Tackling corona crisis with online hackathon: These are the 4 winners of Hack the Crisis in Netherlands

The Dutch edition of the global movement created by the Estonian accelerator Garage48, Hack the Crisis, recently concluded. The 48-hour online hackathon took place over the weekend in The Netherlands wherein the participants came up with innovative solutions to tackle the problems by the coronavirus pandemic. These solutions were centered around topics such as healthcare & wellbeing, remote education, logistics & supply chain, and SME Business Continuity. 

Do follow our special coverage on coronavirus over here.

The remote online event was made possible by the contribution and hard work of volunteers from the Dutch tech and innovation sector, including media brand TNW, Innofest and accelerator Startupbootcamp. They roped in partners, sponsors and participants for the event and now, winners of the competition have been announced. The winning solutions are extremely innovative as they range from vaccine discovery acceleration via online puzzle game to an app that aims to help save the local grocery store. 

Here are the four winning solutions:

AnalysisMode: Accelerating Corona vaccine development via online puzzles

Scientists worldwide are working on a vaccine for COVID-19 and everyone is eagerly waiting for some good news on this front. However, the AnalysisMode team has come up with an ingenious solution that enables virtually anyone to contribute towards vaccine research. The team bagged the first place in Healthcare & Wellbeing category for their idea.

Analysis Mode has created an online puzzle game research platform that anyone can play and help teach artificial intelligence to predict the vaccine formula for COVID-19. The game has been played over 7000 times by people from 93 countries. Additionally, The startup is in contact with Oxford University and pharmacists for further development of their service.

Roodkappje: Sign up as a volunteer to save the local grocery shops 

During the hackathon, the idea of the Roodkappje app was conceived, which has won first place In the SME & Business Continuity segment. The app is designed to connect food suppliers, ranging from bakers to greengrocers, with volunteers that are ready to deliver groceries and other items. The app tackles one of the most difficult challenges being faced by small entrepreneurs and businesses in the wake of coronavirus, who are currently struggling to stay in business.

Challengly: Making remote learning fun with gamification

Learning need not be tedious and with nations under lockdown and while enabling learning from home, it can be difficult to keep students interested in the curriculum. To tackle this issue, Challengly came up with the platform ‘Ediya,’ which won them the first place in the Remote education category. With the platform, teachers can create simple and fun challenges to share with their students. These challenges are linked to the classes and are aimed at effectively transferring knowledge to students. 

PPIcert: Reliable reviews for swift medical products procurement

Medical equipments are currently in high demand and stocks are almost always running low. There are multiple new suppliers and alternative product providers that have commenced operations ever since the COVID-19 pandemic hit. This makes it difficult for health care providers to figure out which products work well. This is a serious issue and to circumvent this problem, folks at PPIcert developed a new review platform which can be accessed by healthcare professionals to review new products. 

Large medical institutions that can make purchases of new products can review them and post it on the platform. This, in turn, ensures that smaller hospitals and healthcare institutions have reliable information when going for a new product. 

This article is produced in collaboration with StartupAmsterdam. Read more about our partnering opportunities.