Karlene Cousins<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u201cWe wanted to harness the best minds from FIU to see what ideas and innovations they could come up with in the course of a week,\u201d said Karlene Cousins, chair of the information systems and business analytics department and founder of the ATOM Think Tank.<\/p>\n
The Datathon also served to energize students, many of whom met their teammates remotely for the first time, and competed from throughout the world, including Columbia, India, Brazil and Mexico.<\/p>\n
Mentors, who included FIU Business faculty members and members of the business community,\u00a0helped teams develop their solutions faster by providing baseline data sets and suggesting technological tools.\u00a0Judges included representatives of corporate sponsors Assurant, Southern Glazer\u2019s Wine & Spirits and wiSource, along with other members of the business community and FIU faculty.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe project took on a life of its own, thanks to the ATOM Advisory Board members, who went to their corporate coffers and funded the scholarship money for our students in these challenging times,\u201d Cousins said.<\/p>\n
The winning formula: an AI-powered wearable device.<\/em><\/p>\nFirst-place winner Anil Thota worked with Maojun Zhao to present COVID-Defender \u2013 Machine Vision AI Powered Wearable Device for Maintaining Social Distancing and Contact Tracing. The device not only alerts those who violate social distancing rules but also saves information about who is nearby in case someone — including the wearer — later tests positive. It also senses and records red flags like elevated temperature and coughing. The team recommended that FIU implement pool testing, and using monitoring metrics from COVID-Defender would allow the school to narrow down who needs to test and isolate.<\/p>\n
Thota, who said he first imagined the COVID-Defender in April while in a grocery store, decided to sign up for the Datathon in hopes of pitching it and bringing it to market. The biomedical engineering PhD student and FIU Adaptive Neural System lab research scientist worked on the project out of his garage, ordering some tools but also making good use of his son\u2019s Lego blocks.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are working hard to get FIU repopulated safely, and this device could help us do that,\u201d Thota said. \u201cWithout the Datathon and the mentors who helped me and who motivated me, I would not have been able to pitch this idea.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maria Paula Diaz, a rising FIU Business senior majoring in finance and business analytics, finished third with teammates Cristhofer Lugo and Namitha Patil. The team worked on \u201cOptimizing Class Scheduling,\u201d creating an app that begins with a questionnaire and generates an optimized class schedule to minimize student time on campus. While its primary function is student-facing, the app also collects data for a dashboard to help administrators.<\/p>\n
Diaz dialed in from Bogota, while Lugo battled power and internet outages from\u00a0Isaias-ravaged Turks and Caicos.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this point, we are all used to working remotely,\u201d Diaz said. \u201cBut it was weird because we didn\u2019t have time to really get to know each other. As we worked, we started seeing each other\u2019s strengths and weaknesses, and we communicated a lot. But I sure would\u2019ve loved to meet them in person!\u201d<\/p>\n
Although, the week was stressful, Diaz is glad she persevered, and she most appreciates the real-world experience, one she believes prepares her for life after graduation.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day, it really showed how life works,\u201d she said. \u201cYou get thrown into teams, you have deadlines, you don\u2019t know the people you are working with \u2013 and you just have to make it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Datathon Winners<\/h3>\n
First Place Winners – $1,000 Scholarship<\/span>
\n<\/strong>Anil Thota and Maojun Zhao<\/strong>
\nPresentation Topic: COVID-Defender – Machine Vision AI Powered Wearable Device for Maintaining Social Distancing and Contact Tracing
\nTrack C: Monitoring Risk Profiles<\/p>\nSecond Place Winner – $500 Scholarship<\/span>
\n<\/strong>Pablo Valle<\/strong>
\nPresentation Topic: Supplying Personal Protection Equipment
\nTrack D: Supplying Personal Protection Equipment<\/p>\nThird Place Winners – $250 Scholarship<\/span>
\n<\/strong>Maria Diaz, Cristhofer Lugo and Namitha Patil<\/strong>
\nPresentation Topic: Optimizing Class Scheduling
\nTrack A: Optimizing Class Scheduling<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An AI powered wearable device, a plan to supply personal protection equipment and a solution to optimize class scheduling took the top prizes in the\u00a0FIU ATOM COVID-19 Datathon, held from July 24 to August 2, 2020. The competition, hosted by the FIU Business\u00a0ATOM Think Tank\u00a0to\u00a0develop technology-driven solutions\u00a0for repopulating the campus,\u00a0attracted 51 students from throughout FIU. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":34729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[4651,4585,4587,3959,3999,1462],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34723"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/99"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34723"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34737,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34723\/revisions\/34737"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"FIU](\"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/FIU-COVID-19-datathon.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Karlene](\"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Karlene_Cousins-250x360.jpg\")