AT AN INTERNATIONAL HACKATHON, HUMBER STUDENTS USE INNOVATION AND AUTOMATION TO TACKLE HEALTHCARE ISSUES

Two students from Humber’s Electromechanical Engineering Technology program talk about their experience at a hackathon in Germany and the nurse bot they developed there

By Esha Rana and Lucas Cunha

Photos courtesy of Mannat Kaur

AS THE WORLD NAVIGATES THE third year of the COVID-19 pandemic, communities around the world continue to face numerous social and economic challenges that require innovation, creativity and collaboration. The Office of Research & Innovation (ORI) closely works with Humber’s Centres of Innovation to support research in finding innovative solutions to these challenges by fostering and highlighting partnerships between students, faculty and industry/community partners. Thanks to Temu Moore, project manager at the Barrett Centre for Technology Innovation, we recently met with Mannat Kaur and Daneep Lahl —two students who used their knowledge and creativity at the SICK Solution Hackathon to re-imagine how automation could overcome challenges in the healthcare industry.

Describing itself as a place where “science fiction becomes science fact,” this highly competitive hackathon was hosted by SICK, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of sensors and sensor solutions for industrial automation applications. The 48-hour international competition was held in Waldkirch, southern Germany, in October. Students and start-ups from 16 countries competed, employing their smarts and skills to develop creative solutions to problems faced by different industries.

We sat down with Mannat and Daneep before and after their participation in the hackathon to talk about the project they developed and presented there, what they expected from the event and what they learned from the whole experience. (This interview has been edited for length and clarity.)

MANNAT KAUR EXPLAINING THE WHAT AND WHY OF THE NURSE BOT

BEFORE THE HACKATHON

SPARK: How did you learn about the hackathon?

Mannat: It was during my last semester at Humber. I got the opportunity to apply for the competition called SICK Solution Hackathon—SICK is a sensor company with a hub in Germany.

THE ROBOPILINGUIS TEAM AT THE HACKATHON. PICTURED FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: BACK ROW: SIMON VINKEL, THOMAS THERKELSEN FRONT ROW: ESTHER ANGELES, MANNAT KAUR, DANEEP LAHL

Every year they have a competition, where people come in from around the world to solve an issue, whether an industrial one or from any other area. We have to solve it using whatever new technologies we have access to.

Daneep: I got an email, and I was like, “I'm interested.” I know how to program, and I was involved in many high school robotics competitions. Even in my first year here at Humber, I participated in a robotics competition with

a friend. We competed against the University of Waterloo students for the chance to represent at a world-level competition, and we won that opportunity. But then COVID-19 happened, and I couldn't represent Canada.

SPARK: How was the application process?

Mannat: You have to send SICK a presentation or a video interview showcasing your skills and vision for the hackathon—what you would like to develop, basically. So, I created a YouTube video showing them all the projects I did in college and whatever else I developed during my free time. For example, one of the projects I did was building a humanfollowing robot.

After three weeks, I received an email stating I was selected. I was not expecting it; it was quite a pleasant surprise.

SPARK: How many people were selected? Do you know any of them?

Daneep: Only 114 people were selected in this global competition.

Mannat: They sent us a link to network with people selected for the competition. We get to see how people come from very different backgrounds. Some are still studying at universities, and some have graduated. Some are software engineers who are working in the industry. It's good to learn how diverse everyone is; they come from around the world.

From Humber, it's just Daneep and me.

THE HACKATHON TEAM DISCUSSING AND SHARING EXPERIENCES IN-BETWEEN BUILDING THE NURSE BOT

SICK SOLUTION HACKATHON

Watch the SICK Hackathon https://youtu.be/SrXEL99Y1XM

SPARK: What kind of project are you planning for the hackathon?

Mannat: The first thing that came to mind is doing something that has a futuristic approach. So, I thought, "Why not create a nurse bot?" When COVID hit the country, there was a shortage of nurses. Hospitals were challenged to deliver primary care to patients, such as providing medicines and keeping track of each patient. So, we thought of building a nurse bot, an intelligent robot that takes care of a patient's basic needs, such as providing medication and collecting data.

Daneep: We're not trying to replace nurses. We're trying to help nurses by providing patients with primary care, such as medication delivery. I know it can sound a bit inhumane to get a robot to talk to a patient in need, but it's better than when patients do not receive attention for long periods of time. The idea is to enable more care for people and free up resources.

Let's say there's a triage for patients—the bot could assess how they're feeling and move them up or down a list, depending on their condition. That could easily be handled by a robot so that the nurse is free to talk to other patients.

SPARK: What are some of the challenges you think this project will present?

Mannat: I think initially people might be very resistant to being treated by robots. If I were a patient, I would prefer human interaction to a robot. That's why we are starting with the basics.

Let's say a patient must be given medication at a particular time. That can be done by a robot. That doesn’t require a nurse to be physically present. So, that way, nurses can focus on patients requiring immediate and undivided attention, thereby adding value and reducing some manual tasks for the nurses.

In the future, if we face a similar nurse shortage, repetitive tasks can be managed by the bot: from giving medicine and conducting regular medical examinations to checking blood pressure, heart rates, etc. If this is automated, people will become familiar with the process over time. Then we can make nurses collaborate with robots. So, the work is not going to be completely automated.

Daneep: Since we only have 48 hours to develop the

solution, I'm going to program a system that could analyze a face and interact with the person. I also have to figure out how to make the voice sound more human.

I’m also considering integrating everything based on the patient's information to supply medication. Also, depending on the patient’s condition, the robot will be programmed to speak in different ways (e.g., tone of voice used).

SPARK: How are you preparing for the hackathon? You also need to pitch your idea to the judges, right?

Daneep: I've been networking with people who are going to the hackathon, trying to build a team that will win the competition. I've been talking to people from the University of Southern Denmark and McMaster University and participants from Germany.

Mannat: I’ve seen that some projects do not have a practical and implementable angle. One could use those solutions, for sure, but they’re not suitable projects that companies would invest in, that’s my opinion. So, we do want to think about the practical side as well.

I'll create a PowerPoint presentation where I will share some facts and surveys that have been done to explain our point of view in healthcare. Then we're going to also create a threeto four-minute video.

At most, it will be a five-to-ten-minute presentation where I'll explain our approach. I'm going to split it into how we got this idea, what we thought, what we built and what can be improved in the project. I’ll also briefly explain our approach for the future. Because there's no way we're going to build everything we want in two days, as it’s just not possible. It's crucial to consider these different things and have a systematic approach.

SPARK: What are you looking forward to in this competition? What are you excited about?

Mannat: Actually, we’re excited about a lot. It's my first experience in a competition like this. I'll get to meet many people with different skills and collaborate with them in a team and present the work. I'm also looking forward to turning my vision into reality using my technical skills. I’m also excited about presenting my idea because I enjoy presenting my creations on stage and putting my thoughts out there.

So yes, I think it's going to be a great learning experience. Regardless of whether we win or not, we're going to meet a lot of people. I'm also very excited about going to Germany because that’s the tech hub these days (even though they're having an energy crisis). For most of the plastic industry, all the machinery is made there.

Nurse Bot

Watch the Nurse Bot in action https://youtu.be/IzMthfu6aUI

Daneep: I’ll get to meet a lot of people. I like entering competitions. Since high school, I've been participating in them; they're a great networking opportunity. So that's why I wanted to take part in the hackathon. Also, it's a chance for me to learn a lot in a very short amount of time. components. So we had to abandon that part of the plan, along with some other features we wanted to incorporate, so we could finish the project and the pitch in time.

SPARK: What was it like working with your group?

Daneep: We teamed up with two outstanding students, Thomas and Simon, from the University of Denmark. Since Denmark has a lot of robotics companies, the universities there take advantage of that and focus on both hands-on and theoretical learning and training. Both the students were highly skilled.

AFTER THE HACKATHON

SPARK: So, how did the hackathon go?

Mannat: It was great. The exposure to a new environment was fantastic, and it was wonderful to network with people. In just two days, I learned so much, and for that, I’d like to give credit to all the tutors who were there because they know so much and help you with everything that you’re doing.

We were able to implement our vision entirely and develop a solution. We had a working model by the end of the hackathon! We ended up finishing it in 40 to 42 hours. Then we had seven hours to work on the pitch and just celebrate that we finished our project.

Daneep: We were actually close to getting to the finals; we were literally one vote away. One of the judges mistakenly congratulated us, but we knew the result, so we clarified that we didn’t make it.

SPARK: Can you take us through your project?

Mannat: The nurse bot automated monitoring, delivery of medicines and data acquisition. It selected medications based on a timestamp and indicated to the patient that the medication was ready to be taken. After taking them, the patient scanned the barcode on their hand under a camera that I calibrated with one of the tutors and training staff from SICK. The scan generated and sent essential data, including the medication taken, the time it was taken, and the patient’s medical history to the doctors.

Daneep: The project was very close to being finished. I didn't have enough time to program the robot and integrate the AI

Mannat: On the first day, we discussed what we wanted to do for two to three hours. There were a lot of ideas coming in, but we knew we had to think of the time and be practical about what we could achieve. That discussion gave us a vision and allowed us to decide how to divide the work and proceed.

SPARK: How did you prepare for the pitch?

Mannat: The one thing I did to get ready for the pitch was to prepare the presentation in Canada. I knew that after we designed the robot, we wouldn’t have more than three to four hours to work on the presentation. But we finished early, and I added more information in the extra couple of hours. A staff member from NTT Data, one of the sponsors at the competition, liked our idea and offered to give us tips on how to pitch it more effectively. His recommendations helped, and even with the technical difficulties, I was able to wrap up the presentation in four minutes.

SPARK: What kind of difficulties exactly? Any other challenges you faced?

Mannat: We had trouble playing the video that we made of our working model, so we had to change laptops. Eventually, we found a way to go through the footage and were recognized by the vice president of SICK for navigating the situation effectively. His name is Patrick Bornstein, and he posted on LinkedIn that our team had some technical glitches, but we still managed everything and shared our ideas successfully on the stage.

Daneep: One of my tasks was to make sure to fix all the issues that arose at the hackathon and complete the technical undertakings. The Wi-Fi network bandwidth was slightly lower than we expected on the first day. We spoke with the hackathon organizers to get help improving internet speed. It was much improved on the second day.

SPARK: What did you think of Germany and its culture?

Daneep: I liked Germany, but I also did miss Canada a lot.

I'm used to the wide physical spaces we have access to here. Everything's so compact over there.

Mannat: The culture is really great. The people were friendly, and the food was excellent. It was interesting to observe the differences in how people approach work in Germany and North America.

SPARK: What was your biggest takeaway from the event?

Daneep: For me, it's about the people and what I learned. It was an eyeopening experience; I realized that everything is interconnected. Now I'm going to take what I learned and apply it to the robot that I'm building.

Nurse Bot

Watch the Nurse Bot in action https://youtu.be/8hHABVaKmVc

Mannat: I feel that we try to put ourselves in a box and limit ourselves to where we are. We should always look forward to learning and getting the best out of ourselves.

SPARK: What’s next for you?

Daneep: I'm going to start making a robot again soon using free software called ROS, which is a robotic standard in the industry. Every big robotic company uses it. I'm still trying to decide if I should turn my robot into a mini autonomous forklift or into a lawn mower bot. Either way, the robot will be able to visualize my entire room. It'll be able to create a map, which will be pretty cool. ROS makes it simple to create these things.

Mannat: I would like to participate in more hackathons because they provide a great learning experience. Also, after gaining some experience in the industry, I'll try to pivot to the software side and learn how to develop an economical product. I’d like to upgrade the nurse bot project we created because I’ve always wanted to do something in healthcare.

I would like to participate in more hackathons because they provide a great learning experience.

—MANNAT KAUR