Digital Solutions and Ideas for the Corona Crisis: The Hackathon of the Federal Government of Germany

#WirVsVirus – Researchers of the Faunhofer ITWM are Involved

Press Release / April 01, 2020

From 20 to 22 March 2020, the German government called under the heading #WirVsVirus, to develop solutions that will help citizens, medicine, research and politics to master their current challenges posed by the corona crisis. 23,000 people followed this call and worked on 1,500 projects. Researchers of Fraunhofer ITWM also took part in the hackathon, and in particular helped in three projects:

Intensive Care Prediction – Web Platform for Predicting the Utilization of Medical Resources

Erik Diessel, for example, helped to create a web application that can be used to distribute Covid-19 patients sensibly among hospitals in order to avoid regional bottlenecks in emergency care. A visualization shows on a map of Germany the current utilization of intensive care units as well as a forecast of case numbers at the district level. It is also possible to view a forecast of up to nine days. In medical practice, this can help to accommodate patients in need of intensive care quickly and easily.

Online-App #WhatCanIDo about »Flattening the Curve«

The ITWM also contributed to an app on the topic of »Flattening the Curve« with over 150 participants. Here Dominik Linn was involved. In an interview with the Rheinpfalz, Linn explains with fascination: »I was amazed at how effectively one can work together in a spontaneously thrown together group of such size.« In his team the following idea was at the centre of attention: The behaviour of everyone has a great influence on how the pandemic develops. With the interactive dashboard, the number of their own social contacts and their effects can be depicted as a simulation.

The predictions are based on real data about previous case numbers and their variation from previous measures such as home office or lockdown from around the world. Using an algorithm, the participants modelled the course of the epidemic, which changes depending on their own social behaviour. The goal of the WhatCanIDo app is to make the consequences of one's own behavior more tangible and thus inspire as many people as possible to restrict social contacts, even if it is difficult.

Digital Pub Quiz with Virtual Drinks to Collect Donations

The third project with the participation of the ITWM in the person of Philipp Reusch is a virtual pub quiz: pub and bar operators should receive financial support with this format and at the same time strengthen customer relations. It helps the digital customers against social isolation and they can continue to visit their pub online. The technical expertise of the ITWM was especially used for the development of the peer-to-peer streaming technology.

The pub visitors can thus join the pub quiz as a group - just like in an analogue pub quiz. They can also watch the moderator and talk to their friends. While they try to beat the other teams in the quiz by answering questions together, they also buy drinks to support their favourite bar.

Seven organizations, including D21, tech4Germany, CODE4Germany or ImpactHUB Berlin, are now busy with the follow-up work on this and many more approaches to the Hackathon.

Press Release

Digital Solutions and Ideas for the Corona Crisis: The Hackathon of the Federal Government of Germany

#WirVsVirus – Researchers of the Faunhofer ITWM are Involved

Intensive Care Prediction – Web Platform for Predicting the Utilization of Medical Resources

Online-App #WhatCanIDo about »Flattening the Curve«

Digital Pub Quiz with Virtual Drinks to Collect Donations

Further Information

Further Information

Further Information

Further Information

Contact Press / Media

M.A. Esther Packullat