Hackathon in healthcare innovation for biomedical engineering students

Abstract

"Hackathon" has been popular in the society of computer science. Such event has been recently adopted by the biomedical engineering field. For example, an annual week-long healthcare innovation hackathon event has been co-organized by Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP) since 2016 where young professions from various disciplines in Hong Kong as well as from the USA work together to generate innovative solutions for various medical problems, where both technological feasibility, business model and pitching skills need to be mastered by these participants in this hackathon event. As such, the hackathon can provide a great opportunity to develop both hard and soft skills for our engineering students necessary for discovery and innovation. In this proposed project, we are integrating the elements of healthcare innovation hackathon into our biomedical engineering course teaching. Through these training, students should acquire the skills in both "hard" engineering skills and "soft" presentation skills in order to generate and promote their innovative solution in healthcare industries efficiently. Outstanding student projects will be encouraged to exhibit in, e.g. CityU Employers' Luncheon, Discovery Festivals, and students will be encouraged to participate in these healthcare hackathon by external organizations.