Published on 18.05.2020 under Open Innovation
Digitalk: Projects to solve the COVID 19 crisis
On April 21, 2020 the “Digitalk: Projects to solve the COVID-19 crisis”. The webinar series is a cooperation of fe: male innovation hub, #DOERS_CGN and the digihub Düsseldorf / Rhineland.
Under the moderation of Zerrin Börcek, founder of the fe: male Innovation Hub, several projects to solve the COVID-19 crisis were presented and the federal government's hackathon was the focus.
Adriana Cabrera, senior consultant at matrix GmbH & Co. KG and Ludwig Gröber, founder of #Liquid remain, were invited as speakers for this webinar episode.
Adriana Cabrera's action against Covid-19
Adriana participated in some projects in the FabLab, but also in the hackathon (1) of the German government "We vs. Virus" part. She saw in it the chance to achieve results in a few hours and to show “[…] that we can be more humane and show solidarity ”. For the first time, participants from all over the world came together to create something together. Since individual problems were highlighted from different levels and professional groups, ideas and solutions to contain Covid-19 emerged.
Together with a project team, Adriana tackles an important topic: Call vs. corona is an interactive language technology that enables millions of people to access information about Covid-19. With the project, the group was one of the 20 winning projects that were implemented during the hackathon. This technology is a useful tool for disseminating information, especially for people who do not have access to the Internet, live in remote areas or can neither read nor write. A free call activates a voice information system that uses an interactive quiz to playfully convey prevention measures .
The project is currently still in the planning phase. The Viamo company will continue to work on the prototype in cooperation with various mobile phone providers in order to offer the service as quickly as possible in African countries. According to Matthias Schnippe, initiator on the part of Viamo, it is important to involve local authorities and adapt the content to the local context.
Matrix would also like to support the development of these tools and hopes that the commitment of the population and companies in matters of digital transformation will benefit.
During the lecture, Adriana presented how the manufacturing community is committed to developing tools to contain COVID-19 and how professionals and amateurs work together to find solutions. These tools, developed in FabLabs contexts, demonstrate the solidarity of this community throughout the problem-solving process.
The Corona crisis shows how important decentralized infrastructures are for the future of industry. FabLabs are digitization laboratories that offer this potential. There are currently a few examples that demonstrate this innovative strength: Protective visors that were printed for health personnel and especially for hospitals in Germany were produced in Fablabs all over Germany. The concept, development and implementation was carried out locally, for example, via the FabLab Kamp-Lintfort at the Rhein-Waal University of Applied Sciences, in cooperation with the Red Cross and other actors.
Another winning project of the Hackertons, www.wir-wandern-liqui.de, presented by Ludwig Gröber. This platform supports companies looking for suitable funding to bridge the crisis.
The full video for "Digitalk: Projects to solve the COVID-19 crisis” See here:
Stay healthy!
Anne Spaan
spaan@matrix-gmbh.de
(1) describes a type of event in which collaborative software and hardware developments are carried out. Within this type of event, the overarching goal is to work out a solution to a selected problem.
