MIT’s annual Grand Hackathon returns with the goal of solving health care’s biggest challenges, writes Shelby Grebbin for The Boston Globe. This hackathon provides a different way for people to look at health care and helps participants “find elegant ways to streamline technology,” explains graduate student and event co-director, Khalil Ramadi.
Steven Rosenbaum of Forbes writes about the Media Lab’s MisInfoCon, which was aimed at using technology to find a solution for fake news. “MisInfoCon set out with high expectations - to gather, share ideas, brainstorm and then engage in a marathon two-day hackathon,” writes Rosebaum. “The goal was to do more than talk, but rather to build things.”
Forbes reporter Christina Wallace speaks with MIT alumna Kathleen Stetson about Trill, the app she developed to provide arts recommendations, and why she felt having an MBA would help further her career promoting the arts. Stetson notes that “At MIT, I not only found massive support and encouragement for Trill, but I also co-founded Hacking Arts."
The Atlantic spotlights MIT’s Hacking Arts event, which is aimed at igniting innovation within the creative arts, as part of their "Saturday Night in America" video series. “Something like a hackathon is releasing this pent up hunger, to stretch the imagination, to work with a lot of people, to get down and just build something,” says grad student Helen Smith, co-director of Hacking Arts.
Barbara Ortutay writes for the Associated Press about several startups aiming to make breast pumps more user-friendly. Ortutay notes that many of the startups, including Mighty Mom Hush-a-Pump, started at the Media Lab’s 2014 “Make the Breast Pump Not Suck” Hackathon.
ELLE reporter Chloe Schama speaks with the organizers of the MIT breast pump hackathon about the need for a better breast pump. "There are a lot of women who are internalizing failures," says Alexis Hope, one of the organizers of the MIT hackathon, "when these are really problems with public policy or with pumps."
The MIT Hacking Medicine group is collaborating with the Spaulding Rehabilitation Center to host the first-ever hackathon devoted to rehabilitation, reports Dana Guth for Boston Magazine. “A healthcare hackathon is an increasingly popular forum for students, medical professionals, and inventors to come together and solve major issues in the medical world,” writes Guth.
Catherine Pearson writes for The Huffington Post about the Gala Pump, a compression breast pump designed by Kohana Inc. at MIT’s “make the breast pump not suck” hackathon: “Kohana has run a small clinical trial with 30 moms and says the majority of those women preferred The Gala to their vacuum pumps.”
In an article for The Guardian, Purvi Thacker writes about how researchers from MIT are examining the Kumbh Mela festival, one of the largest public gatherings in the world, to find solutions to problems often found in cities. Prof. Ramesh Raskar explains his goal “to create a prototype ecosystem with the broader vision of game-changing innovation at its core.”
Nidhi Subbaraman reports for BetaBoston on MakeMIT, “a hardware hackathon that challenges students to produce practical applications for cutting-edge industrial tools.” A group of undergraduates started the event in an effort to provide students with an opportunity to build new products.
Vijee Venkatraman writes for BetaBoston about Kumbhathon, a tech buildathon co-founded by Professor Ramesh Raskar to address problems specific to the Kumbh Mela religious gathering in India. “This is a bottom-up approach to innovation,” says Raskar.
Boston Globe reporter Jennifer Smith writes about HackMIT, a "code-writing marathon" held at the Institute over the weekend. HackMIT is, “exciting, because it’s one of the biggest hackathons and has a great atmosphere,” says participant Leila Chan Currie.
Heather Kelly of CNN writes about the breast pump hackathon hosted at MIT recently. The winning design, the Mighty Mom utility belt, turned a “pump into a hands-free portable device that is worn discreetly under clothes and can work while the wearer goes about her regular routine,” writes Kelly.
A hackathon held over the weekend at the MIT Media Lab sought to develop a better design for the breast pump, writes Rachel Ehrenberg for The Atlantic. “[M] ost women will tell you that the experience of using the breast pump sucks, literally and figuratively,” says Media Lab researcher Catherine D'Ignazio.
In a piece for The New Yorker, Michelle Nijhuis writes about the Make the Breast Pump Not Suck! hackathon, held at the MIT Media Lab. The winning team came up with an idea for a, “portable, hands-free pump that could be used while commuting or caring for small children,” writes Nijhuis.