The “Big Data, Big Heart” Hackathon — benefiting Diabetes Queensland, Epilepsy Queensland, and LifeFlight — includes a trip to AWS Re:invent in Las Vegas as a prize. The event will be held on the weekend of Friday Oct 27 at Fishburners in the Brisbane CBD. There is no admission fee, and the event runs all weekend. There are a range of prizes on offer during the weekend, which sees developers and designers creating solutions for the beneficiary organisations. The prize pool includes a trip to Las Vegas to the Amazon Web Services global conference in November to showcase the winning solution at one of AWS’s Partner stands.
“Part of what makes Australia great is the way we take care of the most vulnerable people among us.”, said organiser Josh Wulf. “Diabetes Queensland, Epilepsy Queensland, and Life Flight all provide services to Queenslanders at crucial points in their life. Brisbane’s developers, designers, and techies can empower these organisations in delivering these services using cutting-edge developments in AI, Machine Learning, and Big Data.”
One of the main sponsors of the event is CloudTrek — a Brisbane-based Amazon Web Services Consulting partner. CloudTrek Managing Director Neil Hitz said: “We’ve helped organisations realise their potential through the use of disruptive technology for a number of years, so when presented this opportunity to lend our support to these worthy organisations we were all in. It’s the positive social benefit we’re most interested in — the human impact, enabled by technology and collaboration.”
COO of LifeFlight, Brian “Gus” Guthrie, flew in helicopters with the ADF for 13 years. He now coordinates the operation of 13 helicopters and 5 fixed wing aircraft across Queensland and Singapore, transporting critically injured and acutely unwell Queenslanders from roadside crashes and hospitals. LifeFlight struggles with the complex scheduling requirements of patients, staff, maintenance, and training. Guthrie says: “In what we do, better, faster decisions save lives. Anything we do to improve our efficiency literally saves more lives.”
Diabetes Queensland CEO Michelle Trute says: “Diabetes is costing the Queensland economy billions of dollars a year. Getting fresh sets of eyes on these problems can make a huge difference.”
Epilepsy Queensland supports sufferers of epilepsy with different types of seizures, including “tonic-clonic” seizures where the patient has involuntary muscle spasms. The risk of these is injury to self and others — particularly in environments like public roads and while swimming. Consumer EEG headsets that measure brainwaves are now available, and we can develop machine-learning solutions that predict when seizures will occur and allow the patient to get to safety .
The event is being sponsored by CloudTrek, Amazon Web Services, and Fishburners. For more information call 0431–929–675 or visit www.bigdatabigheart.com.
