April 6, 2020 – The Silicon-Valley-based Motwani Jadeja Foundation is bringing together the best minds in a 72-hour online hackathon called CODE19 to find solutions to India’s challenges against the Coronavirus outbreak. The contest, which begins on April 10, 2020 (Good Friday), is expected to see over 3,000 participants across nationalities, ethnicities and gender. Working online from the comfort of their homes while India is on a 21-day lockdown, they will collaborate with mentors, subject-matter specialists, data sources and a network of collaborators in the quest for solutions against COVID-19. The online hackathon is open to everyone as individuals and teams, without any criteria or age limit. Those wishing to participate can sign up on www.code19.in till 6 pm IST on April 10.
Said Ms Asha Jadeja Motwani, the well-known entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist who is the Founder of Motwani Jadeja Foundation: “Coronavirus is a huge health challenge facing India. Any new crisis requires a new set of ideas and mitigation strategies. Hence, it is our collective responsibility to put our heads together to come up with new ideas and solutions to fight the virus. CODE19 is a platform to bring such bright minds together. By harnessing the power of collaborative computer programming, it aims to create qualitative, open-source projects that would help solve the most pressing problems of the Coronavirus crisis in the country.”
She further added: “The focus of CODE19 is on developing solutions quickly and applying them in everyday life. The participants would be tasked with decoding the Coronavirus outbreak and its impact on India, encoding smart solutions to mitigate the impending Corona-inflicted challenges, and winning prizes worth US$10,000 to realize their solutions. The ideas and innovations they create would readily be available for scaling and implementation across the country.”
Projects are divided into eight specific themes: Medical treatment and testing; Travel and Tourism; Mitigation – Isolation, protection/masks, and social distancing in India; Social life, welfare, and awareness; Research and development; Open innovation for COVID-19; Education and awareness; and Industry.
The participants would work on solutions through ideations, wireframes, designs, developments and testing the prototype they are creating. Mentors and guides will help them sharpen their product ideas and convert them to sure-shot successful products that will aid India’s fight against Coronavirus. Under the Open Innovation category, participants would be free to propose their own ideas, technologies and innovative solutions, bioinformatics, datasets, apps for diagnosis, and the likes, which can be leveraged for strengthening the fight against Coronavirus.
CODE19 will also have a few online sessions including talks with business leaders as well as Yoga and Meditation, to keep the participants inspired. Prize money worth US$ 10,000 is on offer for the winners. There will be public voting at the end of the event to assess the most exciting projects. The winners would be announced at 9 pm on April 14.
Code19India is being held in collaboration with Bengaluru-based HackerEarth. The Association of Designers in India (ADI) is also on board and shall assist in providing mentors through its network.
Profile of Organisers and Partners
Asha Jadeja Motwani is an entrepreneur, investor, thinker and philanthropist based in Palo Alto, California. She has invested in over 100 startups, some of which have gone on to become public companies including Kaltix (now Google), Jareva (now Veritas) and Mimosa Systems.
Asha is the founder of the Jadeja Motwani Foundation (JMF), a non-profit organisation that strives to develop a network of entrepreneurs in South Asia trained to think and drive exponential change. The foundation’s mission includes disruptive entrepreneurship, poverty alleviation, gender equality, and sustainable development.
Asha Jadeja actively supports technology innovation, non-formal education, economic policy changes, and women entrepreneurship. A firm believer in self-sustaining social movements supported by local communities, she has successfully launched the Maker Fest initiative in India. She is a reputed speaker at numerous global technology and startup conferences including TIE Delhi-NCR, DLD Munich and TieGlobal Delhi. For more information, pls visit: https://ashajadeja.com/
Motwani Jadeja Foundation (MJF) is a non-profit, distributed, global venture fund designed to transform entrepreneurial individuals into creative change-makers. The start-up portfolio is a reflection of this ethos. Motwani Jadeja Foundation aims to support and empower entrepreneurs to enable exponential change. It is industry-agnostic and particularly cares about impact investing in education, the maker movement and women’s rights. With deep roots in Stanford, UC Berkeley, Google and over 200 tech companies in Silicon Valley, the Foundation runs a think tank powered by some of the most influential global thought leaders, academics, heads of state, and leaders in technology. For more information, pls visit: https://motwanijadejafoundation.com
HackerEarth provides enterprise software solutions that help organisations with their technical recruitment needs. HackerEarth has conducted 1000+ hackathons and 10,000+ programming challenges to date. Since its inception, HackerEarth has built a developer base of over 3 million+. HackerEarth has raised close to $5 million in funding over three rounds. Today, more than 750 customers worldwide use its Assessments platform, including Amazon, Walmart Labs, Thoughtworks, Societe Generale, HP, VMware, DBS, HCL, GE, Wipro, Barclays, Pitney Bowes, Intel, and L&T Infotech. HackerEarth is backed by GSF Global and Angelprime. For more information, pls visit: www.hackerearth.com
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