industry news
Subscribe Now

Hackster.io and UNDP Rally Global Engineering Community to Combat COVID-19 Through ‘Detect and Protect Challenge’

In partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Hackster.io leading effort to bring forth low-cost, deployable solutions to detect and protect from virus in developing regions

PHOENIX, Ariz. – April 14, 2020 – Hackster.io, an Avnet community, is joining forces with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and 12 leading technology companies to support the world’s developing countries in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Launching today, the COVID-19 Detect and Protect Challenge is calling on engineers to design low-cost and easily deployable software, hardware and services that will support the detection and prevention of COVID-19 in some of the world’s most vulnerable areas.

“Through this challenge, our community at Hackster, the UNDP and Avnet’s technology partners are coming together to provide innovative solutions to get lifesaving technology to some of the world’s most vulnerable areas,” said Bill Amelio, CEO, Avnet. “We are proud to partner with the UNDP to activate local technology ecosystems to develop, shape and implement open-source solutions that can help detect and protect against COVID-19 around the world. It’s truly a global collaboration, with a longer-term and positive multiplier effect.”

The COVID-19 Detect and Protect Challenge aims to realize ten economical and easy-to-produce hardware solutions to strengthen detection and prevention efforts in developing countries, minimizing the strain on healthcare systems by helping to flatten the curve. Projects will be curated by Hackster and the UNDP, which will also work with each creator to deploy their projects to the frontlines where it is needed most.

“We’re turning to our network of developers and partners to share their ideas and designs with those who need them the most,” said Adam Benzion, co-founder, Hackster.io. “Through this challenge, we hope to bring forward some truly unique solutions that could make a real impact on the global fight against COVID-19.”

Avnet will provide support to accelerate the winners’ time to market by offering business consultation and access to engineering, design and manufacturing resources. Leveraging the power of Avnet’s extensive technology ecosystem, Hackster garnered further support from partners including Amazon Web Services, Arduino, Arm, Edge Impulse, Google, Microsoft, Nordic Semiconductor, Nvidia, NXP, Soracom and The Things Industries, each of whom will provide sponsorship, prizes and hardware and/or design support for a selection of project submissions.

Entries will be accepted and evaluated on a rolling basis through Summer of 2020. The UNDP will select the top ten inventions, whose creators will receive global recognition and monetary awards for their contribution to society and humankind.

Interested creators can go to https://www.covid19detectprotect.org/ to sign up and gather more information.

Leave a Reply

featured blogs
Nov 15, 2024
Explore the benefits of Delta DFU (device firmware update), its impact on firmware update efficiency, and results from real ota updates in IoT devices....
Nov 13, 2024
Implementing the classic 'hand coming out of bowl' when you can see there's no one under the table is very tempting'¦...

featured video

Introducing FPGAi – Innovations Unlocked by AI-enabled FPGAs

Sponsored by Intel

Altera Innovators Day presentation by Ilya Ganusov showing the advantages of FPGAs for implementing AI-based Systems. See additional videos on AI and other Altera Innovators Day in Altera’s YouTube channel playlists.

Learn more about FPGAs for Artificial Intelligence here

featured paper

Quantized Neural Networks for FPGA Inference

Sponsored by Intel

Implementing a low precision network in FPGA hardware for efficient inferencing provides numerous advantages when it comes to meeting demanding specifications. The increased flexibility allows optimization of throughput, overall power consumption, resource usage, device size, TOPs/watt, and deterministic latency. These are important benefits where scaling and efficiency are inherent requirements of the application.

Click to read more

featured chalk talk

Ultra-low Power Fuel Gauging for Rechargeable Embedded Devices
Fuel gauging is a critical component of today’s rechargeable embedded devices. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton and Robin Saltnes of Nordic Semiconductor explore the variety of benefits that Nordic Semiconductor’s nPM1300 PMIC brings to rechargeable embedded devices, the details of the fuel gauge system at the heart of this solution, and the five easy steps that you can take to implement this solution into your next embedded design.
May 8, 2024
39,099 views