Just two weeks after Penn Apps, another hackathon took over campus.
On Friday, Pakathon, a Pakistan-oriented hackathon, began its second-annual startup weekend with teams in 16 cities across North America and Pakistan. During the three-day conference, groups of students worked to create technological solutions to problems in Pakistan.
Pakathon is unique not only because of its specific global connection to Pakistan, but also because of its focus on creating innovative solutions to address a need in society. On Sunday, teams presented their business proposals, marketing strategies and projected costs and revenues for their ideas.
“Hackathons are focused on technical creation, whereas this, it’s making sure they have sustainable impact,” Pakathon mentor and 2014 Engineering graduate Ibrahim Ayub said.
This focus on impact and implementation makes Pakathon more than a three-day event. In each city, judges will select a local winner to compete against the other 15 finalists. Final prizes include cash and a mentorship program, which would bring experienced entrepreneurs to help the team execute their idea.
The judges at Philadelphia’s Pakathon included Saqib Nasir, a business systems analyst at Vanguard, Sheharyar Gulraiz, a senior systems analyst at United Healthcare, and Negesh Potdar, a graduate student at Drexel University. In critiquing the presentations, they focused on the social issue being solved, the business plan and the feasibility of the proposed solution. Potdar specified that he was looking for market analysis — how an idea improves existing solutions or suggests the need for a unique solution.
The winning team addressed the high mortality rate of people with oral cancer in Pakistan. Perelman School of Medicine researcher Amber Tariq, fourth year Penn Dental student Mariam Naeem and 2013 College graduate Umar Sheikh were particularly interested in Karachi, where 36,000 people die every year from the disease. If detected early, the survival rate increases from 30 percent to 90 percent.
“We were brainstorming ideas that have a very significant need that wasn’t being addressed currently,” Tariq said. “There is a form of tobacco that is chewed a lot in Pakistan that is a high risk factor for oral cancer.”
Their solution is PakPayya, a mobile vehicle health unit that travels to underdeveloped areas in Karachi. The van brings equipment as well as medical and dental students to perform a screening process, in which they use iPads to take pictures of suspicious lesions. These images are shared with a doctor who can immediately biopsy the lesions, and if they are identified as cancerous, the patient will be referred to the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital.
Besides preventing oral cancer, the project aims to use the screening process as a tool to gather more accurate data on prevalence and incidence rates. During the 15 to 20 minutes spent with each patient, PakPayya will also show an educational video on the negative effects of chewing tobacco or smoking and the symptoms of oral cancer.
The team will present against the other 15 finalist teams in Boston on Oct. 11.
The Daily Pennsylvanian is an independent, student-run newspaper. Please consider making a donation to support the coverage that shapes the University. Your generosity ensures a future of strong journalism at Penn.
DonatePlease note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.