#WirVsVirus: Nationwide hackathon also with Karlsruhe participation
Almost 43,000 participants, 3,000 submitted ideas, 48 hours: Last weekend, a nationwide hackathon took place under the motto #WirVsVirus . There were also participants from Karlsruhe and who worked on innovative solutions to problems in times of the corona pandemic.
Under the patronage of the German government, seven organizations put together a great deal in just five days: the largest hackathon ever held worldwide. The motto of the digital competition was #WirVsVirus. Over the weekend, 800 projects were completed. Over 2,000 people provided their expertise as mentors.
The solutions that volunteers worked on during the weekend were just as diverse as the challenges posed by the current situation: The projects ranged from big data evaluations of radiology imaging procedures to construction plans for the reproduction of ventilators using 3D printing.
Several countries want to adopt this concept in the coming weeks. This makes Germany a real digital trendsetter, said the head of the Chancellery, Helge Braun, in a video message on Monday.
Also projects from Karlsruhe
There was also a lot of hard work on projects in Karlsruhe over the weekend. For example, employees from the FZI Research Center for Information Technology and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) developed a system that records vital data using a smartphone. The solution, called SmartHeart, is intended to help reduce the workload of medical staff.
Employees of the Karlsruhe-based company CAS Software AG also worked on a solution at the weekend. The solution <3Cor is designed to give socially isolated people from at-risk groups access to online services via their telephone.
Numerous Karlsruhe institutions, such as the City of Karlsruhe, the entrepreneur network CyberForum e.V. and the Karlsruhe Chamber of Industry and Commerce, had also called for participation.
“We can achieve a lot as a community,” summarized Helge Braun, Head of the Chancellery, in the video podcast. The hackathon showed that.