deltaHacks continues to impress

 

deltaHacks (@deltahacks) took place for the 3rd year running at McMaster University this past weekend! The hackathon again did not fail to impress, with hundreds of students and 19 teams spending 2 days working on “building real world applications that create positive change”.

This “hack for change” aspect of the competition really sets it apart from many other hackathons and similar events. The quality of the work accomplished in what essentially amounts to 24 hours is always mind blowing (check out Holo Body below). Perhaps equally important, volunteers tell me that teams of first year students will show up not knowing how to program on Saturday morning and leave on Sunday with a working Android application and an ability to use GitHub!

 

Here are the six finalists that demo’d at the closing ceremonies…

 

Holo Body – an edtech solution that allows students to view 3D augmented reality holographs of the human anatomy using their smartphones.

 

 

 

Lifeline – a hardware solution to detect when a driver is falling asleep and alert them in order to prevent an accident.

 

 

 

 

Voice of Reason – a mobile application that allows users to check if purchases will keep them within their budget (i.e. is it affordable), meant to prevent poor impulse purchase decisions.

 

 

 

VATS – stands for Very Awesome Tipping Solution, a hardware solution to detect whether an elderly person has fallen over.

 

 

 

 

Phonetic English – a Google Chrome extension that translates webpage text into an encoding that makes words easier to pronounce for those learning English (the mismatch between spelling and pronunciation can be a barrier to learning).

 

 

 

Cardio Protect – a hardware solution to detect cardiac arrest and report it to allow for earlier treatment.

 

 

 

The final winners were: 3rd place – VATS, 2nd place – Lifeline, and 1st place – HoloBody.

The event is basically a recruiter’s dream. So it’s no surprise the competition was well sponsored and supported from private sector and public sector partners alike, with a ton of give-aways and special category prizes.

It’s wonderful to see what this event has blossomed into, and it’ll be exciting to see where it goes next.

CHCH covered the event in a report on Saturday.