon event organized by Harvard University. This year, a team from Amrita University’s won first prize in the Elderly category (Medicine Support).
A fully-functional and extensive elderly tracking system for use in indoor, outdoor and restrooms was created by the team from Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham. Team members included J. Anudeep, Kowshik G, and Dr. Shriram KV
Dr. Shriram KV is teaching Computer Science at Amrita School of Engineering Coimbatore, J Anudeep is doing his final year BTech in Electronics and Instrumentation and Kowshik G is doing final year BTech in Electronics and Communication.
Says Dr. Shriram, “the innovative wearable device provides a lot of independence to the elderly and raises an alert if they trip or fall anywhere so that caregivers can act immediately. The jury comprised Harvard Engineering professors, Harvard startup co-founders, software engineers from companies like Google, Microsoft, and Facebook were impressed with our product.”
There were 600 teams from all over the world including USA, Canada, China, Vietnam and India who participated in the contest. Added Shriram,
We were the only team from India who was invited to Harvard in October 2019 to present our product.” The prize included a trophy and cash award of $2,000.
HackHavard Global Hackathon challenges students to use technology to identify problems within their local communities and develop potential solutions to these problems.