Where's the Hackaday COVID-19 Virtual Hackathon?
Simon Merrett wrote 03/19/2020 at 19:58 • 1 pointEDIT 23 Mar 20: Hackaday is now firing on all cylinders and the data you need is here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pPlWdu0t8IMkfXtdyifG8s5ncmnFWYAtzrEa5TbCn-I/edit?usp=drivesdk
The blog front page has been lit up by some articles about hacker/tech/open source responses to the emergent or expected unmet needs of our current situation (https://hackaday.com/2020/03/12/ultimate-medical-hackathon-how-fast-can-we-design-and-deploy-an-open-source-ventilator/ has over 500 comments) but where is the Hackaday editing and curating expertise being applied to steer someone who comes to Hackaday looking to contribute?
There are (only) a few related projects being hosted on hackaday.io (so a curated list might not be very long) but that shouldn't stop the Hackaday from being a more active hub to point hackers to the areas where they're needed and where their skills may be best used.
Please could we start sharing links to collaborative endeavours in the comments here and hope it can be turned into something with a more suitable format (perhaps a standalone page with significant profile on the main blog landing page). Something like the Hackaday version of the Disasters Emergency Committee.
I'm going to ask if @Dan Maloney @Sophi Kravitz can chime in (as you are pretty active on HaD.io). There are some useful links and references in the 500+ comments in your article about the "ULTIMATE MEDICAL HACKATHON" but a blog comment section is surely not the way to get people's eyes onto the right info as quickly as possible and a "COVID-19" tag just gets people to the headlines. You have the internet exposure, Supplyframe backing and the staff skills to really help efforts here. Thanks
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#COSV - Cam Open Source Ventilator Sorry... been busy. Once it works, I'll post more.
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you can join in on Folding@home using your computer's cycles to help out: https://foldingathome.org/2020/02/27/foldinghome-takes-up-the-fight-against-covid-19-2019-ncov/
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https://hackaday.io/project/170481-laser-cut-medical-shield
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@Donnie Agema the trouble with combining them is that there is more handling... the tests _should_ be automated.. so most of the bottle-neck is actually get the tests to the lab.. what would be really good is miniaturizing the lab and getting it to the test site..
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Not sure I understand - sounds to me like "the labs can handle more volume than they are currently getting". Thus, more test sites are needed? What are the bottlenecks in increasing number (or magnitude?) of test sites?
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There are about 10 billion items on Google for the search ("coronavirus" OR "corona virus" OR "covid")
I have asked Google and some others to pitch in and curate this material, remove duplicates, use LOSSLESS methods because any small thing might be critical. I am waiting for replies.
All the central sites (but there are thousands of "central sites" have tens and hundreds of thousands of trivial entry points based on a few exact strings but the actual knowlege covers much more. But I am asking large sites to start curating and simplifying their sites. I recommend using smart methods to follow what people are doing, with humans monitoring. If someone says anything on the site, it gets captured, reviewed, indexed and curated.
Note that (site:"hackaday.io") AND ("coronavirus" OR "corona virus" OR "covid") produces 78 entry points, but from reading, there are a number of related issues and currents.
Any site that is just copying, I recommend they NOT copy, but refer to full coverage sites with the best and most complete content. Drop "cute" and "pretty" and "let's make a buck out of this". Have the central sites track EVERY contribution to is sources so the whole forms a global "lossless" and complete global network.
Better and faster testing would definitely help. Arrays of infrared cameras to track crowds for someone running a temperature. That might be a hack to any existing security camera system. Since you are only gettng whole body temperatures, you might scan any entrance to a restaurant, grocery store. You guys are smart beyond belief. Do it.
The NSF and NIH want ways to monitor people to see if you can pick up behaviors and clues that indicates pain, sickness, discomfort, improvement, skin colors, flushing, sweat, oils. It is an upgrade on the old country doctor with 50 years of seeing people in every condition who has learn to correlate things. It needs sensor, low latency image and sensor data processing. And it needs glogal sharing of the data. Most any data stream like that requires a global community hammering on the data and what it can say. Then easy ways for non-programmers to contribute new algorithms. "Look how she twists her arm", "His breathing is slightly anticipating his heart rate". The blood pressure variation is low, but the EEG and EKG are erratic". I am making things up, but multisensor data integration, MASSIVE data collection and integration are needed.
Essentially a global lossless network is a simple memory store. So it keeps everything and is easy to grab, combine and slice and dice. It needs to handle magnetic resonance spectroscopic microscopy (one of those medical tricorders that Dr McCoy used but vastly upgraded). And it needs to be able to use precisely precise simulations of physiology with the current best and continuously validated reaction networks. I am tired and I am having trouble remembering all the specialize jargon. But there are resources for everything I can think of, and I have been looking at the whole internet for the last 22 years.
We need an infrared spectrometer or magnetic resonance imaging spectrometer that can tell things about food, tissue, urine, blood, stool, spit, vomit. Check any site that talks about medical technology and they wish for stuff to be one tenth or one hundred the cost, and more capable, and smaller.
Wish I had more time. Best wishes.
No one asked me to do this. No one is paying me. I am simply looking for things that I am very good at, or that need to be done, and trying to do them to the best of my ability.
If Hackaday would at least talk about it. YES a central location is critical. Don't squirrel things away all over uncoordinated. Get the crowdfunding and fabrication ready. If you need a hundred test units, they need to get to people to hammer and try them. If you need a critcal part and someone can do it fast, then get it and worry about payment later. There are tons or millions of people who want to help. Check some of the labs. Offer Hackaday.IO skills and fabrication facilities for any new device or sensor or data node or software node.
I am just talking off the top of my head. Some of the things I have looked at over the last two decades. We need a way to quantify and image pain. I think people who are sick it changes their urine in a specific way. I cannot spoon feed suggestions. Go look, if it needs something then get people together and try to help. Can you waste your time? Absolutely. Can you stretch yourself and learn to work together on time and life critical issues? Maybe, probably, hopefully.
Richard Collins, Director, The Internet Foundation
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I may be at a very wrong place for this, but I want to get an idea out somehow. I see in the news how bottlenecks are developing in the labs where COVID-19 tests are processed. My idea is that the labs take, say, 20 samples for testing and "combine" them into 1 test, then, if results are negative, 19 tests will be no longer necessary, and if positive, the initial samples be divided into 2 new groups of 10 each and each "combined" for 2 new tests, etc. There must be an easy way of doing this (don't ask me, I'm not a laboratory genius) and save tests (and lives).
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https://gitlab.com/TrevorSmale/OSV-OpenLung
https://opensourceventilator.ie/
https://panvent.blogspot.com/?m=1
https://agentgallery.com/objects/rare-1965-prototype-harry-diamond-labs-respirator
https://www.helpfulengineering.org/
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