#EUvsVirus, an online pan-European Hackathon, that aims to find technology-based solutions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic is taking place this weekend.
More than 16,000 groups will participate in the virtual event, including 1,200 from Romania, a relatively high number, with only Italy, Spain and Germany having a greater presence. Up to 60,000 Europeans are expected to join the event.
Participants will include local and central governments, universities, global corporations, non-profits, start-up support infrastructures and media groups which have helped organize the event, a press release said.
The hackathon aims to find concrete tools and platforms for hospitals, government, educational or financial systems, individuals or families, but to also find way to collaborate between the European Commission and the innovation ecosystems.
In the last two months, teams worked on building ventilators, personal protection methods, and emote education solutions.
The EU said „Innovators, start-ups and makers of all sorts in Europe are working to develop innovative solutions to be deployed in the short-term to alleviate the negative consequences of the corona crisis.”
„This work complements what researchers are doing in areas such as vaccines. There are five areas that have been identified as targets for these innovative solutions: Health and Medicine, Business Continuity, Social Cohesion, Protection of Risk Groups, and Education.”
#EUvsVirus is described as „a public expression of EU solidarity and support offered on a voluntary basis. Our partners and networks have pledged to provide essential resources, mentors, know-how and perks to support this hackathon and its top ranked teams.”
Teams will develop thousands of projects covering areas such as health and life to business continuity, remote work, education, social and political cohesion, and digital finance, which have all been affected by pandemic.
Event organizers hope teams will benefit from insight and feedback offered by the various groups taking part, including mentors and global experts.
From Romania, the Transylvania IT Cluster, Cluj Start-ups, Freshblood, Iceberg / Innovation & Technology Cluster, Digital Innovation Zone, TechHub Bucharest, Techcelerator, Spherik, One Source Timișoara Association, Activize and Codecamp are taking part.
They say they will offer “an unprecedented involvement of programmers, hardware specialists, designers, educators, medical, social science and representatives from other professions” in response to the pandemic.
