The University System of Maryland (USM) COVID App Challenge — involving several universities across Maryland — challenged developers to come up with apps that would change the way people deal with the coronavirus. Winners included students, faculty and staff members.
It’s a challenge the USM COVID Research & Innovation Task Force called inspiring and innovative.
“We are proud to have launched this successful App Challenge to bring the entire USM community together to focus on developing technology solutions for COVID recovery and response in the state of Maryland. It is gratifying to see how much progress our task force and the USM community has made, in such a short time,” said Laurie Locascio, vice president for research at UMCP and the University of Maryland, Baltimore and the task force chair.
The competition awarded Stephanie Parey, Michael Vandi, Olubukola Akanbi, and Charles Chase, a group of students from the University of Baltimore for creating Team Breeze, a COVID-19 information system and tracker.
The app uses Bluetooth technology to track users’ locations in order to share information and limit spread of the coronavirus.
Gregory Okhuereigbe, a student from Towson University, won an award for creating the Corey COVID Buddy app, which assists users with self-assessments based on CDC guidelines and provides personalized tips, recommendations and strategies to help reduce stress.
Jal Irani, a lecturer, also from Towson, was awarded for creating the ContactClassroom app which shows users a heat map of people on campus and safety tips.
Students Kirubel Tolosa, Pradeep Margasahayam Prakash, and Raghav Deivachilai from the University of Maryland Baltimore County, were award for their Follow-up app, which tracks the health of patients in isolation and allows doctors to follow-up with them.
Emily Sullivan and Dominic Crofoot, also students from UMBC, were awarded for their app called Snuggrub, which keeps users up to date on health guidelines at their favorite restaurants.
The app An-Tech, created by Andrew Karam, an undergrad at the University of Maryland, uses facial recognition technology to detect an individual’s temperature from a distance.
The competition, geared toward helping students tap into their coding talents, was supported by IBM and Amazon Web Services.
Each winning team received a prize of $3,000 for their contributions.
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