Guest Blog: What a Hackathon is Like
In her guest blog, graduate student Brooke Poyhonen shares her work in health, coding, innovation and overcoming doubt during the Texas Healthcare Challenge: Virtual Hackathon.
Her team, WatsonCares, took first place after coming together almost by accident. Poyhonen says she is grateful for the virtual environment, because otherwise she would not have met her teammates. The whole hacking part of the challenge — that is, the brainstorming, teamwork and prototyping — was a mere 24 hours. But the WatsonCares team developed a solid idea for a postpartum health app to help new mothers find resources for difficult challenges like postpartum depression, pelvic floor therapy, postpartum bleeding, learning to breastfeed and navigating intensive care in NICU. The team is now looking into startup opportunities.
Read more about the team, the app and their next steps on Unscripted, the University’s research blog.