HCL Technologies launches hackathon to identify solutions for covid impact

The Better Health Hackathon: #CodeforCovid19 will aim to look for solutions relating to pandemic containment and prevention, diagnosis, treatment and therapeutic management, recovery and return to normal and systemic solutions for future crises.

As part of the programme, HCL has partnered with Microsoft and International SOS, the world's largest medical and travel security services firm, which are providing business and technical oversight to the contest and feedback to team entries.

In addition, the Better Health Hackathon is bringing together a wide-ranging and prestigious group of executives and companies across multiple industries to serve as judges and advisory panel members.

This includes scholars from Johns Hopkins University, University of Cambridge, Tuck School of Business, University of Queensland, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur and subject matter experts from HCL.

The competition is open to technology innovators, entrepreneurs and problem solvers from the global developer community. To date, the Better Health Hackathon has received more than 7,500 registrations from 600-plus organisations and academic institutions spanning 350 locations across 52 countries.

Arthur Filip, Executive Vice President for Sales Transformation and Marketing at HCL Technologies, said technology has a big role to play in alleviating the challenges brought on by the pandemic, addressing solutions for successful containment and the reorientation of business and society.

"We are honoured to curate a very enthusiastic, committed and deeply talented global community to help us in this important work," he said in a statement.