TIQC Wins at PerkinsHacks!
Earlier this year student’s Sumaita Hussaina and Margarita Zias were browsing Major League Hacking’s website for a nearby hackathon to attend. They came across one called ‘PerkinsHacks’ being held at Perkins School for the Blind in Massachusetts, later in the year with sponsorship from large companies. Feeling energized they decided to apply and were accepted later that same day.
As the time came closer to attend the hackathon their coworker, Ayo Johnson expressed to them a want to go to an out-of-state hackathon at some point. The girls gladly offered Johnson a spot on their team which he accepted and later that month they were off to PerkinsHacks. Through a mischief of missing buses, bad weather and 5$ Chinese lunch specials the team found themselves at Perkins just in time for the event on Friday.
“We really didn’t knoiw what to expect at first but we knew that we would have a blast”, said Hussain. After checking in the students were presented with a variety of challenges and mentors who were themselves, blind. The challenges given ranged from designing some tool for helping a visually impaired couple make their way around the kitchen to a more private method to fill out paperwork at a doctors office. Johnson, Hussain and Zias however, decided to take on a greater challenge as they chose ‘Going the Extra Mile’, a challenge which involved helping a woman named Joann navigate across the gym safely and securely.
After hours of brainstorming, caffeinated chocolate and very little sleep the team had put together their submission. They designed an app called B-Fit which would allow Joann to reserve a spot at either a gym class or any equipment beforehand. It would also offer what the team called a ‘spotter’ to help the users navigate to their equipment and assure they did the exercises correctly.
The team then presented the video to Joann who began tearing up and hugged the team to thank them for all their efforts into this project. “It was just so incredible, seeing Joann love that app so much and seeing her cry. It was just a great moment”, said Johnson. The team then presented their app at their demo table and needless to say, no one was surprised when at the closing ceremony B-Fit won first prize in it’s category. Well, almost no one, “I was super nervous honestly. I didn’t care about winning but more so, I wanted to know that Joann was happy and that we made a difference”. This was the first win for Hussain and Zias but the second for Johnson.
Team B-Fit returned to QC as winners but their experience at PerkinsHacks has motivated them to pursue this application and push the limits of their own skills.
The team was also featured in the local news and papers(links bellow):
http://watertown.vod.castus.tv/vod/?video=516d958e-92fc-4736-8ace-a02dc00d6700&view=7&noautoplay=1
http://www.perkins.org/stories/perkinshacks-24-hours-to-change-lives
