Toronto tech hack-a-thon could help save lives - and win one team $5K
The 48-hour event challenges participants to find solutions to problems with disaster response
A roomful of some of the Toronto's brightest professionals will spend the next 48 hours coming up with ways to help people deal with disaster, and the team with the best idea will get a $5,000 prize.
Disaster Tech Hackathon, organized by the innovation hub OneEleven and Aviva Canada, challenges participants to come up with innovative tech solutions to communication and coordination issues that emergency responders may face in a disaster situations.
Crisis communications expert Alain Normand, the emergency manager for the city of Brampton, says this type of idea farming is critical to moving official emergency management operations forward.
"We are already scraping by in emergency management to do the essentials. Trying to keep up with new technology, which changes so fast, is just something we don't have the resources to do," Normand told CBC Toronto.
Can't test in real-life situations
"We are dealing with life and death so we can't take the chance of testing things in real-life situations. We need initiatives like this to help us in testing those ideas and concepts."
Saving lives is exactly what one participant, Shuming Jiu, set out to do.
"When I was a kid I watched a lot of superhero movies, so I always dreamed of changing the world," the data scientist told CBC Toronto.
She teamed up with a group of friends to come up with ways to equip the disaster management industry with new technology.
"You can order food online with one click, but you can't easily call 911 or report a case online in one click," Jiu said. "If we are smart enough to write an algorithm for you to do that, it will save a lot of people's lives and make Toronto much safer."
Her team will be competing against 14 other multi-disciplinary groups for the $5,000 prize.
Prize money will help develop idea
Aviva Canada's head of innovation, Ryan Spinner, says the prize will help the winning team develop their idea into a full-fledged program.
"We realize only so much can be done in 48 hours so we are hoping the team will take this money to further develop their idea," Spinner said.
The event, which has 80 participants from many academic backgrounds, ends Sunday.
Coun. Norm Kelly, who gave a keynote address at the event's launch on Friday, says Toronto will benefit from the cross-disciplinary approach.
"We have a plan at city hall with respect to emergencies but that plan has been put together by traditional sources; police, fire, EMS, provincial and federal input," the former deputy mayor said.
What we're exploring today is input from their broader community - the community that can bring experiences, ideas and perspectives that traditional sources don't bring," Kelly said in an interview.
He says city staff will pay attention to the ideas coming out of the weekend hack-a-thon, but if they don't, the Scarborough councillor says he will "kick butt and make sure they do."