KUALA LUMPUR: In the wake of Covid-19, Forkwell.io, the sister company of HR tech start-up Grooves Inc, is hosting an online competition called the Forkwell Coronavirus Hack, where data scientists and software developers will have an opportunity to compete towards finding relevant solutions to the virus. Participants will utilise publicly available datasets and algorithms in this competition.
The event will begin on March 30, 2020 (Monday) at 12pm and will last until April 13, 2020 at noon.
Participants stand to win prizes worth up to more than USD3,200 (about RM14,050) and exclusive access to an accelerator programme to further ideas.
“With Covid-19 spreading so quickly and affecting so many aspects of everyday life, we would like to do our part in the fight against this virus so that hopefully, a solution will be found soon.
“We support Forkwell.io in hosting this competition to tackle both drug discoveries to combat Covid-19 and prevention, prediction and containment of the virus from a tech perspective,” said Grooves Inc’s CEO, Yukihiro Ikemi.
As the virus infects hosts by injecting “spikes” into healthy cells, participants are first tasked with finding a suitable drug composition which can bind with the Covid-19 virus, thus impeding its ability to spread. This can be done by using machine learning to identify a potential candidate, then using a method called docking to determine how two or more molecules can be bound together in the most stable manner to form a new drug.
Though governments around the world are applying key actions like pausing all non-essential services, encouraging the practice of social distancing and working from home, as well as implementing strict hygiene guidelines to cope with the spread of the virus, Covid-19 cases are still on the rise.
Therefore, the second part of the competition will have participants build a web-based or mobile app to help Malaysia and the rest of the world weather this outbreak. By applying artificial intelligence (AI) and big data to publicly available datasets, trends arising from Covid-19 can be reported and monitored.
Forkwell.io is currently partnering with Microsoft, Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), Runcloud, and Sunway iLabs to host this competition.
The competition will be judged by a panel which includes Dr Lau Cher Han (Creator of the Coronatracker), Brian Ho (Head of Data and AI at Inmagine Group), Matthijs van Leeuwen (CIO at Sunway Group and Director of Sunway iLabs) and many more to help tackle Covid-19.
Additionally, virtual mentoring will be conducted throughout the two-week span of the competition, with live Q&A sessions with different subject matter experts.
Though Covid-19 continues to spread, Malaysia and the rest of the world continue to show strength through community teamwork and open-source software. This effort has the power to make a huge difference in the fight against the virus.
Sign up for the Forkwell Coronavirus Hack !