Join Future Health Pioneers at VCU & KNIME Hackathon

Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) School of Pharmacy has partnered with KNIME to organize the Future Health Pioneers: KNIME Innovation Hackathon. This online event targets healthcare students and takes place on June 17-18, 2023. Teams of undergraduate and graduate students from MD, PharmD, DDS, and RN programs are invited to tackle exciting digital healthcare problems using the no-code/low-code KNIME Analytics Platform, turning innovative ideas into tangible solutions.

Tip: Register via the VCU website to participate in the Future Health Pioneers: KNIME Innovation Hackathon or go straight to the Google Form here.

As we continue to witness the transformative power of technology, it is essential for healthcare professionals to embrace its advancements and harness their potential. From personalized medicine to predictive analytics, digital healthcare is breaking new ground and improving patient outcomes. The ability to analyze vast amounts of data has led to enhanced diagnostics, targeted treatment plans, and a greater understanding of population health trends.

Healthcare professionals, as frontline workers in this dynamic field, are often the first to identify innovative solutions that can address pressing challenges. But they have been hamstrung by a perceived requirement for coding expertise. That's where KNIME comes in. Its visual, interactive environment eliminates the need to code and makes the creation of data-driven solutions accessible to everyone, regardless of their tech expertise.

If you are an undergraduate or graduate student in healthcare in the United States, this is a great opportunity for you to learn more about data science, work on exciting problems, and sharpen your teamwork skills. We also hope that our list of awards (see below) is an additional incentive to take part.

Registration for our hackathon opens on May 10 and closes on June 9. The hackathon will be held online, and will take place on June 17-18. You’ll meet your team, discuss, and carry out most of the work on Discord, which will be made available to everyone a week before the event. We strongly recommend that you take KNIME’s free, self-paced L1-DS and L2-DS courses prior to the hackathon.

You are expected to work in teams of three, tackling one of the five proposed digital healthcare challenges. The challenges will be announced on June 17, at the beginning of the hackathon.

To further your learning experience, healthcare and KNIME experts will be giving talks at the hackathon. The schedule for the talks will be released closer to the hackathon through its official website.

Teams should submit the solution to their chosen problem, along with a video explaining it, by June 18 at 5pm. A judging committee will analyze the solutions and announce the winning team by June 23. The judging committee will be composed of people with backgrounds – from healthcare to data science and KNIME. Your solutions will be evaluated based on their potential impact, originality, performance, reproducibility, and clarity. The detailed judging criteria, along with a description of the judging committee, will be released at the beginning of the hackathon.

All participants will receive:

• Digital badges for their attendance and successful project completion and presentation, which can be added to social media profiles and CVs

• Free access to all KNIME certification exams

First, second and third place team members will receive:

• Digital badges for ranked place

• An invitation to join the award ceremony for the three best teams

• KNIME gadget bag

Second and first place team members will receive:

• An invitation to present the project at a Data Connect North America hybrid event

• Free attendance at one of the KNIME L4 specialization courses

First Place team members will receive:

• A paid Summer internship at KNIME Inc. The internships will occur onsite in the KNIME office in Austin, TX, and last four (4) to six (6) weeks between July 10, 2023 and August 18, 2023. The exact duration will depend on each intern’s availability. Accommodation in Austin will be provided for the duration of each internship.

• An interview in the LinkedIn Live interview series My Data Guest with Aline Bessa, Data Scientist at KNIME.

Join this unique event to work collaboratively with other students from health-related fields and other disciplines and leverage your training and experience to shape the future of healthcare. We look forward to receiving your registration to take part!