Techstars, Taiwan Tech Arena host Global Online Startup Weekend to fight COVID-19 with innovation

As part of the global initiative to combat the impact of the coronavirus, Techstars hosted its first ever virtual Startup Weekend in Taiwan with Taiwan Tech Arena (TTA), a Taipei-based incubator launched by the Ministry of Science & Technology. In the 54-hour hackathon, 133 participants came together and formed 39 projects to tackle various challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The event attracted participants from all walks of life -- engineers, UI/X designers, medical school students, marketing specialists, AI researchers, data science experts, and startup founders -- and all around the world, from Taiwan, the US, Australia, Japan, Belgium, and New Zealand.

The Online Startup Weekend followed a live-streamed pre-event where Minister of Science & Technology Chen Liang-Gee and Jason Wang, Professor from the Center for Policy Outcomes and Prevention at Stanford University, talked about the lessons from Taiwan in containing the coronavirus and how entrepreneurs can jump in to contribute to the global community with their innovation.

On Sunday (4/26), the last day of the hackathon, a total of eight teams pitched to a jury of 20 mentors one after another; they selected the final three to be awarded with cash prize, provided by the Asia Silicon Valley Development Agency (ASVDA), Taiwania Capital, and KPMG Taiwan.

Neo won the first place with its self-monitoring technology for health. Chris Peng, the leader of the team, said the idea of the project is twofold: with connected wearable devices, they help families track the health of their loved ones; medical institutes can also use the product to monitor the health of patients in quarantine. For the team, the ultimate goal is to build an extensive database that supports and accelerates COVID-19 research.

ChanceCake and MyLog, respectively, earned the second- and third-place awards. The former develops a jobs platform that helps those who have gone unemployed due to the coronavirus crisis find remote jobs that suit them, and the latter builds an open data platform that allows citizens to record their own symptoms of the virus disease and receive reward for their contribution.

Other teams included CoTrace, who develops an app that verifies the sources of medical supplies like masks and ventilators, Lucky 7, who builds an online platform that matches counseling psychologists with those who suffer from mental health issues due to COVID-19, and Project Proactive, a team that uses voice recognition technology to help the elderly report their health condition.

〔Original :Meet Startup @ TW〕
https://meet.bnext.com.tw/intl/articles/view/46382