Six students from the Master AIRE took part in the“Covid Hackathon”A 48-hour marathon to create tools to combat the pandemic.
The event took place on April 23 and 24, hosted by Interministerial Department for Public Transformation (DITP) with the support of Ministry of Solidarity and Health.
180 participants, from all walks of life, took part in the hackathon and examined the following topics four major challenges :
- Better support for Covid victims in the short and long term,
- Streamline the vaccination campaign,
- Follow the evolution of the pandemic differently,
- Measuring risks and encouraging virtuous behavior.
Yunus Emre Celik, Nina Varchavsky, Selim Benslama, Camille Duquesne, Paul Montecot Grall and Merlyn J. Hurtado du Master AIRE - Digital Sciences were involved in two working groups to which they contributed their expertise:
- Better monitoring of weather conditions conducive to contamination
“Groups were formed with the idea of enabling exchanges between different players: civil society, healthcare professionals and institutions. I chose the Climat Covid project, which is based on data from Météo France and Predict, who have developed an indicator (IPTCC) to monitor the risk of virus propagation linked to temperature and humidity. We decided to create a dashboard to visualize this indicator in France over time. The first prototype is available here:”says Nina Varchavsky, a student of the Master AIRE.
- Linking mental health indicators to epidemic dynamics
The current health situation is also having an impact on the mental health of affected populations. In this project, participants studied the links between epidemic data and data concerning the mental health of French people. Participants questioned the correlations between anxiety message curves (Google Trends, call platforms, etc.), the contamination curve, key events and political communication.
“For me, the hackathon was an opportunity to meet new people, work collaboratively on a topical project and encourage Open Data initiatives. Even though the event was online, we found the stimulating energy and team dynamics of the hackathons.” concludes Nina Varchavsky.
The event was a great success, and AIRE Master's students distinguished themselves by the quality of their participation. This hackathon and the involvement of the students echoed the values dear to CRI, those of’commitment, of durability and’collective intelligence.
